Two Sides to Every Story - Mark Strizic

The older I become, the more I realise that there are two sides to every story.

Be it the divorce of my parents, the squabble within a family, or even the Labor Liberal divide – everybody has their own opinion, and their unique perspective. After all, would you hold your ground stubbornly unless you believed utterly that you were correct?

In events such as we have recently witnessed in the US, with that awful massacre, I always wonder what compelled the gunman to such a terrible act, for whatever it was, it must have been terrible.

But what is mostly preying on my mind when it comes to both sides to the story, is my great-uncle, Mark. Last week, he died. Nobody is perfect. He was certainly not. But I always knew him as someone who was kind to me. When I was a child, he would never speak down to me, but always as though I were his equal. When I would bring him the drawings I had enthusiastically made, he would treat them seriously, telling me to “sign and date them”, or offer an aesthetic tip. Little did I realise until my wanderings through his room and studio during the past few months, that he had kept most of my drawings, and even the photograph I gave him for Christmas or a birthday two years ago.

Outwardly, Mark could be at times, difficult. But I never doubt that he cared for me, or my mother. The last time I saw him in hospital, his wife, my great-aunt, Sue, pointed to me, and said “this is Alice”. His response was a definite, “no”, because to him, I was a young child. This is something which brought a smile to my face then, and now. I regret not having adequately gotten the chance to know him in my adulthood, because I hope that I may have gotten to know him a bit better. Have understood him, and in turn, his perspective.

As an artist, Mark influenced me, probably more than I know. In the link below, he explains photography as capturing a moment in time that will never again be seen. Seeing this, my reaction was “but I think this”, and I truly realised the extent to which he lives on in my own photography and artistic endeavours, such as they are.

The point I am making in a roundabout fashion, is that Mark was a multifaceted individual, whose outward manifestation did not reveal all there was to him. I am the first to admit that I am too quick to judge, but it is always well worth keeping in mind that there are two sides to every story, and Mark certainly had a story to tell.

I strongly recommend you watch the following video, as it tells not only his story, but ours as a country. I will miss him, and I will miss not having known him to the extent that I could have.

http://www.abc.net.au/arts/stories/s3324845.htm

If you are even more inclined (which I do hope you are), Zetta Florence has a line of stationary featuring some of his photographs. I think them truly beautiful.