Aged Care Insite Issue 110 Dec-Jan 2019 | Page 25

practical living There was one occasion when I was sitting in a plane at Sydney Airport on my way to Mumbai for three or four days, and I had this incredible desire to get off the plane. I just felt that I really wanted to pursue my own personal creativity, as opposed to the role of managing and directing teams of others. It’s an incredible responsibility to have design teams around the world that are looking up to you to give them guidance and give them your input and inspire them. But there’s this other side of me that was really trying to find my own personal creativity again, my own individual mark-making and desire to express myself. What was the transition like from management to working by yourself? Everybody asks me, “How’s retirement?” And I have to correct them and say, “Look, I feel I’m pursuing a new career. I don’t feel I’ve retired.” But the transition I feel everyone must be impacted by is that, one minute you’ve got teams of people around you, you’ve got this network of people – and so many men’s identities are defined by their work status or what they do at work – then suddenly you walk away from it, and in my case it was to a studio where I had my own agenda, my own ideas. But I also had to find my own motivation, my own stimulus, to turn up and do this stuff every day. That’s a huge challenge for anyone. ACI: Tell us about your career before you decided to become a full-time artist. MS: I worked for one of the world’s largest designer branding groups. I sold my design firm to them in 2004 and stayed with the company to become an international creative director, which had me travelling to Hong Kong, Tokyo, Mumbai and Singapore on a regular basis. It was a fast paced, frenetic role. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adored it and got a huge amount out of it. But there came a point where I thought that maybe I’d had enough. When did you realise it was no longer for you? I’ve had a long desire to get back to painting. I painted much earlier in life. But three or four years ago, I started writing also. The combination of writing and painting just took hold. You recently opened your first solo exhibition at age 65. What are some of the challenges and benefits to doing this as an older person? My show, Contours, opened at the Me Artspace, which is a gallery and a studio where I paint in St Leonards. It’s part of the TWT creative precinct. TWT, the property developers, have turned what was a fairly quiet and rather dull part of St Leonards into a vibrant hub. I think there are 70 creative people now working in the streets around us. It’s quite fantastic. But I think one of the real challenges was that I’d been out of the corporate world for nearly 20 months, and this was my first show. As the days got closer, it was a mixture of exhilaration and nerve- racking self-doubt. I think somebody once said having a solo exhibition is like walking into a room naked. I must admit, it felt a bit like that. Some older adults might be deterred by embarking on a career change. I fully understand that. Since leaving work, I’ve painted with a number of art residencies and workshops. They’re made up of, 95 per cent of the time, women painters. I’ve been doing a little research into why men aren’t among the group. Why aren’t there more men painting and relaxing? Even seeing it as a hobby, and dabbling with the whole idea of it, because art therapy is a fantastic form of brain energy and leisure power. It’s a very active way to use your mind. I think it’s easy to feel you’re not good enough. It’s easy to feel you won’t succeed, that you can’t do it. My belief is that you’re never too old to learn, you’re never too old to try, and you’re certainly never too old to achieve, particularly in the art world. I’m fascinated that the writer, Mary Wesley, became a best-selling author at 70. So I reckon I’m like 10 years away from my peak in painting, and I seriously believe that. I would encourage anyone to think about it. What advice do you have for older people out there? Be prepared to try. Guy Warren, who’s a famous Australian painter, walked into our studio the other day. It was an absolute pleasure to see him. Guy is 98 or 99 and still painting. He gave me some great advice: you’re never too old to experiment, and you have to stay curious. I think that’s absolutely right. As a painter, you have to be curious about the way your painting and You’re never too old to learn ... and you’re certainly never too old to achieve. drawing is going and how you try and see the world. But I can imagine that’s a massive mental block for many people. My advice would be, find your way into an environment, a group, where it’s non-judgemental and where you can try something that you might get hooked on and take up. It’s an incredibly rewarding thing to do. Don’t shut yourself down, open your mind up. Even if it’s for an hour or two a week, it makes a massive difference. ■ agedcareinsite.com.au 23