Name: Julie Fragar
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Hometown: Gosford, NSW
2016 entry: Goose Chase: All of Us Together with you Nowhere 2015
Artwork type: Oil on board, artist collection, represented by Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney
About: Goose Chase: All of us Together with you Nowhere is a visual rumination on the story of Antonio de Fraga, the first Fragar to arrive in Australia from The Azores Islands, Portugal in 1857. Antonio’s early biography reads like folklore. At 12 years of age he ventured on an American whaling ship and never returned home. For 6 years he worked the grueling life of a whaler, was shipwrecked off the Malay coast, witness to his crew being eaten by Fijian cannibals and rescued by missionaries who brought him to Australia. I made this painting after an Australia Council funded trip to the Azores with my children. I had watched them walk the coastline that Antonio must have walked hundreds of times and from which he ultimately departed. This retracing collapsed time; we were absorbed into Antonio’s history and he into ours. This painting brings all of us together in the imaginary and atemporal space of painting. The central portrait in this work is of my daughter Penny (aged 15). She is accompanied by a seated Antonio reflected on both sides, and by her brother Hugo (aged 12). Hugo stands in for a younger Antonio wedded to the image of the Fijian cannibal.
Artist Q&A
1. Have you entered the Kilgour before? If so, what was the work and the result?
No.
2. Is this piece for sale and if so, at what price?
Yes. 17,000 through Sarah Cottier Gallery, Sydney.
3. What is your preferred/favourite style of painting/making art and why?
I prefer work that addresses human themes. In my own work I'm particularly interested in how human experience can be understood through that old and eternally strange medium of painting.
4. Who has been the most influential person in your art career and why?
My Sydney College of the Arts, lecturer Matthys Gerber. He taught bravery in painting. Which is really the most important thing.
5. What advice would you give to a person considering a career in art?
Put a little bit of money aside each week for a therapist.
