Write On! interviews artist and poet Andrew Shillam

Andrew Shillam is an Australian artist and poet. He studied visual art in the 1990s at The University Of Newcastle and exhibits regularly with his wife and painter Rindi Salomon. He’s been writing poetry since the 1990s, when he became involved with The Newcastle ‘Poetry At The Pub’ scene and has work published in small press journals, recently in the online journals Studio La Primitive and Burrow. He had a micro chapbook A Midnight Tarot published through the Origami Poems Project in 2023. Andrew has had 13 joint exhibitions of visual art with Rindi since 1998. Their recent duo exhibition at The Creator Incubator in Newcastle (Australia) was titled The Shadows Speak – a phrase from one of Andrew’s sonnets.

Photo by John Cliff. Andrew Shillam and Rindi Salomon at their 2023 exhibition The Shadows Speak at The Creator Incubator gallery in Newcastle, Australia. 

One of Andrew’s sculptures Great Horse, wood construction, (c) 2015. Photo by Simon Hughes.

WO: How would you describe your work to someone new to it?

AS: I see my work as part of a tradition. In my poetry I use the sonnet form and rhyme structures to recreate the world I experience. I combine the imagery of my time and place with the music of words. My poetry is paying lip service to the forms of the past, exploring the inner world of dreams and visions and painting the concrete world around me.

My visual art is influenced by the modernists and the art of early civilizations and is often figurative. I’m trying to create a visual vitality through the relationship of abstract elements – unusual combinations of shapes, masses and lines that give the subject matter a distorted, often otherworldly, style.

WO: Can you tell us a bit about your latest project?

AS: I’m working on a collection called Stretched Sonnets And Banana Leaves. Although I use the sonnet form, I’ve started to call them stretched sonnets as these poems are not strictly the traditional sonnet form but a modern interpretation that stretches the rules. The pentameter lines have started to go well beyond the 14 lines. The collection includes modern sonnets of 14 lines, as well as longer poems. The banana leaves refer to the banana trees in my backyard. I live in northern NSW in Australia, which is subtropical. Flying foxes, mango trees and bananas are the backdrop to these stretched sonnets exploring my inner world of dreams, emotions and thoughts, with maybe the occasional revelation thrown in.

WO: What inspired you to write in the first place and what inspires you now?

AS: When I was younger, my poetry was a totally self-obsessed exploration and expression of my inner world, as was my visual art.  I can hardly bear to look at anything I made in my 20s. The expressive ceramic sculptures I made influenced by Rodin but covered in garish colours now remind me of a meat lover’s pizza. The poetry I wrote in the 90s, inspired by Kahlil Gibran, I find too sickly sweet (I thank God only a few of them were published!) However, I do think exploring my passions was an important step in my development. I have similar inspirations now as when I was younger; my experiences still stimulate my art making. The difference is that, these days, I understand the importance of form. I use my inspiration as the subject matter from which I start a work and spend my time crafting that experience into something that has formal significance.

WO: A previous theme we’ve explored in Write On! is ‘Misunderstandings’ – which can be used with great effect when writing. Do you have a favourite literary misunderstanding? Is it something you actively look to add into your work?

AS: I like the misunderstandings and arguments between Watson and Holmes in the Sherlock Holmes series by Conan Doyle. I think they give a very human quality to the relationship and are a great source of amusement. Throughout the series, Holmes criticises Watson’s style of writing in his published accounts of their adventures because it’s sensational and dramatic and misses the scientific truth of the cases. When I was writing a lot of short stories, I would often use misunderstandings between characters to create a sense of tension in the plot.

WO: What one piece of advice would you give an aspiring writer?

AS: I would give the same advice I received from the sculptor Kathleen Shillam when I was in my twenties. My great uncle and aunt were sculptors based in Brisbane. I had sent her some lino-cut prints of mine and she replied praising the composition of one of them, writing that she believed it was not what you say but how you say it that is important in art and that they were always more interested in the design than the meaning. At the time I was quite resistant to that idea, considering the meaning to be all-important; however, in time I came to realise she was perfectly right. The meaning, no matter how important it is to you, can only be conveyed through the medium you use. If that medium has not been shaped in such a way that it arrests the attention of a viewer or reader, then nothing will be conveyed at all. The meaning is not concrete; often people will take different interpretations from the same work. I concluded that, although art stimulates meaning, the artist has limited control of that meaning and all they can do is concentrate on making the thing as well as possible and to do that you need to concentrate on the form. Composition is the combination of all the elements into a whole. When I realised this, my work began to slowly improve. There is a particular quality essential in each medium. When writing poetry, I find it’s important to read the work aloud as I go.

WO: Question from X user: @lisalovesbooksx Does your poetry inspire your art and vice versa, or are they separate creative endeavours?

AS: Subjects from my poetry have appeared in my sculpture and painting, and sculptures have appeared in my painting and poetry. The title of my 2023 exhibition with Rindi Salomon, The Shadows Speak, was a line she liked from one of my sonnets.

“After dark the shadows speak and, as sleep
draws at our bones, in stillness things settle.
Small sounds emerge, the night wind, the kettle,
cars on the highway make their final sweep,
hinged now on each second, a side gate swings
open….”

From After Dark by Andrew Shillam.

I have also used one of my sculptures and half a sonnet as the subject matter for a painting.

Still Life With Half A Sonnet acrylic on board. (c) Andrew Shillam. 2023.

WO: Can you tell us anything about future projects?

AS: I’m continually making works and usually exhibit my art once a year. I’ve been working on a series of large-scale ink drawings (A1 size) called Suburban Fairy Tales. They explore the dark unconscious world of fairy tales and dreams in ordinary domestic scenes. I’m hoping to publish a book of poetry soon if I can find a publisher: a collection of sonnets or stretched sonnets.

The Cat And The Queen Ink on paper. (c) Andrew Shillam. 2024. Suburban Fairy Tales series.

WO: Lastly, if you could choose one fictional animal/creature to be a pet or companion, who would it be and why?

AS: I would choose the Otak from Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard Of Earthsea. I think it would make a good and loyal companion.

You can connect with Andrew Shillam on Instagram: @andrewshillam and Facebook.

A Midnight Tarot is available to download and make into a free origami micro chapbook from https://www.origamipoems.com/images/Microchap/2023_Micro/Andrew_Shillam_-A_Midnight_Tarot_2023_Nov_UPD.pdf

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Issue 24, featuring John Marrs, is out now. You will find it in libraries and other outlets. Alternatively, all current and previous editions can be found on our magazines page here. 

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