
My Funny Valentine
Olsen Gallery, 2021
“During Melbourne's COVID lockdowns, I found myself restricted from many places, navigating back streets by bike to reach my studio. There, I was greeted by my lifeless 'muses,' still wrapped up from a recent installation, The Long Shot, at Linden New Art in St Kilda, which had been shut down just weeks after opening. Despite the limitations, this series emerged from the surreal experience of facing a room of 'rogue characters'—life-size assemblages who became my subjects during those rare, precious studio visits”.
_Jacqui Stockdale, 2021
Don't Change a Hair 10 x 8 cm, Oil + gold leaf on linen 2021
Are You Smart 10 x 8 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Don't Change 26 x 20 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Am 155 x 110 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Each Day Is 155 x 93 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Each Day Is #2 15 x 10 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Is Your Mouth a Little Weak 24 x 18 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Little Valentine 15 x 10 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Ma 175 x 195 cm, Oil on linen 2021
My Favourite Work of Art 15 x 10 cm, Oil on linen 2021
My Funny (With Cigarette) 15 x 10 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Not If You Care For Me 95 x 75 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Stay Please Stay 95 x 75 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Sweet Comic 26 x 20 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Unphotographable 24 x 18 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Vale 26 x 20 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Valentine's Day 95 x 75 cm, Oil on linen 2021
You Make Me 15 x 10 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Less than Greek 15 x 10 cm, Oil on linen 2021
Your Looks Are Laughable 24 x 18 cm, Oil on linen 2021
These characters, created in the form of mismatched found objects, old costumes, fur coats, rocking horses, wooden masks, and Victorian antiques, playfully echoed the infamous Kelly Gang siege at the Glenrowan Inn in 1880, Growing up in Benalla, school trips to the quirky animatronic Tourist Centre in Glenrowan left an indelible mark on me, and I’ve often reinvented the Kelly family in my work as part of my own origin story.
The irony wasn’t lost on me—I was painting portraits of captivity while in captivity. Yet, face to face with these half-wit muses, I found life in their presence. Characters like Ma Kelly, Syphilis Man, Ah Fook, Ned with a horse dick, Greta, drunken Harry Powers, a dog gnawing a policeman’s head, and a bird on a wire populated my studio. This fueling spontaneous alla prima oil paintings, shot from the hip. The title for the upcoming show—something about outlaws, lovers, conflict, hostages, fraught histories—swirled in my mind as I painted. One day, while working and listening to music, Ella Fitzgerald’s "My Funny Valentine.