My Account
As an artist, founding member and long-time manager of Estuary Arts Centre in Orewa, David Poole made his mark on the arts community. Running an art gallery was a far cry from his original career as a hair stylist to local celebrities – including cutting the famous floppy fringe of Ray Columbus; and later, creating a look for models and actors in London. His current retrospective exhibition at Estuary Arts Centre is part of a “long goodbye” to the Coast, which will culminate in his return to his hometown of the Bay of Plenty in around 12 months’ time. David spoke to Terry Moore about the importance of moving on.
I started out as a hairdresser at Kays in Karangahape Road, Auckland, and did the hair of TV announcers like Alma Johnston and Angela D’Audney as well as pop stars Alison Durban, Ray Columbus and The Chicks. In those days you did a six-month course, and then an apprenticeship of 4–5 years before you were fully qualified. I carried on hairdressing in London and worked for Vidal Sassoon and Dorothy Grey makeup, but I found London salons very regimented, so I went freelance, working for advertising companies and with people like David Bailey and Mary Hopkins, Alan Bates and Peter Sellars, as well as doing hair for Wella ads. The lifestyle there was exciting with a lot of clubbing and flying to Paris for the weekend; it was exactly what I’d hoped it would be. I was also involved in the spiritual side of things, teaching Kabala, travelling to India and the Himalayas and dabbling in Astro-photography. When I moved to London in the early 1970s, I wanted to be part of the scene there and was certain I’d never return to NZ, however that changed when a friend invited me to do Landmark Education. The programme teaches you about taking ownership of your life and I found that I’d made up a story in my own mind that NZ was too small and provincial and made decisions accordingly. So, after 30 years overseas, it was time to go home and when I did, all those filters were taken away and I saw NZ for the first time as a possible place to live.
I was born in Opotiki and brought up on a farm in the Bay of Plenty. From the age of 10 I knew I would be on a plane out of there as soon as I could. When I came back from London I moved to a two-acre property in Gulf Harbour because I wanted to live close to Auckland, but not in suburbia. At first I focused on renovating and getting the garden sorted. I hardly left the place for two years. My mum was a mad keen gardener and I inherited her style of gardening, which is to throw everything in and hope for the best. I never look at the label on a plant too much if it’s something that’s appealing; I put it in and see how it goes. The garden is well established now, but I can see a time in the next 10 years or so when it will be too much to maintain, which is one reason I’m moving. In those first two years at Gulf Harbour I also looked around to see what was available regarding art, and found there was nothing. I went to a meeting of the Arts Council in Orewa and they signed me up to be on the committee – it seemed a great way to get involved and find out what was going on. From that came my involvement in the formation of Estuary Arts Centre. I found out that there were plenty of artists in the area, but they all exhibited on the North Shore or elsewhere. There were education courses at Hungry Creek and adult education at college, but no local exhibition space. That was the bone of contention with the former Rodney District Council arts advisor, Sarah Dugdale, because she wanted a centre focused on education but the demand was clearly for exhibitions. Now that the region has expanded so much, there is the need for both.
I still managed to do my own artworks while involved with Estuary Arts, but volunteering there took a lot of time. From the start, when we converted the former KFC building, I was hands-on, cleaning and doing the garden and clearing rubbish, washing windows as well as running exhibitions. Now my involvement is phasing out but there is the possibility that I can become a patron so I can maintain contact and keep them honest. There are no hard feelings, at least in terms of the board, who had their arms twisted by Auckland Council when it came to letting me go. I also know that I am more of a starter of projects, and once they get going I am not interested in the paperwork, which will be a major part of the job for the new manager. Auckland Council requires monthly reports, and I understand the need for accountability but what’s required seems over the top. We get a lot more funding from the ASB Trust than from Council yet they don’t have that level of accountability – as long as we spend it as we said we would, that’s all that’s required. Once I saw the process going down that bureaucratic road, I knew it wasn’t for me. The centre has got a growing reputation among artists and people bring work from Te Puke and Wellington as well as wider Auckland to show there. It’s important to have exhibitions that challenge viewers and have impact, such as Mandy Moon’s work, which some people found a bit grotesque. One of our success stories is Shane Dudley, whose work is now shown throughout Europe and America. My view is that there needs to be an equal focus on education, not losing sight of the fact that the primary focus was for exhibition space – that can suffer if the balance is too much on offering classes. What I always wanted for Estuary Arts was for it to be a centre of excellence, and that’s something that I’d like to see taken forward.
When it came to creating art, it was more about finding my own interpretation and expression of being a Kiwi, because in Europe you are so crowded by tradition and so-called “fine art”. NZ gave me freedom to not be overwhelmed by that. At the same time it was quite shocking to come back and find that this country now had a sort of reverse snobbery attitude, and whereas everything from overseas had been valued, now they didn’t want to know unless you’d trained as an artist at Whitecliffe or Elam. I trained in London, while still working as a hairdresser, so it was a gradual process and I didn’t begin making work until I was 35. For many years I didn’t want to try it in case I was no good. If you spin the clock back, when I went to school, especially in Whakatane, only girls did art and I wasn’t exposed to art growing up. So I majored in tech drawing and woodwork, which of course gave me a great foundation for what I do now. I would describe my style as eclectic and diverse in terms of media, but basically my theme has always been the human form and archetype. Early on I painted landscapes and buildings, especially in Europe where I liked those narrow roads and spaces; I like a sense of mystery or to lead viewers up the garden path, if you like. My exhibition that’s on now at Estuary is the first I’ve had at the centre. As manager I was always mindful not to use that position for my own gain. I also teach art and my approach is similar to coaching – much as a sports person is coached. I ask artists what they want to achieve and show them that they need to take responsibility for getting there.
My partner Michael and I are moving back to the Bay of Plenty, where we both come from originally, which will be a process of around a year as we build a house there. I’m working with an architect on an industrial style house, using concrete and a type of paint that I sometimes use in my art that has steel in it and creates an effect like sheets of rusted metal. It’s a contemporary version of the Kiwi style building – going back to the number eight wire creative attitude of old. I like to mix the traditional with a hard edge – a good example is the doorbell I made recently that uses a length of steel pipe and the stay of a yacht.
When I returned to NZ from overseas, I wanted to make a difference and I would say that on the Hibiscus Coast at least I have done that. Perhaps I can now go on to do something similar in the Bay of Plenty, who knows?
