Fortune favours the bold

Did you see the Bohemian Rhapsody film yet? I've seen it twice, and I would watch it for a third time!

If you have seen it, you might remember the line when Rami Malek (Freddie Mercury) says "You will always be known as the man who lost Queen". Well our small South Australian town just became "the town that lost a Fin Dac mural".

Yes! Fin Dac had offered to come to our town and paint a free mural on a two story building at the entrance of our main street. Fin Dac is an irish artist, based in London, known for his murals of ladies. He has murals  all over the world including Spain, London, New Zealand, Melbourne and Adelaide. He had offered to come to our sleepy little town, but due to negative feedback and not being able to find an alternative building, the offer was declined. 

I was disappointed to say the least, devo actually and a little disillusioned as to the future of our town. If we can't get people to be inspired to stop, and this mural screamed stop and pay attention, what future is there for our youngert generation. 

I saw this as a coup, this would put our town on the map. I imagined tourists coming around the roundabout and being in awe of the mural of a Chinese lady in formal dress, inspiring them to stop. To stop and spend some money in our town.

The Fin Dac proposed mural. it would have sat next to an existing mural of historic Millicent. The past and the future in one place. You know I didn't like it at first, but I looked past the subject and saw how amazing this was for our town. I am so sad this will not feature here.

It was suggested that we opt for local artists, for a more traditional theme, something that related to us. Don't get me wrong, I am all for local artists. My own mum has been one of them for the last 25 years. Anyone who went to a Nangula market in the nineties probably bought something of hers, and still has it lurking somewhere in their home. I do know though, sorry mum, and to other local artists, who I would rather have paint that building. In fact, this may have well brought our local artists to light, not forgetting a local artist had been lined up to assist Fin, what an opportunity for a local, and the progression of their own art.

Another suggestion was something to do with farming. Well HELLO!, we are barely managing to keep our saleyards open! I am sure anyone who has driven 100km from Kingston, or 50km from Mount Gambier can clearly see they are in farming country. I don't think we need to portray that on a building.

As for the suggestion of depicting something local, like the vineyards at Penola, or our fishing villages of the Limestone Coast, I call bah humbug! Yes we are proudly part of the limestone coast, but as a town struggling to keep pubs open and shopfronts full, we want people to stop here, in Millicent. We want them to be inspired to stop, to spend money in town, to visit the art gallery, to visit local artists, to visit the tourist visitor centre where they can purchase local art, local photography and other wares. To walk through our BRILLIANT museum, see our history. While there we don't want them to go straight to the counter and ask "where are the wineries?", "where are the coastal towns?", and see them drive away. We want them to stay, for a coffee, for a meal, for a night! 

To quote another Bohemian Rhapsody, and the genius that is Freddie Mercury (looked how it turned out for him, not the dead part, the dead famous part), "Fortune favours the bold". 

I wish my town was more bold. I wish their minds would open to the possibilities. I wish they had set aside their reservations about the subject matter, and saw what this painting would have done for Millicent. Thought about (pardon the pun) the big picture. The Fin Dac would have complimented the other street art we already have perfectly. We could have marketed ourselves as the town with amazing art on it's buildings, including international artists. 

So in closing maybe we should just paint a big sheep there, for our farming, forgetting we can hardly sustain our saleyards. Because the way I see it, it represents our town perfectly. We are like sheep, we go with the expected flow. We don't stray down the path of individuality, we stay with the mob. Because it's safer there, it's what we know, and we don't have to deal with change. 

If only we could be more bold. Imagine the possibilities.

"The water goddess", painted by Mimby Jones Robinson, on one of our old buildings.