“I was born in Lismore Base Hospital in 1985 so I’m 34 this year. My father is from Derry in Ireland. My mum is English but her father is Australian so my Grandad was born in Sydney and for that reason she was given citizenship here. My parents migrated to Australia in the early 80’s.
My Grandfather had passed away at that stage and my mum had quiet a large inheritance so they bought an old church in the village of Dyraaba out towards Casino. They converted the church into a home and lived there for a few years. I was born here in Lismore and we moved to Brisbane when I was 2 or 3. My sister studied at Southern Cross and my uncle lives in Byron so I’ve been in and out of the region my whole life.
I went to Brisbane State High and then onto study at the QLD College of Arts where I got a BA in Visual Arts majoring in painting.
My parents met at Art School so they were both creative. Mum went on to study Landscape Architecture after art school and moved into a career there. She was working on gardenscapes and streetscapes so she was still involved in public art in a way. My dad was a Sculptor so I guess they both had a background in public art, just a different side to what I got into. Dad had a studio in West End so I grew up in my dads studio and around my mums technical drawing, very much a creative family.
Growing up in the 80’s and 90’s West End was much more working class. It’s full of hipsters now but it’s always been a home for alternative culture in Brisbane whether it be Punk rock, music and Graffiti was always big. A lot of Graffiti writers came out of there. I studied Graffiti at 12 or 13. I fell into that culture. I started breakdancing around that time and making music. I kind of fell into art that way. Brisbane has always had a strong counterculture scene. There isn’t the same opportunities as there are in Sydney and Melbourne so creative kids have to create their own fun. They do the DYI culture pretty well because of limited opportunities.
I started Graffiti writing when I was 13. I was drawn into the more creative side, kind of making large scale pieces, colourful work on trains and stuff like that. This was in the late 90’s and not even Banksy had taken off yet so street art wasn’t really a movement that had money behind it. Some of the older generation were getting commissioned to paint walls but we did everything at night under the cover of darkness. Commission work came 10 – 15 years later for me.
My first commissioned piece was when I was in my early 20’s and I got a job assisting a mural in Logan. They kept me for a week and then let me go because I was a bit too slow. I was good with spray paint but not so good with brushes at that stage.
I think the tallest piece I have done was in Kiev in The Ukraine which was 18 stories high. The shape was pretty similar to the one I’m doing here on the Library, tall and skinny which was kind of awkward for me. This one here in Lismore is 3 stories though being such an old building with very high ceilings it’s more like 4 stories.
When I came here I was consulting with Aunty Irene who is one of the Bundjalung elders and involved in language preservation. She was one of the people who pushed for NSW Indigenous language preservation bill and is on the board of trustees. I thought she would be an interesting subject for the mural. When the Conservatorium here was a primary school, Aunty Irene was the first Indigenous person from her mission to be allowed into the school back in 1947. She has a strong connection to the site here at The Quad. The fact that the mural is on the library and she is involved in language preservation fits the site really nicely.
The issue is on the first day of our consultation she said she didn’t want her face on the wall so that kind of threw a spanner in the works from my perspective. It’s important that the people understand that the mural isn’t necessarily about an individual either. Preservation of language is something that is important Australia wide and Internationally. There has been a massive increase in endangered languages worldwide so it’s always nice when I can find a local story and relate it to a broader community. It’s something that relates to my family as well because Gaelic almost died. Through education the Irish government has brought Gaelic back. It’s still a second language in Ireland but it’s a Universal story.
We compromised so I’m painting Aunty Irene’s grandson who also speaks Bundjalung. I’m kind of painting her as a silhouette with abstract letters and writings which she gave me. She has her hand on her grandsons shoulder which symbolises her passing language to the next generation.
I’m going to be based in Sydney for a little while. I generally go to Europe in the European summer which is usually when projects are happening over there. It’s hard getting a steady stream of commissions in the one place so I move around a bit. I mostly work on buildings but have done a couple of silos, one in Norway and one in Victoria. Silos are challenging because they are curved but quite nice structures to paint.
It is pretty physically demanding at times painting big walls but I keep fit, healthy, I eat well so I’ll probably still be doing this into my 40’s.”
Footnote – Fintan will be finished the mural on Wednesday. Get down to the Quad and check out his brilliant work and thank you Lismore Regional Gallery for bringing this beautiful artist to leave his work in our town.
Do yourselves a favour and check out his amazing work at www.fintanmagee.com or his Instagram page fintan_mageeFintan Magee