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Hi all at St Mary's Central School
1) Why did you paint the watermelon with
Luke's leg inside it?
As you might have imagined, Luke is, up until the
end of the story, is pretty reticent to practice his creativity because he just
gets in trouble for it. After his wonderful adventure in the art gallery
however, he is no longer afraid to express who he really is. Him stepping into
the water melon is really symbolic of him stepping into the amazing world of his
own creativity.
2) Do you have a wife and
children?
No wife, but plenty of kids (in the form of orphaned
wildlife). My most recent batch of children, who have all left home now, are two
possums, a honeyeater, and a fruit bat.
3) When Mr Barraclough goes ballistic,
why is the shadow so big and long?
I have used shadows throughout the
book to represent what is happening for the characters at a feelings level. Mr B
is domineering and a bit of a control freak. He likes to control everybody, and
I've shown this in his huge shadow. He is a bit of a monster, so he has a
monsters shadow. Luke's shadow is bending into Mr B's showing that his spirit is
being pushed down by Mr B.
4) What made you think of all the ideas
for the book?
I had plenty of discussions with both Nadia and our
editor. We all worked out together which ideas were going to work well in the
book and which ones we didn't think would. Of course I had many ideas for the
illustrations first, and then we all discussed them.
Matt
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