Ettamogah Pub/Aussie World and other venues

In 1989, Murray Views management saw the potential in employing computer graphics, then just emerging on the Aussie commerce stage, to enhance their souvenir designs. I was offered training in the new medium but declined as I was not, myself, prepared for the change.

As reported in an earlier blog, I had been preparing, instead, to take my caricaturing to the next step, namely "Live, on-site caricature." This was my impetus for launching into the field.

My first setup was at the Mooloolaba Wharf precinct, Sunshine Coast. My first work there was primitive but results encouraging. I employed no shading to my brush and ink drawings. Also missing were teeth!   Nearby, at Palmview, Lindsay Cooper was constructing a second Ettamogah Pub, inspired by the Australasian Post (?) cartoons of the same name by Aussie cartoonist, Ken Maynard, alive at that time. Where better to set up for a ready supply of Aussie and international visitors looking for some Aussie humour? Lindsay was agreeable, so in November of that year, I commenced my seventeen-year run and approx. 64,000 live caricatures there. Concurrently, I accepted numerous engagements at conventions, conferences, parties and events in Brisbane and surrounds.

From 1998 to 2000, Joy and I undertook three winter tours of several Queensland Agricultural Shows in stages from Brisbane north, as far as Cairns in 2000. That year was an uncomfortable one for Joy, whose bronchiectasis was beginning to assert its claim to her health, so we did not continue touring after that.   

Over the years, my early struggles with drawing fidgeting children became one of my greatest joys as I found myself capturing good likenesses within their caricatures. My drawings of women, too, developed towards portraiture while most men were happiest with exaggerated likenesses. I soon described my work as: "Gals so glamorous, Children so cute, Guys so............." and that by-line continued until retirement in 2007, aged 72, enabled me to take on the role of full-time carer for Joy for the remainder of her life for the next 6 years until December 2013.

In 2014/15, I briefly returned to onsite work, including another tour of Qld Shows from Maryborough to Cairns and Kuranda in 2015. Although I felt I was doing my best work in these later years, my age was not so keen on the physical discipline, so I resorted to studio work in 2016, aged 80.  I remarried in March, 2016.

Book illustrations

Continuing my career memoirs:

Some of my illustrations and cartoons have found publication in books. 

The Penny Dropped - 1984

Continuing my career saga.....

Well, after a year of weekly Bible study sessions, my understanding was sufficient to give me the confidence to  surrender to Jesus' will for my life. I was baptised to my new life in August, 1984.Joy and I also realized that we were well suited to a life together, appreciative of our common interests including our religious faith. We felt that the way may open to a life together if we left the matter in God's hands and if it was His will.

It was a very short time afterwards that the penny finally dropped! Suddenly one day, mindful of the enormity of my baptism and it's life-changing significance, a panorama appeared before my mind's eye. I was reminded of my plea that night in my Bauple caravan. I had asked God ("if there is one") to take over because I could not handle things. I also asked that, if this bible was God's book, "why could I not understand it?"  Now, in this flash of insight, it became clear that God had, indeed, taken over. I was shown the sequence of events which followed what I now understood to be my prayer:

1. I was led to that newspaper ad for a full-time job as an artist and was accepted for the position. I had achieved full-time employment in my field of talent (well before the 5 years target I had set),
2. A timely buyer for my Bauple property approached me, prepared to pay 150% of my purchase price,
3. My modest but worrying credit card debt was paid and Gympie accommodation afforded, together with a car for transport,

4. I had been led to an explanation of His book and I accepted it as truth and relevant to my life,
5. He had brought me to a life partner who shared all my interests,
6. He had revealed Himself, something which was now obvious, in hindsight, that He had been attempting to show me for years before.

I could not stop my spine tingling for days after!

Personal development continued in and out of church and in December, 1985, Joy and I were married and began a wonderful life together - with God's guidance and Blessings at every turn. I was less than 4 years into my 11 years in Gympie and 49 years of age.

As far as my Art career was concerned, there were interesting years ahead at Murray Views while The Gympie Times and yet another dimension of my career was to unfold.

This following cartoon sequence depicts Pr. Maurice Woods and his passion for bread-making, failures and all. I also like to think of it as symbolic of his work in helping me and others through the Christian learning experience, complete with our "flops" along the way, crafted and aromatic - NOT perfect by any means but changed by the knowledge gained from God's Word, the Bible. I was to find that the process continues in line with the desire to know more of Christ- through more Bible reading, prayer and willingness to allow God to lead. Acknowledging that God is Creator of all things, yet intimately concerned for the individual, has provided me peace of mind, convinced that He has my best interests in hand. It has been awesome to find that my saddest experiences have been followed by revelations of  great joy!

Sizing up the transformation task ahead-

The hard yards...

Not easy but look how it's changing!...

 turning up the heat....

Sometimes.....

But eventually..

The baker has earned his satisfaction.

I am reminded that my weekly lessons were always followed by days of "assimilation stress" as I compared my new knowledge with the old ideas I had accumulated, testing both and each time finding the new was truth. So, each week, there was a "flop" followed by a successful, "new loaf!"

Next: After Gympie - Live Caricaturing.

Caricatures from life.

Gympie, 1982. The Gympie Art Society members staged a promotional "Art In The Park" event in Queen's Park, Gympie. This was my first attempt at drawing people from life in public. I had not  considered doing this sort of thing until another GAS member, a shop owner, suggested I come and sit outside her shop in Mary Street and draw portraits of the passing public, to promote her business.
The idea of interacting with the public was not in my artist toolbox at the time. In fact, it clashed with my shy nature and almost gave me the sweats, just imagining how I would cope. It did, however, start me thinking of how I would go about the drawing task. What materials should I use - paper, board, paint, ink, pencil, pen, brush, charcoal, pastel, chalk - what sized paper or board and how long should it take, what would be the quickest style to use, etc. etc. ???

The Park event gave me an opportunity to test myself and some basic tools: newspaper stock paper and oil crayon. I was surprised at how easily the likenesses appeared and how people were not scary at all when they assumed I knew what I was doing. I caught the bug! Over the next 8 years I privately tried different tools and settled on doing line drawings with brush and ink without any pencil construction lines first. Without shading, they produced a thick/thin brush line in black on white cartridge paper with minimal bleeding. The flexible brush line gave the picture some dimension short of shading, which I had not yet worked out how to apply. From photos and observation, it was really an extension of what I was doing for the Gympie Times. I did not do any more public live caricature for the remainder of my time in Gympie, That idea was tucked away as a "possible" until it eventually grew into a "practical".

In the meantime, I enjoyed my art at Murrays Views, Gympie Times and Gympie Art Society. my next few posts will feature some of the work of each.

Changes Happening.

Want to hear about my introduction to Christianity? A lot of people have missed out on connecting with God through Bible study and prayer but I have found that many do like to hear how others found that connection, so here goes. Stay with me for an interesting story.

I mentioned earlier that I smoked heavily when I reached Gympie. It was during winter, 1982, the year after I arrived in Gympie and just after I had started my weekly cartoon on current local affairs for the Gympie Times, that I came down with the 'flu.  It sent me to bed for a week to recover. I did not even feel like inhaling on a cigarette! My workmate, Joy, was an angel who brought around fresh orange juice daily ("to flush out the toxins", she said). I had never met anyone kinder in my life! It caused me to ponder why and I guess it got me thinking about a bigger picture of life than I had been immersed in to that point. Anyhow, by the time the week was over, my 'flu symptoms had become nicotene withdrawal symptoms and then both had evaporated. It was miraculous! I found myself with no craving for, nor even interest in, cigarettes. I have never had the need ever since, so have not smoked since then. My food started tasting better, too. It was not that much longer after that when my "grey colour" (Joy's quote) started to change to a normal skin tone.

Of course, the inevitable happened - I began eating more since food now tasted better! That led in a very short time to my being over weight, despite my walking a couple of kilometres to work and back each day. Joy took the opportunity to advise me to join a weight-loss program being run by her church pastor, which I did. It opened my mind to the subject of Nutrition and started me on plant-based foods, the source of real nutrition. Within a short time of substituting pies and sandwiches with fruit and veges and adopting a routine of healthful meals, I lost the extra weight I had gained and I felt great! Appreciation for the pastor's knowledge and application convinced me he may have been able to explain the bible to me as well, so I arranged for him to visit weekly and study that book with him.

Wow! Talk about taking positive steps! Within the first three weeks, Pastor Maurice Woods revealed Jesus Christ as the focus of the bible and His relevance to my life. It was an overwhelming revelation and the start of a life-changing transformation of not only my lifestyle but my character. I will be eternally grateful to Jesus for dying in my place and demonstrating His power to resurrect me from death, just as He did, himself. I will be His follower and friend forever, viewing this earthly life in a new perspective - as a poor substitute for the life He originally intended and which He has enabled me to yet achieve - salvation by His grace alone- to eventually experience that new life He intended for all of us. I will also be eternally grateful to Joy and her (our) pastor for their roles in starting my Christian education. 

Merv Todd 80th Birthday

Gympie Times - 1982 - 1997

Not long after I joined the Murray Views, Gympie, art team, I was welcomed as a member of the local Gympie Art Society. My workmate Joy was already a member and encouraged me to join. There were talented artists in the region and the group enjoyed regular drawing and painting activities together. Individuals conducted workshops tutoring the other members and interested community people in their particular arts.
It was in early 1982, while I was leading a six-weeks course in "cartooning" for GAS that I told the class that I had never had much inclination to draw Political Cartoons. I was, however, still keen to find outlets for the unpublished cartoons and strips I had been working on to that point, so I approached Ian Pedley, the Editor of the Gympie Times newspaper with that in mind.
Ian said, "You can draw, alright!" but declined to exchange silver for my drawings, instead asking if I would care to contribute a weekly "current Affairs" cartoon focusing on Gympie and district. The next course session found me red-faced, telling my students that I had taken up "political" cartooning!
My first cartoon was published on 19th June, 1982 and featured the Gympie Mayor of the day, Mick Venardos, welcoming the establishment of a Pulp Mill in the district, a potential source of income for the city. In quick succession, my cartoons introduced the then Chairman of the neighbouring Shire, Adrian McClintock, the then local State member of Parliament, Len Stephan, the then State Government Minister for Local Affairs, Russ Hinze and some local celebrities including the musical Webb Brothers, etc. etc. Their caricatured likenesses were all accepted in good part and the stage was set for a popular series stretching over the next 15 years, featuring the changing faces and events of the district, infiltrated when necessary by State and Federal Government personalities. I and my readers had a ball.... mostly! (except for a couple of blunders and some "racist" claims, but only one threatened law suit and no death threats).
Future posts will resurrect some of the most memorable but here is that very first: