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Ingrid Andersen |
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Kelly Eijdenberg – Travis Tiddy, West Coast Tasmanian
I chose long-time friend and colleague Travis Tiddy as my subject for this painting as I find him an inspiring young person with an unusual relationship with the North West Coast of Tasmania. Travis is passionate about his hometown Queenstown, and the surrounding region, a place that many young locals habitually leave. I have painted him relaxing in a section of the Lake Margaret pipeline, an important component of his studies and involvement in the documentation of the heritage of the Hydro Electric Commission power schemes on the North West Coast. Travis leans forward and laughs with an ease that is integral to good person-to-person communication, and to his character. A 26-year-old savvy graphic designer, interpreter and oral historian, Travis’s life is a fusion of all sorts of interesting juxtapositions: the traditional and the contemporary, the regional and the urban and of course the natural and the constructed – parallels that I have attempted to evoke in this painting. The pipeline is constructed from heritage-listed King Billy pine, which truly represents the history of this region and its focus on industry. Travis has recently been filming the rebuilding of the pipeline, which remarkably is being built with timber as well. I see his framing within the pipeline in this painting as Travis positioning himself in the process: as the endpoint of a journey. He intends to be there when the pipeline is finished and will no doubt be involved in interpreting the historical significance of the Lake Margaret and Queenstown areas for many years to come. It is unique, young people like Travis who value heritage and keeping the stories from earlier days in regional Tasmania alive, and I hope that I have conveyed some of his drive in this portrait.
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