Did you set out thinking when you wanted to be an artist or you started being an artist, did you think that you wanted to paint stories about who we are as a country and how we feel as humans?

Look, on the whole, I think the mode of working as an artist is slow and deliberate, unlike social media.

My dad, who was...

Going way back, Dad was in the Liberal Party when I was a kid.

He raised sons that were really left-leaning.

Dad was a practising Catholic Liberal and Mum was a green-voting atheist.

I mean, we had a pretty hitzoid upbringing.

How did that

W- w- why?

Correct.

I, I've spent time, lots of time in Europe and in the Middle East, North America and South America, all over the world, and nowhere have I felt that pressure.

Um, my expectation of what the response will be when I tell people that I'm an artist, and as a much younger man, there is no way I ever acknowledged that.

It was too difficult.

You would often be ridiculed.

That's the first thing people would say, or say, "How can you make money out of that?" Or...

Why don't you think Australia values art and culture?