24-120 – Terrance Headland

“When you go hunting, when you see a brown falcon in the air  that means his mate the bush turkey is down there below, feeding on bush seeds and fruits.”

“When I first started painting, I was talking to DB from Parnngurr, who’s an amazing artist, and I asked him questions about his artwork and he said “Why don’t you come up with your own artwork style”, not in a bad way, just encouraging me. 

That’s when I decided to do birds. The reason I do birds is because I suffer from PTSD. With mental illness sometimes you just wanna fly, see everything birds eye view, just be free. I feel like one day I might come back as a bird. I’d like to come back as a falcon, because they’re the fasted bird on the planet. 

One day I heard a tapping on the window of my room, and when I opened the curtain there was a mudlark there, so I decided to do a painting about a mudlark. It stayed there, tapping on my window, saying ‘paint me!’. It was trying to tell me to hurry up. Once I finished the painting the bird was gone.

I free hand paint – I look at the bird and free hand it, straight into painting. I don’t draw it first, because that way I feel more entwined with my painting, at one with it. 

I feel really good about it. The first time they [Martumili Artists] took my paintings to Fremantle for ‘Revealed’ [Exhibition for Emerging Artists], I felt a little embarrassed, but in a good way, you know? Be the bird, feel the wind!” 

 – Terrance Headland