Interview: Sam Mahon talks about How to Paint a Nude

Sam Mahon lives near Christchurch, is an artist, activist, conservationist, writer, and contrarian who fomented outrage when he protested the pollution of Canterbury’s fresh water by creating a sculpture from cow dung of then Environment Minister Nick Smith squatting over a glass of water, defecating. Mahon’s work is held in private collections, public galleries, and public spaces. He has written four books, including My Father’s Shadow, about his father Peter Mahon, the late High Court judge who was surrounded in controversy over his report on the Erebus Air New Zealand crash inquiry. Sam talks to NZ Booklovers.

Tell us a little about How to Paint a Nude.

The book, How to Paint a Nude, is a conversation between two artists, one an established painter nearing the end of his career, the other a Belarusian refugee, Gregor Kerensky, who is at the beginning of his. The two meet every Tuesday outside a small cafe in the Christchurch Arts Centre to discuss the purpose and use of art rather than art as simply the decorative wallpaper against which we lead our everyday lives. Gregor quotes Banksy in this respect: Art's job is to comfort the disturbed, and to disturb the comfortable.

What research was involved?

As Graham Greene pointed out, an author's youth is the ore he mines forever. My career in the theatre of art, and the characters who have occupied that stage, is the ore for this book. But with regard to the fictitious Gregor, I have had to delve deep into the Belarus social and political landscape to understand why he would hold so fervently the views he expresses.

What was your routine or process when writing this book?

There was no routine, just as there is no routine for me in painting or sculpting. I have carried Gregor around in my head for three years, conversing with him in the same way someone might play chess against himself. Even now in the middle of some political discourse I will ask myself, what would Gregor say?

If a soundtrack were made to accompany this book, name a song or two you would include.

Albinoni's Adagio in G minor, and Sean Donnelly's I wont let you down, sung by Don McGlashan.

If your book were made into a movie, who would you like to see playing the lead characters?

Sean Penn as the narrator, David Kross (German) as Gregor, and Lea Seydoux as Rilke.  But in reality, I would use these three NZ actors: William Alexander, Josiah Morgan and Hester Ullyart.

What did you enjoy the most about writing How to Paint a Nude?

The unexpected. When I began painting in the seventies, I never knew in what direction the canvas would lead me. As I grew older, there were fewer surprises. Writing for me has the same adventure to it as those early paintings. Especially dialogue and the way any one line must provoke a response, just as in a tennis match. But the response is often entirely, delightfully, unexpected.

What did you do to celebrate finishing this book?

Da Vinci said that no artwork is ever completed, it is just abandoned. As with John Fowles' Ebony Tower, he writes until the idea has been carved just enough to make its point, as with Michaelangelo's Pieta. There is no finishing. The book is simply a written account of a continuing experience.

What is the favourite book you have read so far this year and why?

Stella Maris, by Cormac McCarthy. It is pure dialogue, the clarification of a character from his preceding work, The Passenger. In writing How to Paint a Nude I have adopted McCarthy's style of abandoning quotation marks and attribution. For this to work, you have to trust the reader, attend to rhythm and the predictable connection of speech. It is difficult, but it is more naturalistic.

What’s next on the agenda for you?

I have just completed twenty thousand words of the sequel.

Ugly Hill Press