The light and the dark and the shades of grey
‘We should be wary of governments and interest groups who try to impose restrictions on the free exercise of the artistic imagination. Our zeal to protect innocence should not come at the cost of violating artistic experience.  
If we believe that art is a high form of education, that its basis is moral and its goal truth, then we should resist the impulse that would deny the artist the right to deal with what may sometimes be ambiguous, complex and disturbing.
Artists can seem like holy fools, they can seem like devils. They may exhibit the cunning of the insane or the illumination of the saint. But genuine art is the great bridge between the inner world in each of us and the ordinary world in which we live.
Art shows us the truth and it should never be the quarry of the witch-hunter or the social engineer. Any attempt to make the world better by destroying or shackling art represents a repudiation of the truth.’

Bill Henson July 2010

[From Federation Square – Melbourne’s Meeting Place – Coming Soon]

I have the extremely good luck to go to this lecture tonight with my good photographer friends Peter Ryan and Lillian Johnson. I am so excited to hear his responses to this live, his discussion of the issues and basically any wisdom Bill Henson may have to impart. I feel like I am going to a rock concert, I have that same high of anticipation, breathing the same air as one of my idols. it’s the same way I felt when I got the opportunity to meet Hazel Dooney.

There will be blog posts. oh yes. you have been warned.

For a change my disability will be working for me, we have excellent reserved seats with the media.