I had the pleasure of interviewing our 2013 Biblio-Art Judge, artist/author Robert Gott, and I think you’ll find the resulting conversation both humorous and (somewhat) informative!
Robert Gott
Biblio-Art Guest Judge 2013
JO: Welcome, Robert! First up, a little about The Adventures of Naked Man. Why Naked Man? (For those who have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Naked Man, you can find him here.)
ROBERT: That was all a ghastly accident. It was meant to run for six weeks over the summer of 1998, and I had six drawings, based on real illustrations, with an inappropriately naked figure added, ready to go. I’m still doing it 15 years later. That’s now more than 700 drawings and litres of ink. I submitted an idea for Naked Woman, but it was knocked back. A naked man in a room full of people is funny; a naked woman is eroticised in some way that our culture finds unacceptable. Discuss.
JO: Naked Man is not the only artwork you indulge in. Could you tell us a little more about your artistic tendencies?
ROBERT: I love charcoal, and I love photo realist drawing, so that’s what I indulge in. At the moment I’m working on a series, just for fun, of large charcoals based on scenes from film noir movies. I find the perfect, gorgeously lit moment, and reproduce it in charcoal. I’m doing a picture now of Joan Crawford sweeping down an annoyingly complicated staircase. It’s frustratingly difficult, but oddly relaxing.
JO: And it doesn’t stop at art either – you are also a wordsmith! I’m currently enjoying your novel, A Thing of Blood, and whilst it is a murder-mystery, it is also highly comic. Is it your aim to write with a comic slant, or is that your natural bent?
ROBERT: The three books in the William Power series are all comic, and I wrote them like that because it was fun to do. I wanted to create a character who was utterly unreliable and a bit of a pill. He has no malice, but he is solipsistic to a point that surpasseth understanding. Incredibly, some people actually like him. He gets to say nasty things, and perhaps he lets me utter a few things through him. I can always blame him if people are appalled. I think comic writing is my natural bent – if I may borrow your somewhat suspect term.
JO: Yes. I found it suspicious also. Now, Carrie Tiffany (winner of the 2013 Stella Prize) has recently said to me of your Holiday Murders that “it’s fantastic – it frightened the pants off me”. High praise for a mystery writer! Will there be a sequel to this thriller?
ROBERT: Yes indeed. The reaction to The Holiday Murders has been great. I can comfortably encourage people to Google reviews. I would also like to comfortably encourage people to buy the book. It’s an E-book too. Cool, or the end of life as we know it? Discuss. People were a bit confused by William Power. No one is confused by this book. It’s a straight out mystery, set in the Melbourne Homicide department in 1943/44. It has a very nasty villain, so you get some bang for your buck. I’m well into the sequel, which is set in Port Fairy. I think Port Fairy in the the 40s would have been a rather interesting place, and even if it wasn’t, it will be in my book. It’s competing for my time with a novel set in Broome in 1910, which is part of a PhD I’m doing, and a series of books for high school kids for Pan Macmillan.
JO: Everyone wants to know the answer to this question: Time Management – how do you find the time to read, write, review, paint, illustrate, appear at functions, on panels and to judge odd little competitions at rather out of the way places?
ROBERT: I would be very busy if I wasn’t so damned lazy. Really. I think I waste more time than is good for a grown up to waste. Somehow it all gets done, and the key certainly isn’t good time management, although I will admit to getting that weekly cartoon deadline off my back by drawing non-stop for a couple of weeks when necessary so that I can have six months’ worth up my sleeve. This is hard on the eyes, but it’s worth it not to have the stress of discovering a drawing is due within 24 hours. That six months runs out though with alarming speed, then it’s back to the intensive drawing period. I’m used to its relentlessness now. The key really is not having any children. When people with children are being run ragged, I’m sitting reading, when I should be writing or researching. I don’t feel guilty about this. Reading is one of the greatest of life’s joys, and I don’t think you can write, unless you read.
JO: I get that. And lastly, do you have any thoughts on our annual Biblio-Art competition, and why you have so cheerfully agreed to take on the judging role for 2013 (in collaboration with another, who will be announced and interviewed shortly)?
I have cheerfully (yes, cheerfully) agreed to take on this collaborative judging role because I absolutely love the idea of this competition. It’s genius, and it always results in works that are profound, or witty (or both) or just plain clever. I also have enormous admiration for the curators/creators/drivers of the show who work their arses off organising and hanging the show – and if anybody has ever been involved in the installation of an art show he or she will know how much work is involved. This is also about community, and Blarney Books seems to me to care very much about the local community. Blarney is daring, imaginative and unafraid to offend – what’s not to love?
JO: Well, thank you, Robert. Kind words indeed. We look forward to the launch & awards night on SATURDAY, 8 JUNE.
(Next up: Interview with Guest Judge #2 … stay tuned…)
