Child's tale taps emotional scales

From The Sydney Morning Herald 10/07/08

Two composers have collaborated on a work which captures their response to a picture book story about a little girl's bad day, writes Clare Morgan.

Everyone knows the feeling. You wake up with the nameless dreads, as if a dark cloud is hanging over you and nobody understands why you feel so low or can penetrate that sense of being alone.

The Australian author and artist Shaun Tan captured such emotions exquisitely in his children's picture book The Red Tree, the deceptively simple story of a little girl struggling through a bad day, confused and afraid, until a final, glorious blossoming of hope.

Read the full article.

ART IN THE NEWS? NOT LIKELY

Sydney Arts Journo reports on a worrying trend: the axing of arts reporting and criticism in our papers. Fairfax has a dastardly plan to keep you, the reader, from engaging with culture (and prevent writers from earning a living). Read more.

The only thing that may change this trend is readers demanding that their newspapers actually publish something to pad out the ads and advertorial. More likely scenario: interested people will increasingly turn to the blogosphere to learn what's going on. Seems a pity, though, as it's much nicer to read a paper with your Saturday AM coffee than lug your laptop to the cafe.

Robert Murray