I'd known Stephen and Linda for a good 20 years, we frequented the same coffee shop and got to know one another at 'the office' over numerous cups of coffee and intense conversations about global politics and lots of laughter. Both were young artists who met at art school in England and somehow had made it through the years and remained together and very much stayed in love. 
Both were exceptional in their craft, Steve was always a quiet introspective sensitive soul who shared my birthday and a love of music and Linda the epitome of classy English sophistication and beauty. 
It was not just a pleasure to interview them both but also a great privilege as I'd admired their work for years and learned a lot about their aesthetic when they opened up about their processes and what they were expressing.

Steven Glassbrow Sculpturer

Linda Dry Parker

Both Amalia and I wanted to end the interviews with a lighthearted look at each person's response to a series of standard questions. If you have watched the Actors studio you may be familiar with most questions. The original questions were based upon Marcel Proust's below:

1. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
2. What is your greatest fear?
3. What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
4. What is the trait you most deplore in others?
5. Which living person do you most admire?
6. What is your greatest extravagance?
7. What is your current state of mind?
8. What do you consider the most overrated virtue?
9. On what occasion do you lie?
10. What do you most dislike about your appearance?
11. Which living person do you most despise?
12. What is the quality you most like in a man?
13. What is the quality you most like in a woman?
14. Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
15. What or who is the greatest love of your life?
16. When and where were you happiest?
17. Which talent would you most like to have?
18. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
19. What do you consider your greatest achievement?
20. If you were to die and come back as a person or a thing, what would it be?
21. Where would you most like to live?
22. What is your most treasured possession?
23. What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?
24. What is your favourite occupation?
25. What is your most marked characteristic?
26. What do you most value in your friends?
27. Who are your favourite writers?
28. Who is your hero of fiction?
29. Which historical figure do you most identify with?
30. Who are your heroes in real life?
31. What are your favourite names?
32. What is it that you most dislike?
33. What is your greatest regret?
34. How would you like to die?
35. What is your motto?

But we thought we would just use the standard 10, and requested one word answers.

Lisa Wilkes Hunter was nothing but pleasure to speak with and interview. She gave 100% and offered a lot of supporting information which appealed to me, particularly about her grandfather who wrote 'pulp fiction' novels which she then went back home to collect just to show me. 
Her own work is striking and quite original, she really seems to have a photographers eye when it comes to painting as well as capturing the spirit of the subject. 
Her egg paintings are quite amazing and up close filled with detail.
if you feel like learning more about her click here :

lisa wilkes hunter 

The interview went well despite our technical issues (one camera failure and sound issue) Lisa was open honest and shared her feelings about the Corona virus fearlessly. I guess you can make your own mind up, but all in all, it is a good start. I was particularly impressed with Amalia's comment which suggested how Artists seem to a strive to return to the innocence they had when they were young. Very insightful.
On a personal note I was struck by our conversation on the Wakehurst Parkway bushlands where Lisa informed me about people experiencing 'strange' visitations while driving through.

I'm not sure what kind of sequence we will put our interviews in, the idea at the moment is to collect content, then using the footage  we can build a format and post at least one a week. 

Okay, this is very challenging but I'm ready for it.

Firstly, why use ASHTON and not CAPTAIN MISSION.

Well let's say I'm integrating myself and ASHTON is where I seem to be right now. I'll always be known as Captain Mission as it's been my name since childhood but for the purpose of this project I want to be called ASHTON.

For a long time I wanted to utilize my network of friends and acquaintances as they had been hugely influential upon my life in Australia. I was fortunate enough to hang out with some very interesting personalities and get to know them very well. If I think about it I baffled their expectations. 

They were probably seeing a sort of big tough sporty guy and interfacing with an 'outside the box' poet who happened to be well-traveled, very well-read, intelligent and capable of independent thought.

Years later I found myself reconnecting with some old friends and new, and as everyone went into isolation and old friend of mine called me up to ask if I would collaborate with her on an art project. She was so enthusiastic to do something with me I couldn't refuse.

She herself was a super creative soul, daughter of a very famous artist, designer and writer and I had always seen her potential. We just didn't know what to do.

Then I figured with her network and mine we could have access to some great creatives and delve into their work. 

So we set up a little studio and began to think about how we wanted this to be. I thought a youtube station would be good, just interviewing creatives and shooting it guerilla-style on our phones. I had no idea about film making, cameras, technology or how to put it all together but we persevered and despite the challenge of learning to edit and directing I somehow shot the opening scene and credits. Amalia in her ingenious way set up the studio for interviewing comfortably and within quarantine guidelines.

It was done. All we needed were guests. So putting feelers out we tracked down our friends and made a few new ones. Literally everything fell into place and within one week we had three people ready to film.

I hope you like the interviews, I'm still learning so please give me a chance to ease into it. I don't really like the focus upon me, so I give our guests time to chat and talk about their work, process and the age of Coronavirus- 19. 

This blog is a little supplementary piece to go along with the project and keep my personal thoughts on the people we meet and interview.   

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