Dear fellow member of the Dutch Australian community.
Please help me celebrate my 65th birthday.
On October 8th, I become a pensioner.
I’m celebrating this by opening an exhibition of my paintings,
at the Tap Gallery, in Palmer Street, Darlinghurst, at 7 p.m.,
On Wednesday 8th October, 2008.
The exhibition runs from Monday 6 to Sunday 12 October.
The Tap Gallery is open daily, from noon until 6 p.m..
I was 12 years old. We were living in Matraville Migrant Hostel,
in 1956
and my mother and I were visiting another family
in one of the other rooms in those ex-army barracks.
The lady pointed to a drawing, on the wall, done by her daughter.
She was very proud.
I thought. Mmmmmmmmph! I can do that!
And that was a turning point.
When I was born, one of the presents was the book:
Alleen op de Wereld, by Hector Malot (from Sans Famille).
My mother read it to me, several times over, from when
I was far too young.
The illustrations were by Belgian-born (newspaper-) cartoonist,
Georges van Raemdonck.
I still have the book with the illustrations, coloured in by me,
when I was 7.
Now, part of the exhibition, are several paintings of young Remi,
Based on those illustrations by van Raemdonck.
My son and my daughter talked me into this way of celebrating
My irthday.
(They designed the flyer and they’ll be very much involved.)
They have called the event: Remembering an anthology.
I shall be remembering being brought to Australia, by my parents,
in May 1956, when I was 12 and my role-model had been my teacher,
at the Jan Ligthartschool.
In 1971, I called on him. He was then the principal, at that same school.
I reported to him that I’d copied him in Australia, in every way, including playing
the piano-accordion to accompany my pupils, in lots of fun singing and games.
He had organised for me to get my first little piano-accordion,
and taught me the first few notes, just before we migrated.
I’ve enjoyed teaching here 37 years.
The kids have always been very much aware of my Dutch background.
Whenever I got a little cranky with my last class, one of the boys knew
how to crack me up (as they say). He’d grin and say: POTVERDIKKEME!
I hope you can come and look at my paintings.
Met vriendelijke groeten,
Joop Mul (Now: Jo Mulholland)
Some links:
http://misociety.com.au/?cat=1
http://www.redbubble.com/people/ozcloggie
http://www.freewebs.com/ozcloggie/
http://dutchfederation.org.au
http://dacc.com.au
