BULLETIN: We’ve seen you drawing with the long stick—can you tell us what that’s about?

MARK BRAUNIAS: The main thing with the long stick is it allows me get back from the individual drawings on the wall and get a much better sense of scale and proportion, and perhaps most importantly, the relationship of elements within the overall composition. You get a good overview of the work as a whole.

B: What does the Children’s Charter mean?

MB: The drawings and the intention of the imagery are loosely based on the Children’s Charter, which was passed into law in nineteenth-century England. Commonly known as the ‘Kids Act’, it was essentially to stop the exploitation of children during the Industrial Revolution. Widespread delinquency among youth was also a major problem. The charter was the beginning of state schools and general education for the working classes. I actually like the notion of children who can’t read or write making their own ‘charter’ through doodled drawings sketched in the margins of school exercise books and so on. So in a sense my work at the Gallery is like a wall chart of the imagination.

B: So what is going on in the mural? Who are the wee characters and what are they up to?

MB: They began as freeform doodles, but as I processed them they started to develop like weird biological mutations. Something gone wrong in a laboratory. I have drawn them in a processional manner and they all seem to be heading in the same direction. Evolution in reverse perhaps. They are not based on individuals but more a generic species either from the past or possibly the future.

B: Is this the biggest work you’ve produced?

MB: No. However, it is up there in terms of the many wall drawings I have completed since I first started doing them in 2004. Maybe the third largest. A good scale I think.

B: What is the relationship between this and the smaller works on paper you produce?

MB: The small drawings on paper are the initial ideas and they are mostly done in an almost automatic way. A stream of consciousness approach. These are then translated into much larger works and I adapt and modify as I go.

B: How have you found it creating art in a public space?

MB: I have done about ten wall drawings in public spaces and I try to learn something from every one of them. With each wall work I bring a slightly different approach and see what will work or not. I don’t have a fixed plan for the composition and prefer not to project the images up and copy in from there. So I can be reasonably experimental with technique and improvise quite freely. Working in front of people can be a challenge, and of course if things start going poorly you have nowhere to hide. But on the positive side you get instant feedback and the adrenaline pushes you through. As an artist it’s healthy to be forced outside of your comfort zone. I have enjoyed doing this wall the most and the support of the Gallery and the Gallery-goers has been excellent