The Art of Living
Oil on Belgium Linen, 63 x 53cm
Once upon a time, not so long ago, in one of the neighbourly terraces in Leichardt, there was a most elegant room. The walls were covered in exquisite wallpaper featuring Australian birds and plants. Crimson rosellas, eucalypt, and grevilleas were painted in bold crimson, ultramarine, olive, and gold.
The furniture in this room was out of this world: an intriguing and exotic piece of Chinoiserie, telling the story of a faraway landscape in East Asian design, an armchair upholstered in rich mustard velvet stood on its shapely legs in the corner - very French and therefore very chic.
The Chinoiserie was the wisest of them all, its drawers filled with secrets of ancient worlds. It was often consulted for advice, and this day was no different.
“Oh wise Chinoiserie,“ the birds whistled, “we want to become REAL, to be able to fly freely. For our hearts’ desires are to no longer be held captive by our flat wallpaper world. We want to live in the real sense of the word!”
The Chinoiserie thought deeply about their question.
“Dear Rosellas, it really is quite simple and also very, very hard. You have to follow the advice that the Skin Horse gave the Velveteen Rabbit. You have to learn how to love unconditionally, whole heartedly, completely, and untiring; until your feathers fall out.
From “The Velveteen Rabbit”, by Margery Williams
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”