Coast's clear

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Bush Jig

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Burka keeps an eye out

Enquiries: jacquistockdale@gmail.com 

Under the Bridge

Burka and Ned hang out under the bridge celebrating their latest heist. They feel sorry for their unfortunate relatives who remain buckled in fear of the wrath of their respective deities, sunk deep to their eyeballs in penitential slime inside their religious places of worship.

Donated to Friends of the Earth Greens fundraiser

Ned and Burka exchange guns

Branded as "terrorists" by the mainstream media and the two major political parties, Ned and Burka always needed to carry guns for their own protection.

Enquiries: mars.drawingtime@gmail.com

Holy Heist

Now and then, Ned and Burka would have to rob a Moneyed Establishment, such as a bank or a Catholic church, to stay ahead on a financial level. The churches were easy to rob. Just after the priest orders the congregation to "Bow down your heads and pray for God's blessing" at the end of mass, Burka and Ned would sneak in on tiptoes to empty the collection plates into their money bags. The sound of this act was usually rather loud, but the congregation knew to keep their heads bowed in prayer, knowing also that Ned and Burka were their protectors against  police brutality. God works in mysterious ways.

Enquiries: mars.drawingtime@gmail.com

Valentinian Cross

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Chilling Out at the Camp

Burka loved to take siestas in her hammock after lunch. 

Sometimes she'd wake up to find Ned dozing on the ground beside the hammock.

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Fire Escape

There were bushfires but Burka and Ned always escaped.

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Moonlight on the Ghost Gums

Ned and Burka love to hang out amongst these ghost gums near the Richardson River. Full moon nights are extra special in this remote place, as the intense moonlight radiating through the Wimmera sky illuminates the pale majestic tree-trunks... until every tree seems to glow with its own secret ancient magic, the crystal clear night air perfumed by the lemon scent of the gum leaves rolled up in Burka's home-made cigarette.

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Ned introduces Burka to the rest of the gang.

Ned took Burka to one of the Kelly gang's secret hide-outs in the North East region of Victoria. They hung out with the gang members for about a week, robbing banks and fishing throughout the day, and swapping stories of their past...horror stories and adventure tales....over the campfire at night. The Kelly Gang were completely fascinated by Burka, they declared her to be the bravest and most resourceful one of them all.

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Campfire Love

Campfire Magic

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Making Camp

Ned and Burka were both experts in living the outdoor life. Burka had spent so much time in refugee camps in Iraq and Sudan, she didn't need to be taught by Ned how to survive in the bush. It was Burka who showed Ned how to preserve firewood and warmth with the three-stone campfire: a small amount of wood burns in the space formed by three big stones arranged in a triangle, the stones supporting a pot over the fire. 

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Sunset Shot

Burka couldn't get enough of the Aussie beaches. Her favourite time for swimming was late afternoon, when the beach was deserted and the ocean water was warm and sensuous, lapping over her like honey syrup. Here she is taking a photo of the sun sinking into the ocean horizon, as Ned prepares the horses for the trip back to camp.We cant see the ocean, nor the horses, but we know they're there alright.

Enquiries: mars.drawingtime@gmail.com

"Smile!"

Ned is aware he cuts a fine figure of a horseman, as he turns around for Burka's shot. 

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Good Old Fashioned Cross-Dressing Fun!

Sometimes Burka and Ned would swap their outer garments for a bit of fun. 

It was also useful in confusing the enemy.

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Holiday Shot

Ned made up a special Easter holiday pose for Burka's shot.

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Burka teaches Ned how to fly a broomstick.

                           

Donated to the Brunswick South PS Art Fair in 2009.

This Way

Ned Kelly leads Burka Woman towards the stairs...

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Free as a Bird

Even though tempers flared at times, Burka was really very happy in her new Aussie bushland with Ned.

She knew Ned loved her spirited ways. These days she felt as free as a bird!

Enquiries: mars.drawingtime@gmail.com

Woops! Slipped.

                                            

Sometimes Burka Woman would fantasise about punishing the men who killed her sisters and her mother.

Enquiries: mars.drawingtime@gmail.com

Burka makes her point.

Life wasn't always a bed of roses for Burka and Ned. 

Both of them possessed fiery tempers, and both carried guns...

sometimes things got a little out of control as a result.

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Ned Kelly and Burka Woman enjoy a game of singles

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Meeting of the Minds

Ned and Burka's friendship grows stronger every day.

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True Love

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Burka admires Ned's headpiece

Ned and Burka settle into their campsite at Lake Mungo. They collect all the dead branches and sticks around the grounds and light a small fire to warm up. Ned hangs his headpiece up on an overhanging tree branch, and lies down in his swag to rest after the long day. Burka has a good look at the headpiece, admiring the workmanship of the outer armour and workwomanship of the inner lining. She wonders if perhaps it's a good idea for the oppressed women at home to wear burkas made of steel to protect them from the Allied forces' fire.

Enquiries: mars.drawingtime@gmail.com

Ned and Burka ride to Lake Mungo

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Burka's View

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Ned's View.

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Ned leads Burka Woman inland

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Rogue to the Rescue

enquiries: mars.drawingtime@gmail.com

                            

Ned watches as Burka pulls her small boat ashore.

Ned invites Burka into his hideaway cabin

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Public Perjury

Public Perjury     2004      oil on canvas

Former PM John Howard used the media to create a toxic lie for the public. This painting was my document of how he twisted a tragic story into a racist attack on war-torn Islamic women seeking asylum, in order to be re-elected as Australia's most cowardly PM.

(Donated to the Fitzroy Legal Service)

Ned's Escape

How is it that Ned Kelly is around to help Burka Woman settle in to Australia? Wasn't he hanged in front of the Australian public nearly 130 years ago?

No! The police forgot to take off his protective headpiece before placing a bag over his head, so the noose didnt tighten around Ned's neck as intended. It merely tightened around the headpiece, which dented a little at the pressure. Luckily, Ned had a really strong neck, as he was able to stay dangling there until night-time. Once the coast seemed clear, he jerked his head around a bit, finally working himself free of the dented armour and jumped down to the ground. Apart from a few facial grazes, he was fine and in high spirits. He managed to steal a horse, and ride off to live his dream somewhere else!

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Come now Mother, she wants to go with Ned.

Burka Woman is not alone on the ship to Australia. 

She is travelling with her cousin and Aunty. 

She meets Ned Kelly, and wants to hang out with him for a while. 

No wonder, he looks so strong and brave.

Burka's old Aunty tries to warn the headstrong young Burka Woman about the risks involved in going off with strangers, especially heroes and outlaws....but the old woman's daughter  reassures her mother that Ned seems like a pretty good catch, and reminds her also that Burka Woman needs a new friend to help her recover from the brutal death of her husband. 

(He had been tortured to death by US soldiers back in Iraq.)

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Burka Woman at Sea

Here is Burka Woman as an asylum seeker on the ship heading to Australia. The hour is early, the deck empty. Is she facing forward looking ahead to Australia? Or is she looking back at her old country. The mood is pensive.

Enquiries: mars.drawingtime@gmail.com

Breast Trek

            

This one is about Burka Women heading to Australia...

the land of cupcakes with cherries on top, or sand dunes with cherries on top...

or the land where the body is less covered in public...

less covered in the sun despite the lack of ozone...

all these things were in my mind as I painted Breast Trek. 

I finished up wondering about the stats regarding number of Iraqi women with breast cancer compared with Australian women.

In Australia, one in nine women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 85. 

In the Middle East, there are no statistics that I can research, 

as breast cancer is still largely seen as shameful and taboo in the fundamentalist Islamic world.

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Burka Woman pretends to be a mailbox to hide from Dangerous Texan

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Pilgrimage

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In the beginning...

Towards the end of the final decade of the final century of the last millenium, when everything was very very different...about 13 years ago...I first began to draw the characters Ned Kelly and Burka Woman side by side. Back then, I used to ponder on the similarity of their garb and the dissimilarity of their reasons for wearing such outfits. I was quite fascinated by my discovery, and their images appeared quite often in my notebooks.

Our family used to travel from our Wimmera home to the Eastern alps every year for holidays when I was a kid, and Dad never passed through Glenrowan without stopping outside the Ned Kelly museum. We loved the Big Ned Kelly statue in the main street of Glenrowan, as well as the statues on top of the shops depicting the shoot-out between Ned and the cops. Ned's story was our very own home-grown legend, like our own true version of a Western movie.

Then years later, I found myself teaching English to adults from lots of different countries in London. Two women in my class had been sent from Saudi Arabia by their husbands to learn Beginner's English. They would sit in my class dressed in full burqa, and I was fascinated. I was only 22 years old, and had never seen such garments in my rural Australian past. These women protested passionately when I attempted to take a class photo at the end of the course...another student in the class, a man also from Saudi, explained to me that generally women were not allowed to be photographed, only men.

Later on, whilst travelling for two years throughout Asian countries, I would see women in burqas sitting outside museums, temples, forts, palaces, mosques...Sometimes I would sit beside them outside these tourist places as they waited for their husbands to finish sightseeing inside, and I would ask them about their lives...
The short film above is called a True Story and a Love Story. At first I painted the war scenes in it in response to the invasion of Afghanistan and then Iraq, and called this a True Story. Then Ned Kelly happened to come along, and for Burka Woman...her horror story turned into a Love Story. The paintings from this film make up the first of the Ned and Burka series.