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A long gaunt Colin McCahon towered above the beech and rata
And me, short back and sides,
come to the city in 1967

There’s something very special about looking
at, rediscovering these 1967 and 1978 segments
of me. Both of us are riding the Tawera to
Glade House.
Did you see the Sunday Times write-up about
the Tawera’s history? Its captain cooked up
whiskey in the funnel casing. People who
wanted to buy whiskey on Sunday, bought it.
Family history has it that when Granddad
Collinson came to see Dad and Esther, when
they got married, he brought a barrel of it
with him. To enjoy on the front sunporch.
I wonder exactly when I painted us in 1978?
I remember being doubled up with the agonising
pain in my gut I had most days at the time.
Ten years later.
Why is the lettering yellow, when rata is
red? I’m holding a deep red-brown Tandy’s
music bag over it to check this. It’s right.

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1978–98   acrylic on paper   640 x 930mm