Friend's head may be entrenched in the metaphysics, but his feet are firmly on the ground. As an artist he finds it frustrating that the Australian culture is sometimes reluctant to take on the challenges of abstract art. We live in a world of quickfix solutions. People get frustrated if they don't understand my work straight away. They don't realise that all I want them to do is to slow down and think about what it may mean to them.
Students find it hard to sit in a life class for three or more hours.
They don't seem able to value the time it takes to create and understand art. And so, like many others, he seeks refuge in football. You could hear the crowd's roar from the MCG as glasses were filled at the Stephen McLaughlan Gallery. It is six years since this gallery, one of three in the elegant Nicholas Building, opened. When Stuart Purves was appointed the new president of the Australian Commercial Galleries Association last month, he promised that the visual arts in Melbourne would spread like Latin music in America.