Questions from Schoolchildren in Hiroshima, 2016
Kids questions always get straight to the point!
Do you have a book that you wrote that you like the most?
Not really, I try to make them all different enough so that they are not easy to compare; one might be funnier, one might be more intriguing, or more relevant to social issues, so all strong (I hope) in different ways. If I had to pick the book that best represents me, though, I would probably choose Tales from Outer Suburbia, as this is the closest to how I think about things in my ordinary life, and how I remember my childhood, which is a very formative part of my life.
We saw a video where you were talking about your drawings and ideas. Why do you like to draw in little sketchbooks?
Good question. I think the main reason is that it doesn’t feel important. That might sound funny, since making a book is quite an important thing to do, but I find if I expect too much from my work, it doesn’t end up being very creative. I’ve discovered that to be creative you have to be a bit careless, a bit free-wheeling and not worry too much about how things turn out (kids are naturally good at this, but it gets harder as you get older). I seem to have this attitude the most when drawing with a biro in very small sketchbooks. If one idea doesn’t work, I just move on to the next one. And most of them don’t work, so that’s just as well! Maybe about one in every twenty ideas is a good one, and might turn into a better drawing or painting, sometimes then even a story or longer book.
Many of your books that we saw have illustrations that are in black and white? Do you prefer to do drawings this way?
Sometimes. I almost always start with black and white, as if I have to get the idea right before I can think about the feeling (which is where colour is most important for me). Often I ask myself, does this picture even need colour? Frequently the answer is ‘no’, so I leave it black and white. I like black and white movies too for this reason, sometimes you just don’t need colour, and it can even be distracting.
Why do you like small things?
They can remind you of what is really important: that it’s not always big things or loud things, but small and quiet things.
Which of the characters you have made is most like you really are in person? Why?
Definitely the boy in The Lost Thing, although many of my characters are actually self-protraits (The Arrival especially, if you want to know what I look like!). The boy in the Lost Thing is very much the kind of boy I was as a teenager: caring, but not always understanding very well the world around me. I didn’t collect bottle-tops, but I collected sea shells, as I grew up near the beach in Western Australia.
You draw and make illustrations, and you write stories. Do you like to do one of those things more than the other, or do you think they go together and you can’t separate them?
Interesting question. I think you can separate them, or at least I do them very separately. Ultimately I think I prefer painting to writing… it’s the thing I was doing before writing, like most kids. But I also enjoy writing when there’s some things I want to talk about, which are hard to do just with pictures. So I see them as two different tools for expression, which occasionally can work together very nicely.
If I want to write a story, what do you think I need to do first? What is the first step an author needs to take for writing good stories?
Get a little notebook, and just write lots of things. Most of them won’t be any good, but some might, and you focus on those. But before all of that, the most important thing for an artist and writer is to just be observant. Look closely at things, and for longer than you normally would, and really think about them. Especially ordinary things. If you think of something weird, don’t dismiss it, write it down! Think about why it’s so weird.
Where do you find those inspiration (eg. in the park, at home, etc.)?
Yes, anywhere. Often it comes from slight misperceptions, that is, I’ll hear something not quite right, or see a thing (like a cloud or tree) that looks like something else, a big animal or something. Then I think, well, what if that was a big animal, how would people react to it, what would they do? This is often how I come up with ideas for stories, take something ordinary, and just replace it with something unfamiliar. The story often grows by itself, like dreaming, except that you are awake.
What impact do you think your remarkably curious images have on children?
I’m not sure, I don’t think about it very much! I hope it makes them more interested in looking at the world differently, and realizing there is no such thing as ‘normal’.
How is the place where you live different to every other place in the world?
For me: Melbourne is quite similar to other cities, but it’s very multicultural, my suburb has a very mixed immigrant population, and I think that’s influenced my stories.
Monica: Hiroshima is different because of the smell. It smells like Sakura (cherry blossoms) and the nectar is sweet. Hiroshima has the A-Bomb Dome and cranes and we also have harmony. We also have Rabbit Island. It is an island where rabbits run free.
Wow! I would love to visit Hiroshima!
Alisa: Hiroshima is different than anywhere because we have okonomiyaki. It is the most yummy thing in the world. It’s circle shaped and it has sauce, mayonnaise, cabbage and it is cooked on a grill. It has many vegetables. It tastes hot and if you eat okonomiyaki your heart feels hot. It is as good as fireworks in your mouth (that is a good thing).
I’m going to try and find this in Melbourne. We have a lot of good Japanese restaurants in Melbourne, and the next time I am in one I will shout out ‘give me okonomiyaki!’
Leela: Anybody who lives in Hiroshima cannot not be somehow aware of the scars, visible or not, of the bomb. Indeed Nagasaki residents will share this as well, but Hiroshima probably to a greater degree. It's a very spacious city and built in an organised and very thoughtout way as the result of the bomb; it is designed to evoke quiet and peace.
That’s very interesting. I’d love to visit for this reason too, to see how a society recovers from such a terrible disaster, and it able to make something positive out of something negative.
Emma: We have had a very interesting history. Our city is known for its paper cranes. We are interested in PEACE.
Wonderful!
If you had to make yourself a nonhuman narrator in a story, what kind of character would that be?
I love all your answers and great drawings! This is such a good question too, I guess I’m asking it myself all the time also without knowing it. The character I often draw to represent myself looks like this (below): I’m not sure what it means, but it does look a bit like a one-eyed totorro actually, crossed with an Australian marsupial. The little light-bulb bird is like my subconscious: it can tell me interesting things if I stop and listen carefully. Thanks very much for all your great questions and thanks for reading my books! Good luck with your own artwork and stories!