A CURIOUSLY out of place but exceptionally likeable baseball-capped figure holding a “Quo Vadis” sign appeared beside St Stephen’s Cathedral, Brisbane, about a year ago.
Not the only intrigued onlooker I queried if he was a promotional tool of the archdiocese’s Vocations Office – its “motto” being those same Latin words asking, “Where are you going?”
The truth soon emerged from the figure’s owner and inspiration Alasdair Macintyre.
“The figure in ‘Quo Vadis’ is called Aecap,” he said. “(And) he is based on me when I was a younger artist and wore a cap like that.
“In discussing the piece with Fr Ken (Howell) at the cathedral he suggested ‘Quo Vadis’ as I was having a hard time choosing (the right words).”
Autobiographical “Aecap” was prepared for an ABC documentary called Artscape, airing last May.
Saying art-minded people are “born as artists” the visual arts lecturer at the Australian Catholic University (ACU), Banyo, also said such a reality was inescapable.
“You are pinged by a higher power to be a creative type and that’s it,” Alasdair told The Catholic Leader.
“So I really live in a state of permanent inspiration.”
Inspiration from Scottish-emigrant parents came in various forms.
“My father is a carpenter and builder and my mother was a kitchen hand but they both were role models in so far as my father has a great work ethic and is very thorough in constructing things right, the first time,” Alasdair said.
“I recall as a child him working at his bench on weekends – which I think has rubbed off on me.
“My mother gave me a great love of reading – which I think is fundamental in stimulating a creative imagination.
“She also is very visual in her thinking, often seeing animals and objects in peeling paint and floor stains.”
While both parents, who have marked more than 50 years of marriage, speak fluent Gaelic it’s not a quality they passed on to their only child.
Faith certainly is however.
“I am grateful that I was raised from childhood with a religious dimension to my life (and) in my case it was Catholicism,” Alasdair said. “I think that gives you an edge over those who are without faith.
“Faith in something gives you several safety nets for the times when you take a tumble.
“I am lucky in that I really have two faiths – religion and art – and the nice thing is that for the majority of the second millennium they were very closely intertwined.”
Religion was fostered as a youngster at Our Lady of the Angels primary school, Stafford, while Alasdair’s interest and natural ability in art was further nurtured at the Queensland College Art and at ACU.
ACU he described as “a place of true soul”, while both lecturing in visual arts there and “the rich history of art within the Catholic tradition itself” are, in his mind, “attractive in their ethos”.
An “informal mentor” from the university has been Dr Lindsay Farrell, Alasdair’s art lecturer 14 years ago.
Alasdair has featured pieces in “around a dozen solo exhibitions in the last decade” – seven in commercial art galleries including the Ryan Renshaw Gallery, Brisbane, and Sullivan+Strumpf Fine Art, Sydney, and others interstate and overseas.
The “Quo Vadis” piece was made from polystyrene and resin, inspired by overseas travel.
“I have done several figures on the street holding a cardboard sign – which is a direct influence from seeing beggars all over Europe and America when I was travelling, some of which had cardboard signs with messages on them,” Alasdair said.
“The piece was shown in the window of my Sydney dealers’ gallery and I got them to change the sign every week.
“One sign I sent down was ‘Will make art for food’. When my dealers opened the gallery after the weekend someone had slipped a note under the door which read ‘Will make food for art’.”
A “favourite” personal work for Alasdair is called “Ways of Seeing”.
“Susan McCulloch used (it) to illustrate my entry in ‘McCulloch’s Encyclopaedia of Australian Art’ – which comments on ‘spin’ and the way events are interpreted by people with an agenda,” he said.
With a strong base in religion and art, Alisdair’s faith remains “challenged all the time”.
“If you really think deeply about things – which I often do (unfortunately) – I often find myself wrestling with the great weight of doctrine and dogma that my faith has built into it – particularly in the light of all we know both canonical and non-canonical – about Jesus,” he said.
“Try reading the non-canonical ‘Gospel of Thomas’ and contrast it with the Gospels of the Bible as an example.
“It was actually during my time as a student at ACU in the mid-1990s that I was introduced to the bigger picture of Catholicism.”
Practising their faith in various parishes, Alasdair and wife Roseanne “rotate”.
“(We rotate) mainly on the southside (of Brisbane) and I do go to Sunday Mass in at the cathedral occasionally,” Alasdair said.
“I enjoy Fr Mark (Percival) at (St) Oliver Plunkett’s (Cannon Hill), who I think was a Shakespearean actor in a former life – he has such ‘gravitas’ as a priest and a booming voice.
“… I was saddened by the death of Fr John Nee … (and) my favourite church is down at Wynnum, at Guardian Angels.
“I like the Franciscans (Capuchins)- they are the guys I can relate to the most and Br Bernard there is a very nice chap.”
Inquiring about the future, Alasdair’s own motto soon came into view.
“All I can do is work as hard as I can and be true to myself,” he said.
For more information about his work go to www.alasdairmacintyre.com
