Artist at Home: Lockdown DAY 13 – Raised with Wild Friends

There is always a story to why we are who we are, like what we like and feel things the way we do. In a lot of the Running Duck Studio artworks you will find a strong representation of the connections between animals and their humans. This is a little background story of mine that may shed a little light on the reason for this.

Being mostly a self-taught artist, life experiences have influenced my artistic evolution.

Spending my young years in a small outback town, my mum became the wildlife carer (when there was no such thing) for the area. She was the drop-off point for any orphaned wildlife from roadside kills, and she raised them as best she could without all the carer knowledge we have now. Hence I was raised with many joeys, possums, baby emus and even a baby fox. That’s beside the hobby farm friends of cows chooks, ducks, goats, horses and sheep.

So at an early age, I learned not only of compassion and a love for animals but also the connection between the animals we surround ourselves with.  Many of the wild animals we raised and released, returned to the back fence to say hi. I remember a phone call to my dad in the late afternoon, from the local police; “Reg, I think you need to come into town” So we loaded into the car and headed out. There in the middle of the town roundabout stood a fully grown Emu, quite casually eating the grass. Yep, that’s Eeny, said dad, reversing up to the roundabout. Dad proceeded to pick the emu up (like it was the natural thing to do) and place him in the back of the Landcruiser. Not a trailer, the back of the car, with us kids eyeballing Eeny quietly sitting in the back all the way home.”