Coffs Harbour: Bunker Cartoon Gallery, July 12, 2006

A few months ago, a short article in the Australian Cartoonists' Association's Inkspot, by Dr Leigh Summers, then Director of the Bunker Cartoon Gallery at Coffs Harbour caught my eyes. Dr Summers was basically asking cartoonists interested in displaying their work at the Gallery to contact her. A few emails later, she agreed to host 40 of my cartoons and we settled on mid-july for an opening night (in the middle of the NSW school holidays, to allow me to be able to come). Unfortunately, Dr Summers was to leave the Gallery at the end of May to take over a new position at the Coffs Harbour City Council. Fortunately though, Shellie Kelly was made the new Director of the Gallery and took over where Dr Summers had left with our negotiations. The opening night for the "It's a Jungle out there!" exhibition was to take place on the 12th of July between 6pm and 7:30pm.This was to coincide with the opening of the "Roll up" exhibition by Coffs Harbour artist Jan Allsopp.

My family and I therefore drove to Coffs Harbour from Sydney for a small holiday and attended the opening. I had been asked by Ms Kelly to prepare a "speech" and, being a scientist, I automatically asked if there would be a projector for aPowerpoint presentation. Ms Kelly was kind enough to arrange this with the Coffs Harbour council and asked me to talk about my day job (CSIRO) and my night-job (doing a few cartoons and pretending to be a cartoonist). Also, thanks to Margret Pfeiffer of Auspac Media, the local newspaper, the Coffs Harbour Advocate ran a small article about the opening night on the day of the opening, telling anybody interested in seeing Ms Allsopp's painting or my cartoons to visit the Gallery.

Unfortunately, due to unforeseen family reasons, Ms Kelly was not able to attend the opening, but she was represented by Dr Summers, back in charge for the night, who introduced first Jan Allsopp's painting exhibition. Ms Allsopp's painting were mostly of clown, hence the title of her exhibition. I liked it. It was funny to see that Ding, of Swamp's fame (by Gary Clark), was overlooking the scene as seen below.

Ding (Swamp, Gary Clark) and some of Jan Allsopp's paintings.

Painting by Jan Allsopp and, in the corner, the Stanley Award won by the Bunker Cartoon Gallery
a few years ago for contribution to the art of cartooning.

Artist Jan Allsopp (far-right) and Dr Leigh Summers (in black at Ms Allsopp's right)

My son Damien and I listening to Dr Summers

After the formal introduction of Ms Allsopp's paintings, which were displayed in the foyer, Dr Summers invited the crowd (around 40 people) to enter the main gallery where my cartoons were displayed. Dr Summers introduced me formally and I then gave a presentation helped by my daughter Sarah who didn't want to let go of her Daddy.

I talked about where I come from (Limoges, France) and the fact that I had been surrounded by "Bandes Dessinees" all my life. As many people do not have a clue as to what these are, I had taken with me a few samples and asked people to come and have a look at their leisure. Sarah was in charge of keeping an eye on them. They were a big hit and a few people could not believe the quality of the drawings. If you've never seen one, try to, it is an eye opener for a cartoonist!

I also talked about my day-job at CSIRO and my attempts at cartooning at night. I did emphasize the tremendous help and support that was given to me by members of the Australian Cartoonists' Association and my great pride to be associated with such a talented and crazy bunch of people. Finally, I showed an example of my cartoons from start to finish: gag idea, rough drawing (sketch), final drawing, scanning, Paint Shop Pro, greyscale, colours.

The crowd was then let loose to nibble on sushi and drink wine while looking at my cartoons. I got some nice comments from a few people and it was interesting to witness a few giggles amongst the guests. Hopefully, these had been triggered by the cartoons, not the wine. Well, maybe both...

(Note: I have to say I was surprised to see "Dr Christophe Granet" there as I sign my cartoons "Hagen", I did not ask for it)

Along with my "It's a Jungle out there!" exhibition, there was another one made of the "sport-cartoons" from the 2005 Coffs Harbour Rotary Cartoons Awards. Many ACA members' work were displayed, like Gary Clark, Sean Leahy, Tony Lopes, Chris Wilson, Lee Sheppard, to cite only a few. I was pleased to see that two of my cartoons that I entered for the Awards last year were also displayed in that exhibition.

Checking "Sport-cartoons" and explaining them to my son Damien

All in all, it was a nice experience and I have to say that the volunteers running the Bunker Cartoon Gallery did a terrific job at displaying the cartoons and were ever so nice to me and my family. A big thank you to all of you for this wonderful experience.

The "It's a Jungle out there!" exhibition will run until the 23rd of August.

For further information visit the Bunker Cartoon Gallery Website.