Original subtitles

[birds chirp]

[David] How good would it be to hang out with these guys.

[chuckles]

These are three of my friends.

"Hey, hey, you're not a real bird."

"I'm a real bird."

"You're not a real bird!"

"I'm a real bird."

"You're a really weird-looking bird."

"But at least I'm a real bird. You're not even a real bird."

"You're not even a real... bird."

"But you're the weirdest-looking bird"

"I've ever seen."

"What do you think?"

"Oh, if I know one thing, I'm very handsome."

That's actually how I think when I paint! It is!

Underneath, you know, people say this really serious shit.

That's actually what I think. Yeah.

I've always thought, especially when I was younger

at school and stuff

and you're being presented with what the status quo is,

I've always thought there's gotta be a better way.

You know, like, I'll be talking to someone

and they'll say, "What are you?"

I say, "Artist." And they go...

"Oh, you guys are weird." And I go, "Fuck off."

[rock'n'roll instrumental plays]

I know nobody like David.

It's like you can't help but be drawn to just...

Just to listen and experience David.

All you have to do is ask him one question and, well,

you're there for a few hours,

and you'll go on a ride with him.

At the end of the three hours,

you won't know the answer to the question

but, oh, my God, you would've laughed, you may have cried.

You might be completely shocked or overwhelmed

and you probably learnt a shit load of stuff

along the way.

He's a complete free spirit

and he'll roll in whatever direction he wants.

If it pleases you or it doesn't, he doesn't really care.

How David Bromley is not a member of a rock'n'roll band,

I think, is one of life's great mysteries and tragedies

because he's far more rock'n'roll

than most of the people I know in rock'n'roll bands.

He's a creative genius. He's a lunatic.

He's mad as a cut snake.

Exterminate!

He's a Peter Pan of the art world,

and still sees the world like a kid.

It's pretty hard to categorise David in a few words

'cause he's everywhere.

Whether it's on a cup,

in a shopping centre or a beautiful painting

or a sculpture, it can only be a Bromley.

He's one of these people who's made art accessible to everyone.

He wants to be like The Beatles.

He wants everyone to have one of his greatest hits.

Everyone wants a Bromley. Everyone wants a Bromley.

[music continues]

There's a word that I'm so often called,

you know, being sort of commercial.

Like, fuck yeah.

David Bromley should look out because being that super popular

is not great necessarily for a long-term reputation.

He produces likeable images.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, some more David Bromley.

The weakness is there's nothing more to it.

I think his work is just purely decorative, it really is.

I think you go... And then you walk on.

A lot of mud has been thrown at him

but he's not gonna change, is he?

I disagree fundamentally

with much of what is written critically about him

'cause I think that David has become iconic.

[laughter]

[Dialogue unintelligible]

[distant bird calls]

This is to make me...

This is to make me I wouldn't say normal,

but this is to

I have different parts of my body.

I just took the one for my stomach.

That's the one for my brain,

and I actually forget what this one's for.

-[Yuge] Cholesterol, is it? -Maybe cholesterol, yeah.

Is the good stuff.

Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik are expecting a baby.

How delightful.

When I met Yuge at first, once we started to really gel

and make a commitment to each other,

you know, sharing a life and build a life together,

my complete anxiety

and sense of, um, you know,

the sheer pain that I feel inside

or the phobias or the fears or the anxieties or whatever,

I know that I would say Yuge's name over and over in my mind

as a sort of form of ballast.

So, it's sort of, like, I would mention her name

as a way of keeping myself sane.

You know, it's OK,

the world completely and utterly blows my mind

and I have trouble not skidding off the tracks

because, you know, I just find everything so big.

Alright, now, guys, I might show you where I'm working.

Obviously, out there, there, there, there.

There, there, there, there, there.

Ooh!

These have worked out well.

[Yuge] Yeah, they're fun as can be.

Fun as can be.

David doesn't like wasting a single minute

of productive time.

If he's in the studio, he's in the studio and he's painting.

That's probably the problem.

You know, people think that he's...

He's just banging things out but it's not. He just can't...

Standing still is not an option.

[rock'n'roll track plays]

David Bromley just seems to have over-produced

and there doesn't seem to be any editing to it.

It's not just the art, I've got the coffee table,

I've got coasters, I've got mugs.

I've got pillows. I've got throws. I have boxes.

Commercial pop art.

That's where he sits in the art scene,

as a highly marketable, highly successful pop artist.

I mean, he's achieved a sort of Warhol level of ubiquity

and that, I think, in many ways,

has been both his triumph and his downfall.

Some critics said as a derogatory thing, you know,

"Bromleys are only good for holiday houses

and children's bedrooms."

Oh, two of my favourite places. The funnest places in the world.

♪ And it's running like a freight train ♪♪

People buy it to decorate their homes

because it's very recognisable.

Their friends will come over, instantly go,

"Oh, that's a David Bromley."

[horn toots]

The biggest characteristic of an upper-middle class family

in Australia

is not a Range Rover,

it's not kids at private schools,

it's not a beach house, it is this.

I swear David Bromley runs this town.

♪ Won't sleep tonight ♪

[David] When I first started making art, you know,

decorative, bad word, nostalgic, bad word,

happiness, bad word, craft.

And I just took those and built a career.

[song continues]

If you're OK with portraits of women naked from the waist up,

if you're OK with little kids '50s style

or animals or whatever, the art's for you.

Some people find it easy to dismiss his work

as something pretty simplistic.

It's figurative but there's no great depth to it.

I furiously disagree with that.

It's extraordinarily sophisticated like the man is.

He's multi-layered,

and beware the silly person who takes him lightly

because there's a formidable intellect

behind those friendly eyes.

It just looks like it's been photographed,

traced or stencilled.

There's no poetry to his work.

We do have people who seem to leave the house

with the intention of coming into the gallery

to tell us that they fuckin' hate David Bromley's work.

They're upset because, like,

how can he be good, do what he does,

seemingly easily, and be rewarded for that?

I don't know, ask him.

Oh, this is so exciting. Oh!

John! Steamroller!

Hey, baby, we're gonna steamroll.

-Awesome, I'm coming. -Cool.

I haven't been waiting days for this,

I've been waiting my whole life for this.

Fuckin' great. I love smashed-up shit.

[laughter, David yells in wild voice]

If I was you, I'd ask as well.

They're on a wooden frame, of course, stapled on,

and I put two pack on them.

That's just smashed all the frames, buckled all up.

And just the other day when I knew this was coming, I thought,

"Fuck, I'll flatten you out, you bastard."

[David chuckles]

This has done something, I reckon,

but it's tearing all the edges and stuff

which personally I think is fucking cool.

Yuge, just when I think I couldn't love you more.

Do a burn-out on it, Yuge. How cute does she look in that!

Has that got something underneath it?

Yeah.

Yeah, no, it's got something underneath... oh!

Get with the program, David. Come on, baby!

In the first couple of years of our relationship,

there was another Yuge.

I'd reached a real milestone in my own career as a lawyer,

and I was doing well and I really enjoyed it,

but I wanted to take this new direction,

and, even when I started my clothing label, you know,

I was so desirous to be fiercely independent.

Oh, keep going, baby. No, keep going.

Fucking smash the shit out of it.

Yeah, keep going.

In the very early days, I would feel incredibly self-conscious

with my place in David's world,

and then it was like this light-bulb moment

maybe a year or so down the track when I realised

that I was in such a fortunate position as a fashion designer

to have one of the most iconic artists in Australia

just open his absolute world to me.

OK, bubba.

And I thought, well, let's cut the bullshit.

Any fierce determination to be independent.

Why? You're married.

You know, you've got kids together.

I'm so proud to be linked there.

That's better!

That sounds a little bit more like action.

David and I started opening more galleries together.

I felt more confident in my voice

and expressing certain ideas.

And, yeah, we felt like a team.

Is that the accelerator?

That's slow throttle, that's a bit more throttle.

You're accelerating...

Slow down, slow down! Pull it back!

[Yuge laughs]

God, it is harder to drive, isn't it?

Whoa! Stop!

Stop!

Oh, my God!

Yuge, why did you let me in there?

All my premonitions came to reality.

No, but I'm just dropping, get it to be totally fucked up.

You would be an idiot to think that David stands alone.

David only functions because of the unit that they have.

Together, that crazy madness

that is their mental life and love,

you feel the bubble of energy that is the love

that runs between David and Yuge.

[both laugh]

Her influence on him has been,

yeah, I think it's been profound.

She's this incredible balance for this man.

She deserves some awards.

I thought I did lots of skulls

'cause I quite like the idea

of a person's head turning into a skull.

David's brain is so fast and not necessarily compartmentalised.

Somebody like Yuge,

who's able to make sense of

large bits of very abstract information,

I mean, she's just invaluable.

Just whack it on this.

Um, shall we set up by the fire?

Sounds perfect and I'll bring the lighthouse over as well.

Beautiful.

[paint sloshing]

I think I went through that stage

where I never wanted to paint

another fucking lighthouse in my life.

But it's amazing how time goes by and you go,

"Oh, how good is this, painting a lighthouse."

They're just such beautiful things.

When I was younger, I saw them as wonderful beacons

to keep you off the rocks.

I think, you know,

I was so desperate to keep myself off the rocks.

You know, I think I found them to be wonderfully poignant.

My own adolescence was quite horrific.

You know, as I was changing and my voice was breaking,

so was my sanity and it felt very much like

I was falling through something.

I had some, sort of, um, schizophrenic happenings

and some major phobias

and stuff starting to develop,

and I was just fuckin' on edge the whole time.

When I first started having these problems,

I mean, I just thought I was fucked.

I mean, I'd be running from,

like, telegraph pole to telegraph pole

because I couldn't stand, you know, in one place

because I thought I was gonna get sucked into the vortex

of the atmosphere.

I just remember my hands just sweating

'cause I'd look up at the sky

and the infiniteness of it and stuff,

and it'd just totally and utterly freak me out.

You know, and I'd have dreams at night

of being stuck between two wires,

between two buildings,

and then I'd put myself into a position

where I'd be walking along the beach

with a friend and suddenly realise

that I'm four kilometres away from the car,

and I'm too embarrassed to tell my friend.

How do you tell them in 15 seconds

that you've got this thing

that you don't even know what it is

but I'd need to go and jump in the water

because I felt like I was falling off the earth.

♪ Yeah, I've been waiting for this day to come ♪

♪ For a long, long time ♪♪

♪ Yeah, I'm gonna break these chains ♪

♪ And feel the sweet sunshine ♪♪

And that's why I started drinking so much

because, you know,

if I had a certain amount to drink,

it would dispel some of these problems.

But, I mean, I got to the stage

where I was comfortable for about a minute

and then I'd be unconscious.

I mean, if I acted like how I felt inside, you know,

I'd be like, "Yeah, yeah, argh!"

It sheerly terrified me

of how fricking abnormal I felt.

Let alone what that did to people around me

who considered it an incredible flaw.

You feel like saying, well

please don't

please, you know, please hang around...

Please hang around for the things that I am, you know?

♪ This other mind ♪♪

I fell down a pothole that I couldn't get out of

for about five years.

I worked out that I had two things to do.

One was to be active and to exercise.

And the other one was to be purposeful, find a career,

totally and utterly commit to it, be addicted to it.

♪ Yeah, I'm gonna break these chains ♪♪

♪ And feel the sweet sunshine ♪♪

I was at a market one day

and there was a woman standing there with her pottery.

I said to this woman, "How do you be a potter?"

"Can I do classes?"

And she said, "Well, we're full and you gotta wait."

It was just like, "No. No. No, no, no, I'm doin' it now."

I'm committed to something and this is what it's gonna be

and, you know, I used to work in there and stuff.

Fuck, man, I felt like... I felt just incredible.

♪ Yeah, yeah ♪♪

♪ Oh, yeah ♪

I went into a local art show to show my pottery.

I put some paintings in as well and, anyway,

I turned up there and they said, "Oh, we wanted to talk to you."

"We'd like to give you an exhibition."

I walked over to my pottery

and they said, "Oh, is that your stuff there?"

And I thought, "Oh, no, they've got the wrong dude."

And they said, "What about these paintings?"

And I'm like, "Oh, yeah, they're mine too."

And they're like, "So, are you a painter?"

And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm a painter."

And I just said to myself, "I'm a fuckin' painter."

"I'm a painter, I'm a painter, I'm a painter."

Got rid of the kiln

and I just painted, like, 15, 18 hours a day.

[rock'n'roll instrumental plays]

Some of the greatest joys in my life

were the beginnings of my art career when I had nothing.

[music continues]

People say, you know,

"Gee, the texture on your painting's interesting."

Well, I started that off by, when I finished an exhibition,

I couldn't afford new canvases

so I'd paint over all the others, sometimes four times.

I didn't have the money.

If I couldn't afford paint,

I'd go down the beach and I'd find old bits of plastic

and stuff like that,

and I didn't give a shit whether galleries liked them or not.

'Cause they liked them because they were selling

and, you know, from where I'd come from, everything was good.

[quiet jazz music playing]

So, can you just explain where you get your ideas from,

you know, as an artist?

My work has just about always from the beginning

had figures in it.

I've always been fairly concerned with

interacting people in my work

'cause, to me, it's the thing that fascinates me most in life

is how we all get on, how we all interact.

So, I try and portray a sort of, like, a journey

and that's where the lighthouse comes in

and so showing direction,

all the children working together

to try and get from A to B, and not just,

like, physically from one place to the other

but I suppose emotionally as well.

And so I suppose he's, sort of...

You could say, well, you know, he wants to get back to shore

or you could say he's also finding it really hard

at that point in his life

and he's trying to reach out for understanding.

But, between, you know, the two of them

they've got this little raft so maybe that's the vehicle

that gets them to, you know,

like, a bigger life or a better life.

I think there was a time about 15 years ago

when he was considered to be an up and comer, you know, like...

He had a breakthrough, you know,

had a few successful exhibitions.

The work had an instant visual appeal.

One of his nudes went for over $50,000 at an auction.

He said that wasn't making him happy.

David would say,

"You look back at all of my

emails with my past art dealers,"

"you will not find a single creative conversation."

I knew him when he was represented

by one of the great galleries in Sydney

and also one of the great galleries in Melbourne.

He was then, when he had those representations,

a very respected and respectable artist,

but he felt constrained by just having to produce,

say, ten or 12 works a year.

His need to produce more and to show more of what was inside him

was just too great.

He wanted to make pottery again

and he wanted to create bags or things,

and it was poo-pooed by so many of his gallerists.

"Like, no-one's going to take you seriously"

"because that's just stupid."

He decided that that wasn't the arena he wanted to be in

and he got badly ousted from it.

The curators never forgive you

for moving outside the area where they are the gatekeepers.

If the artist only sells exclusively

via this particular dealer or gallery,

there is a certain group of people that benefits from it

like the people...

The big collections and obviously the dealers as well.

You have a commercial gallery

and they'll take 50%, sometimes 60% of the exhibition.

Then you'll have to pay tax after that.

You'll have to pay all your materials, your rent.

Even if you were very successful,

you're not left with much.

Bromley in some ways is a genius

'cause he sort of looked at it and go,

"Well, I can go beyond that relationship

"and sell directly to the market,"

"just push all of those guys out of the way."

But, you know, it comes with a downside.

Financially, people say that it's not a good thing

to over-produce

because it devalues any of the individual pieces you've made

because there's so many of them.

But I think where Bromley sits in all of that

is probably what makes him so powerful.

I mean, he doesn't seem to be

just making stuff in a warehouse.

He's kind of in all of these places.

[tram bell dings]

[David] Mixey, mixey, mixey!

We are creating a Bromley Sushi Sushi store.

Yeah, that's it, yeah. What are we doing here?

Where are we?

So, the little characters we invented

about, I don't know, three months ago, and, uh

we love them now.

Now they've become very dear to us.

Now we see them as family, almost real.

Come on, little man, out you come.

"No, I want to stay in here!"

Hey, Dibby, do you want Benny to bash out a cool quote up there?

Be pretty fun to sit and read something really cool.

Yeah, I just need a word.

-Just go Japanese proverb. -OK, OK.

It is the man who drinks the first bottle of sake,

then the second bottle drinks the first

and finally it is the sake that drinks the man.

That's how I gave up smoking. American Indian...

American Indians saying,

first, you will smoke the cigarette,

then the cigarette will smoke you.

If the fish is kind to the water,

the water will be kind to the fish.

I think, when you're sitting there eating it,

that's probably, like, all thrown out the window.

Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day.

-Teach a man to fish... -This is your idea.

-Come on. Give it to me. -Oh, my gosh, sorry.

-OK, I'm taking over this... -Quote...

-Quote concept. -OK, OK.

[laughs] I'm reading Keith Richards quotes.

The idea of retiring is like killing yourself. I love that.

Everyone talks about rock these days.

The problem is they forget about the roll.

The sushi roll. Right?

What about "Everything you can imagine is real"?

I love that quote. Is that Van Gogh?

-Picasso. -Picasso, yeah.

Beautiful.

Everything you can imagine is real.

Maybe butterflies on the right, then head over there,

and then expand them the other way.

People say, "Oh, he's so commercial."

And I just think, "But what does that mean?"

You know, like, how do you come to that as a criticism

or a judgement?

Do you have to go out and buy your paints? Yes.

Do you have to buy your canvases? Yes.

You need a studio.

You either own it or you rent it.

It's all a commercial process.

It's often seen as, if you're too commercial,

if you print your work on tea towels,

then it's devaluing it

but it's not really devaluing the work.

It's devaluing pieces

that a bunch of rich collectors have bought.

One day, I was in the kitchen and I looked down at my Vegemite

and it had his name on it.

And then I was in the chemist

and I saw that he has an eau de cologne collection.

[David] The process of doing something like this

is fantastic.

I usually go back to my core element

of just a very simple desire

to see my work in unexpected situations.

Not for a minute do I think

there's a way that you should find art.

You can find art where you find art.

He's talking to a bigger audience

than the art world could ever communicate with,

and introduced so many more people to the art world.

Like, I'm paintin' for everybody.

I want everybody to access a bit.

I'm makin' stuff for people to just aesthetically enjoy it.

Shouldn't David as an artist be available to everybody?

That's what he did.

And, in that, he's grown big.

David can be polarising, and mainly because of

the commercial way in which his practice

and businesses have evolved.

I don't think that David really gives a fuck, actually.

David would still make art if no-one was buying it.

[can whooshing]

I just love, before I start,

getting a background that is interesting.

[laughing]

I remember when I first started seeing David,

which was over nine years ago,

and I'd be in the studio watching him prep his canvases.

[rock'n'roll instrumental plays]

He starts off with a white canvas,

then he preps it black.

Then, he does, like,

three layers of different-coloured whites

and then, on top of that, he starts prepping his colours.

Let's try some silver.

Actually, I think it's fun using colours that aren't great.

Sometimes, the less control you have, the better.

-If you think, you stink. -Mm-hm.

[song continues]

♪ In my house you're on your own ♪

From time to time, I'll have clients who get an artwork

and say, "Oh, it's got a big blob on it."

And I'm like, "Are you insane?

The blobs are the best bit, that's when he's having fun."

There's blobs, cracks in the paint, weird marks and things,

lots of drips around the side,

you know, then he's had, like, heaps of fun.

I don't think anyone has seen joy

until you've seen David puncture a spray can

and just spray it everywhere.

I think some of the best work of Bromley's

is where there's elements of abstraction

and wildness and mess.

I think that's where it's exciting.

He's moved into, like, using ground spray, spray paint,

and just smashing huge fields of colours.

You know, butterflies, you know, perfect.

Bit of negative space, perfect.

Few drips through a butterfly, perfect.

Doing layers isn't so profound

but to have the balls to paint almost illustrative

on top of that is something, you know,

not a lot of people have.

So, you've already got something going on that's quite powerful.

Then, you do this other layer

because you can and then, you know, you've got a Bromley.

You know, like, the figurative part

is the dance with the abstract.

You know, what amount of the underneath stays,

I still don't know.

Sometimes, you do so little and it just seems to work.

In practice, it's working in negatives

so the abstract

and the free, vibrant work becomes the foreground.

[rock'n'roll track plays]

I mean, I didn't realise exactly how popular his work was

until I visited some friends in their house in London,

and there was a Bromley nude in the lounge room.

I was like, "Whoa."

And they were saying, "We've got a David Bromley.

Isn't he a really well-known Australian artist?"

And I was like, "Yeah, I guess he is but, you know..."

A bit like putting Pro Hart or Ken Done or someone in there

and saying, "I believe he's your leading contemporary artist."

If you talk about someone like Ken Done in the '80s

who was everywhere,

he was known for particular types of work

and people might have reactions to that

and say, "It was everywhere and that makes it bad somehow."

I don't particularly like pop art.

I think it's, um

it's shallow, really.

Doesn't really leave you thinking about anything.

It's just...it's there.

With the exception to Andy Warhol who nailed it.

He did it really well, didn't he?

There are many parallels between Bromley and Warhol

because mass production and commodification

are two key identifiers of pop art.

Pop art is art for the people.

It's inescapable not to compare what he's doing

with Andy Warhol.

He's got the same image over and over the course of years

and so did Andy Warhol.

He returned all the time to his favourite images.

And that was half the fascination of that artist

and it's half the fascination for me of David.

Yeah, there haven't been many artists in Australia

who've managed to sort of emulate

the kind of art pop culture crossover

that, historically, people like Andy Warhol was able to achieve.

And everyone who's come along and has tried to do that,

in my view, has always ended up looking a bit cheap.

You know, my idea of being an artist

is to do what the fuck you want

when the fuck you want to do it,

and, you know, that includes wanting to do it.

So you need the paint, you need the materials.

Getting paid for it.

You want the whole sort of thing.

Do I make commercial decisions? Fuck yeah.

Some days, do I go in and paint kids over the fence

and I paint the nudes and stuff.

I mean, doing my greatest hits, it's still...

Like, it's maybe not always my favourite thing to do

but it's still one of my favourite things to do

and, look, I think probably one of the most important things

is never, ever fuckin' stop.

And that's why I've got Bon Scott and Malcolm Young.

I love the way Malcolm Young spent 30-odd years of his life

standing like this.

[grunts]

In one frickin' spot.

A lot of people think that they want to be an artist,

they'd like to be unknown,

underground, staunchly individual,

against all types of recognition but be wealthy and, you know,

how does that work?

What's wrong with working to make a living?

Like, why are we so different to everybody else out there?

Well, we're not.

There is a, sort of, shame around this idea of ambition,

but I've always seen financial freedom

as a way to have creative freedom.

Taco in hand.

I got this amazing glass finish that you pour on

and, after about two months,

it wouldn't dry so we put them on the roof for two years.

It was so funny because John's obviously been up on the roof

and brought them down.

And I've just walked in and I've just thought,

"Oh, my God, these..."

No, I didn't... I'd forgot, and that was the idea.

Wow, just, man, I'm so happy with that,

but I just walked in and I was just sort of like,

"Shit, am I dreaming?"

The perfect painting. Oh, shit, they're mine!

There is a distinction between the pieces that David creates

because he knows that the clients

who are coming to the gallery will want them,

and then there are the pieces that he creates

because he's gonna have heaps of fun doing it.

Oh, now this stuff here, it was a trucking guy I know

and he used to have a rodeo circus.

I love circuses.

This stuff here, I'll wrap around masonite and paint on it.

Pretty good, even if I do say so myself.

There's a good 70% of his art practice

that people will never see,

that he works away in the studio and he experiments on.

It never makes it out into the market or the real world,

but that's the side that drives him as an artist.

[paint sloshing]

I have different relationships with the different figures.

I know the ones that are, like, are truer to me.

When I do the really idyllic ones, you know, I feel...

I feel definitely like it's more of a fairy story

and I'm really happy to do those

because I think it's so nice

to just feel nice sometimes, you know?

Cosy and the world's a beautiful place,

a bit like a dream.

But, you know, when I paint the boys smoking cigarettes

and stuff like that,

I have more of an affinity for them.

Because that was more me because I was a bit naughty

and indulged in these things, I caused myself problems.

If I hadn't caused myself those problems,

I don't think my life would be so interesting.

But this guy here, I don't know, I just...

I like the fact he's in a...

Where is he? He's in a den of skulls and stuff,

and yet he's comfortable.

He's got his little bottle which, in his mind,

is going to be able to find, you know, what is laying ahead.

He's armed, in case any of them come to life,

and I'm...

I don't know, I don't think I was that kid.

I don't think I ever felt that,

you know, it was all gonna be OK,

but I sort of love these guys

because, I don't know, I think they remind me a lot of my dad,

you know, where he believed that

everything was sort of gonna be OK.

[gentle music plays]

My dad held down a formal job,

never took a day off in his life,

and worked in an office to pay the bills

and to look after us and to bring us up.

He didn't go on any radical approach.

I think he was quite conservative in that way.

Philosophically and in his mind and in his own time...

You know, I said to him,

"I don't think that work should be unpleasant

and I don't think the people that work with you,

you know, necessarily should be not of your kin."

Etc, etc, etc.

And Dad said, which was scary for me, he said,

"Well, I don't know how that is achievable."

"But you can give it a go."

Man, that has just helped me so much.

And quite often in my life... Like, that was it.

Not, "Well, and you can do this and you can do that."

He didn't have any answers, but he said, "Well, give it a go."

But there were certainly plenty of times in my life where

someone would have a go at me about my life choices.

And I think, "Well, my dad loves me."

You know?

That colour...

From a young age, I've always been a tip rat.

You know, my...

We used to have the old Thebarton dump near home,

and my brother would go down there with an old pram

that he found down there.

Mate, we'd pull out old motorbikes and get them going.

I think probably one of the funnest times down there

was we pulled this motorbike out of the tip

and my brother, who could get anything started, got it started

and we were fangin' around this paddock,

and at the back of the paddock

were the old corrugated iron fences.

And you suddenly saw all these little heads

peeking up over the fences,

just like my kids over the fence.

And you see 'em just running over.

"Can I have a go? Can I have a go?"

So you're like, "Yeah, sure."

And they go - rah! Everyone's turning around.

But my brother used to fill the old pram up with metal

and then he'd walk to Sims Metal

and he'd get, like, 12 bucks and stuff like that.

I just had...

My brain did not work that way at all,

but it certainly got into my soul,

you know, running around and collecting things and stuff.

[spraying paint]

Look, I always wish my brother was on these adventures with me.

I quite often think,

"God, my brother would've loved doing this"

or "God, I could really do with his hand," 'cause he's bloody...

He was a frickin' clever bastard and funny.

My own brother, who was fearless about everything but his work,

I just begged him to give up his job

so he could be home more

'cause he was always travelling with his work.

And I think I told you, you know, he was drugged and robbed

and he was dead within a week pursuing the wage.

When he died,

I always was determined to be as wild as he was

but also to stick with the fact that, at work,

fuck it, you know,

you've gotta be your own person.

[rock'n'roll track plays]

[chuckles]

He has a lot of fun!

Oh, my God, the joy.

It's like, "Yuge, Yuge, come here. Ta-da!"

"Hey, kids, kids, come here. Ta-da!"

It isn't really work, is it? It's play.

[kid squeals]

You get creative here.

They play music or... to do something.

I can feel it, there's an energy here

of wanting to create and make something.

It's almost like a teenage sleepover

that's gone on for 50 years.

Yuge, Yuge!

It's this crazy house and dinner parties

and random people showing up and...

Like, being a child in that family, like, oh!

Again!

This is not somebody who goes to work and comes back from work.

This is a couple of artists that work is the veins.

It is the life.

So, how can you separate kids from that?

So, the kids are covered in paint and the kids are drawing.

They're just a part of it all

and then they throw dogs in the mix, as well,

almost a bit too chaotic.

[dog barks]

Like, David having seven children,

it's so natural for them.

He's got them all hanging off him, you know,

and he's just, like, trying to, like, focus and it's just like,

"Yeah, this is easy," you know, like...

I find it really tricky to paint with a baby in my hand

but I've done it.

Hanging round with Dad and Yuge is pretty great.

At least half the time I'm with him,

he does not have a shirt on.

Probably more. There's not really any distinction between work life,

family life, real life.

A typical day for us is madness,

and it's something that I find great comfort

and great ease in doing.

To combine together to make some wallpaper.

Bei, did you turn that into giant, big, long slime

and then you were cutting it up?

-Yeah. -That is so cool.

Hey, Yuge, you know this, like, really nice European table?

Do you like the fact that it's got cut marks

all the way through it?

Um...

[Yuge] Yeah.

Ooh, I'll have a look at that.

I've got this collection of matchbox covers

from eastern Europe somewhere

and they're really cool and they're tiny,

and I've got thousands of them, and I'm looking through them

for interesting ones to print and make into big collages.

Anyway, Yuge's going, "Look how little they are.

How does someone make something that small?"

And I'm looking at them

and I'd looked at about 500 by this stage.

I'm starting to spin out a little bit.

And then Yuge's saying how small they are and, like,

rather than putting them down and stopping the anxiety,

I keep thinking of people

working on thousands of these little things

every day of their life.

And I'm like, "Fuck, it's..."

You know, we were talking before, Sean, about,

you know, people still not

taking people with mental illness seriously.

Yeah, well, that's probably one of the reasons why.

"What are you scared of?" "Little tiny matchbox covers."

How the fuck are you supposed to garner sympathy

when that's the case?

They'd be like, "Well, don't get matchbox labels.

Don't get thousands of them and look at them for hours on end.

There's your answer."

But...

As I always say to some people, you know, if you've got...

If you suffer from anxiety

and whatever it is that you're, you know...

Say it's open spaces, which I've got,

and you go out and you conquer that,

usually, anxiety will just...

So, you'll go, "I've done it, I'm no longer afraid of it."

And then the next day your anxiety just latches

onto something else that you're doing.

You know, I mean, I didn't think

that little, tiny matchbox things

were gonna kill me or anything

but even just talking about it now

is making me highly uncomfortable.

Watch this. Watch this.

Who's the cause of so much of my anxiety? This one's my mum.

[grunts and warbles]

Sorry, Mum. What do they say, don't speak ill of the dead?

Oh, my God.

My mum, you go in and, like, she's dying

and then you walk in and you go, "Hi, Mum."

And she goes, "You're fat." Yeah. No. I...

My mum was awesome. I loved her very, very much.

She could just be sometimes a bit tough.

Um, so Mum, I think she had one or two cigarettes in her life

which is not enough.

So, I gave her a pipe 'cause she didn't have enough cigarettes.

He, on the other hand, had way too many, so...

But my brother was an amazing builder

and metaphorically a great builder 'cause he...

Get off my mum, you bug.

Yeah, I loved my brother so much.

He was a really, really, really special dude

and, seriously, could build everything.

My dad was an avid reader and, when Dad was

close to the end, I can't think what it was,

six months or something like that,

and none of us knew

but it was obvious that he was not getting a lot better,

and I said, "What have you been reading lately, Dad?"

And he said, "Don't have long left.

"Comedy. Comedy only.

"Funny stuff only, nothing serious.

"I don't have long enough.

"So, I'll just get straight back to the funny shit

"and that's all I do.

That's the only thing I'll read for the rest of my life."

How cool's that.

What a wise decision.

My dad was fucking awesome.

So was my brother.

Mum, she is... She was awesome, too.

[laughs]

[grunts and warbles]

It's brought numerous problems, still, my absolute insanity.

I mean, I've been at stages where, you know,

I'd work 20 hours a day,

you know, go to sleep for two hours,

get up again and do it

because I actually was addicted

to not having a conversation and in my own head.

You know, to me it was one of the most delightful things

that you could ever do was to be so busy

you were just on the edge of absolute and utter exhaustion.

[rock'n'roll track plays]

♪ I said hey, look

♪ How did I find you? ♪♪

He's like a really factory guy, yeah?

Produce, produce, produce, produce.

Work, commitment, get it done.

♪ Oh when you're down and beaten... ♪

He'll cancel plans, he won't go out to dinner,

he'll go home and start working on a proposal or start drawing,

whatever he needs to do to make this new, fun thing happen.

♪ Well, there's no use crying on your own ♪

He is this uncontrollable creative force

that just keeps coming and coming and coming and coming.

Some people may say, "OK, just stop now, slow down,"

and he's like, "No, no, fuck you, I won't."

♪ I'm gonna keep on... ♪♪

Push and push and push

till he actually falls in a heap, you know,

head down in a pillow

and he doesn't actually move for two hours.

And then he'll be up and he'll be like, "Hey, guys!"

♪ I said, darling ♪♪

♪ What's it all come to? ♪♪

Part of that is that's his therapy, that's his process

for staying on an even keel is to just keep on working

and keep on being interested in new things

and new people and new ideas.

♪ All I need's to be working with you ♪♪

It's a scary experience to have a mind that doesn't stop,

and to experience waves of anxiety,

panic, fear, depression.

David's talking about it to help himself.

And the by-product is that it helps other people,

and he's probably like,

"That's great that it helps other people"

"but I'd talk about it anyway," and it's the same with his art.

"It's great that some people really like it

"and it makes people feel good.

I'd make it anyway."

[cans whooshing]

He doesn't give a shit

what people think of either him or his work.

He is what he is,

and the work that he produces is what he produces.

It's the thing that fires him and nurtures him and heals him.

♪ Crying on your own ♪

Fuck, it's a beautiful time of night, isn't it? Man!

Everything looks good this time of night.

Um, I, um

have a reasonably colourful history

of going to see people many years ago for, um...

advice or help

or pleading with them to try and work out the puzzle

in my head.

I attempted to kill myself on my 33rd birthday,

and I remember that 'cause I tried at 23 and I tried at 33.

I tried to hang myself, and, you know,

I don't know what I did wrong.

To be suicidal is one of the lowest senses or positions

you can be mentally.

You want to escape yourself.

You want to run away from yourself.

You spend an immense amount of time

not wanting to be in your own body.

You're like a cat on a hot tin roof

and perhaps you have been for years.

It hurts just to put your feet on the ground

and, wherever you go,

yourself follows yourself around and you just want to edit that.

Certainly, as a younger man,

the rest of your life seemed like the bigger thing,

and, if you are not having

anything but a torrid time with your life

and you imagine eternity going through these things.

I mean, at my age now,

I don't look at things in life forward as an eternity,

so if I have a bad day or a tough day or something,

I try and snap out of it pretty quickly

because I can see the finite amount of time that I have left.

When I made a commitment to never do that again,

the trouble sometimes when you say to yourself,

"Well, I'm gonna rebuild my life..."

The reality is, you know,

anyone you hurt or the person that left you,

they still don't want you.

You know?

You haven't gone, "Well, I'm OK, I'm gonna build a new life

and everyone's gonna see me as this new person."

You know?

The clouds are still gonna be dark

or some days are still gonna be horrible

and that can seem infinite in its challenge.

But then, through being at the very bottom

and being in those particular situations,

you start to try and articulate

how you can possibly utilise things better

by seeking an avenue for your brain

not to be distracted by a certain nothingness.

You put it to work

and so therefore you start to get fascinated in things,

and then it becomes natural and then it becomes interesting

and then you follow up more things

and, as the cycle can spiral down, the cycle can spiral up.

I certainly enjoyed the sense, I suppose, of devil may care.

Some of my favourite times because it was just like,

well, I'm not gonna ever attempt suicide again

but I really don't give a shit.

[laughs]

And flying in the face of it

and it's probably some of the most

emotionally well times I've been,

not necessarily happy

or not necessarily feeling well inside of myself,

but so incredible 'cause, when I met Yuge,

I developed trust in another person again

and a feeling that things were special

and they meant something

and that hard shell that I had built up

was starting to soften again

and I started to, you know, get my anxiety back and stuff.

'Cause the devil may care thing had gone and I cared again.

Oh, my God, what I went through. The confusion of...

Oh, my God, now I've got this thing that I want.

And it's funny.

I think Yuge would say

that she went through a similar thing, too,

this feeling of such love and support from another person,

and the crazy just comes back

'cause this is a really nice place to live.

Yeah, I don't want to fuck it up,

I don't want to mess it up. Yeah, here we go...

[chuckles]

[gentle music plays]

He's brilliant.

I reckon he worked out in utero

that he better get with the program or get left behind,

so he just came out going,

"Alrighty, I'll just make sure I'm really, really good for you

because I know you guys are gonna be full on."

Oh, yeah!

The old Castlemaine Gaol.

Was built in the something or other or other.

Not interested in a jail at all, like...

We've gotta keep running the business.

How are we gonna buy a jail?

I love it. I love this tree.

Oh, look at this red colour, darling.

Oh, I love that.

Oh...

I love it!

Hey, Yuge, I love this place.

My head's turning and I'm going, "What do we do with the jail?"

And I said to David, "I'll only consider putting an offer in

if you hear me out what I think we should do."

'Cause I don't want to do what we've done before.

I don't want to open a gallery,

but picture it not being a jail, you know?

Imagine a museum-type place.

You walk in and you just see these huge kids' sculptures,

you know, something with whimsy

and that we can shift the axes of how you look at a jail

from something so oppressive to something much more romantic.

And he's like, "Yeah, I love it."

And I bet he was just like,

"OK, Yuge's on board. I'll love whatever she says.

"I don't care. I've got her attention."

"I love it, I love it."

Let's do it.

Reality sets in

when you bring half a dozen major sculptural pieces.

As we drove home yesterday,

we said, "Let's just go bat shit crazy."

Fuck it, let's just go bat shit crazy.

Let's just go mad.

I think, also, too, we just want it to be a fun place.

[chuckles]

♪ You're a mess, take a long deep breath ♪

♪ And get it off your chest ♪♪

♪ I don't have the answers ♪

♪ But they're probably somewhere in the question ♪♪

♪ They usually are ♪

♪ Nowhere I'd rather go ♪

♪ Than with you on your downward spiral ♪♪

♪ I'll be your wing man anytime ♪♪

♪ Like you are mine

♪ If there's something that can't be helped ♪

♪ Something that... ♪

-Is that your oven cleaner? -Yeah.

Crap your eyes, tongue.

It tastes like kissing a battery.

!♪ 'Cause when I talk you down ♪♪

♪ I confess I'm an optimist ♪

♪ And that makes you tired and restless ♪

♪ I don't have the answers ♪♪

♪ But they're probably somewhere in the question ♪♪

♪ They usually are ♪

♪ Still laugh at the same things ♪♪

♪ Same jokes, it's quite concerning ♪♪

♪ You can be my wing man anytime ♪♪

♪ Bullshit, you can be mine ♪

!♪ I just want to talk you down

Oh!

[song ends]

Oh, the jail,

which he apparently is gonna open next year,

sort of a personal museum.

I mean, that's another sidebar too,

open your own museum to yourself.

And when you get to that kind of level,

the general attitude is not exactly disdain,

although that's probably accurate.

It's like, "Get away.

That's a bit too much, thanks."

If we really thought about it much more,

we probably would've stopped at

the considering to buy the jail part

and just not gone down that path.

We've not made a cent in five years

and we've poured so much into it.

You know, that side of things, you just go,

if you thought about it too much, you'd give up.

I think maybe David, with his such active mind,

seeks out those situations that feel near impossible

because then it occupies your mind through the challenges

and through the hard work,

and he just keeps pushing and pushing and pushing.

Paint tin lids!

[lid clattering]

Rope!

-Which is low and which is high? -Right side's lower.

So it's lower.

So it needs to be about that?

OK, do you want to see if there's a bit of sticky tape

or card or...?

Nuh, fuck it, let's not mess around, I just won't use those.

So annoying.

Everything's broken.

[kid singing]

We better jump in.

Go! Three, two, one.

Watch your step.

[groaning]

Babe, please.

Push.

No, I don't agree.

-You know what, push back! -Watch out, bub!

-You're gonna kill someone. -No, well...

You are, you're going to actually hurt someone.

Babe, don't give me a hard time.

I'm not giving you a hard time.

You don't have to fuck up the day.

Every single thing that I ask for hasn't happened.

There's shit in all the doorways.

Everything's broken. Don't say...

The stuff that I've asked everyone to do...

It's just... It's not fuck... It's not the Fred Flintstone era.

And this thing...

See, it's more expensive to fix this.

Sorry, this is all I do all day is find broken shit everywhere.

[sombre music plays]

[ominous crash]

There's obviously a few different ways

of reading the actual statement

running from the voices in my head.

You know, they will follow you.

You know, you think that you've set up all of the...you know,

if you block certain areas

or you've improved your health

and then suddenly, fuck, there it is again.

And you haven't even recognised it

because it's to... you know, it's wearing, you know,

totally different clothes.

Or you're completely different or, you know,

for instance, you've been functioning remarkably

and then suddenly you go full-blown panic attack

because you're fucked again,

and then you go, "Please, don't let this happen to me now."

"Oh, I'll give up drinking."

Oh, I've already given up drinking.

"Maybe you shouldn't smoke." I don't smoke.

"Maybe you should be healthy and run and swim and surf."

Well, I do that already.

"Maybe you should look at work that will interest you."

I'm doing that already.

And that's when I've been

more highly aware of, you know, my illness.

For me, having had this since I was about 14,

so what's that, 46 years or something like that,

I mean, come on. 46 years of doing the juggle and still some days

I get the knock-out punch like you would not fucking believe.

Only last week, it took me four hours of lying in the bed

and I had to move my position, I reckon, every three minutes

just to, sort of, stretch my body

or move it in a different way

because I was scared

I was gonna turn into a frozen piece of steel

because my anxiety was so incredibly high.

It was just fucking ridiculous.

Tell you what,

if I had a David Bromley fucked-in-the-head bomb

that I could throw at people and just say,

"Look, just stand over there, I'll just throw this at ya.

Try ten minutes of this."

I mean, mate, I'd be chucking it even at my friends

just so we could become closer or just for a prank.

[machinery whirrs]

Mm.

Ooh!

Some very early stuff here.

These would've been the sort of things

that I would've been painting on my pottery.

There's me as a scarecrow.

Whenever I look back at paintings I've done of myself,

"it just seems so contrived and you think, 'You fucking wanker."

I'll... Yeah, I've stopped doing that.

But, you know,

I quite like the thought of the guy drilling the hole

through the bottom of the boat to sink, you know,

his ex-girlfriend's boat.

I may be talking about

what the person I was with was trying to do with me there.

You know, I used to walk into galleries

and show them stuff like this

and, you know, I sold very, very well.

You know, I enjoyed it immensely then.

It certainly took me off the street

and, I must say, if there's anything I like about them,

you know, it's...there's a warm smile that I have at that.

Yeah, I haven't seen these for a long time.

Oh, why so sad when the sky's so blue?

That's what I mean, just the sheer obviousness, I suppose,

of that's me going through,

like, major, you know, depression and shit like that.

Fucking hell, this dude just keeps falling over.

This person's laughing and falling over.

This is, you know, a person losing their house.

I told you I was insecure. Shit.

About, you know...

It just shows how much I did feel like, you know, I just...

I was clawing to, you know, survive.

Some of the most painful things in my life

are not career challenges

but, you know, partners leaving me and stuff

because it was just too hard.

It's like being nail gunned to a wall,

you know, or left out in the middle of a desert.

I mean, I felt like that emotionally anyway,

let alone the reality of, you know,

falling out with people that I love

because, without it, it just means fuckin' nothing.

I was that in need of companionship and, you know,

you spend an inordinate amount of time by yourself

at the easel.

Months would go by without a phone call.

You know, my first major fears were of infinity

and, I mean, loneliness can be infinite, you know,

like a fuckin' abyss.

I yearned for richness and deepness of narrative and stuff.

I was desperate for creative and cultural resonance.

You know, I'd spent the last years reading every book

on every artist I could possibly find.

And, like, because I was trying to heal myself,

I was hangin' round with dudes that did yoga.

And they'd look at some of the dark shit I'm making

and sort of go, "Fuck, no wonder you're depressed."

And then you go out into the arts scene

and you do something light, and people are sort of, like

"Where's the tough stuff?"

I just... I don't have the constitution for it

and, you know, so...

If I would've walked down that path,

I mean, I would be dead by now.

I had to clean up my own act because my body and mind

couldn't take the other stuff and I'm glad.

I fuckin' like my life.

I'm not criticising others

but, if every sort of, like, critic or something

seems to think that you've gotta walk this edge

or the quality of your work

needs to show such, you know, like, risk taking constantly...

And that edge, I'm certainly not going to that edge

'cause someone wants me to.

And how many have we lost?

How many great people have we lost

because other people were almost encouraging them on?

And, again, I'm not against them.

I've had... I've had times

where I fuckin' have had to go screaming

hurting, the sheer fuckin' pain of living,

and, if I can find time to,

like, enjoy what I do on a daily basis

through a sense of, sort of, you know, like, a warmth,

transcending, you know, emotional sort of challenge,

fuckin' putting a painting up on the wall

because it looks fuckin' cool...

But it doesn't... it doesn't not need that other stuff, as well.

I mean, fuck, I'm a consumer of that other stuff.

I don't know, I just feel like I've got another job to do.

[gently lilting electric guitar music plays]

He doesn't draw dark. I see only love in his art.

It's always - does it make you happy?

A lot of David's work, I find, it gives people hope.

Bromley's work, really, is about beauty.

And joy. Childhood memories.

He's thinking about a contemporary child's life

but also about what it's like to have been a child yourself

and to imagine our parents as children.

There's something beautiful and humbling about that continuity,

that seeing these God-like figures

as actually children in their own right once upon a time.

[David] I've been called a lightweight a million times.

I've been called a flavour of the month for 30-odd years.

And, you know, I've had people come up to me and said,

"You know, I just don't get it.

There's nothing of any substance in it."

So, there's no substance in innocence, joy?

[chuckles]

You know, I think it is one of the most important things.

You know, one of the most difficult things for any artist

is to do something which is yours,

some vision that's yours,

something fresh and exciting and new to say

that truly comes from the soul and the empathy of that person.

Everything that comes out

is driven by this childlike enthusiasm

to explore and be adventurous

and it's so beautiful and so infectious,

and, if it ends up just being a moment that you've experienced

something special by yourself or with the people around you,

then it's done its job and that's what art's for.

Look, there I am!

Let me do the thing.

Ultimately, we're all seeking joy.

It's not always easy to find.

So, if your legacy is the creation of joy,

I think that's immense.

My first Bromley piece, I'm so excited.

His art's just fun. You look at it and it makes you smile, it makes you happy.

At the end of the day, that's what art's supposed to do.

[applause]

They're gonna be looked at as this power couple

who were, like, the greats in the Australian art world.

Kids will see this, they'll see his lifestyle,

and they'll say, "Wow, that makes me want to be an artist."

"I won't have to make coffee eight hours a day"

"and paint at night."

She knows painting!

He's the genuine artist of our time.

A proper evaluation should occur

to give him his place in the history of Australian art.

But it will be a long time.

It won't be in my lifetime or his

when Bromley will get a retrospective

at the National Gallery of Victoria.

We're calling it The Bromley Collection Museum

at the old Castlemaine Gaol.

More than anything, they're just artists that we love collecting

or works that we've had the great fortune to come across.

You know, everything has a very personal connection to us.

I was asked by a financial paper

to put down a value of our art,

and I said, "Well, let me put it this way."

"If I didn't have any art around me, I couldn't breathe."

You know?

I look at the value of art by imagining that it wasn't around.

There's the value of it.

It's like water, you know, air, you know,

I couldn't breathe without it.

And they said, "No, apply an actual figure"

"or something like that."

So I said, "I just did."

David has taken a place

that really represents the chaos and the confusion

of the human mind and put flowers in there.

You know, the first thing you see

is this, kind of, incredible, colourful creatures everywhere

and it was just this... from the dark to the light

walking through those front gates.

[gentle acoustic guitar music plays]

♪ Goodbye my Santa Monica dream ♪♪

♪ 15 kids, in the backyard drinking wine ♪

In the jail, we're putting plants in a lot of the cells,

so just bringing them in here, getting them used to the lights.

!♪ And the ones you left behind

Dad just was the hugest reader.

That's my beautiful dad.

[sniffles]

What do they say, the apple fell a fair way from the tree?

Occasionally, people say, "You look like your dad."

Me, my brother and my dad.

That's the last box

I undid years, years after they were all dead.

I stop and say hello to them nearly every day.

[sniffles]

Mum gets a bad rap, you know, from me

because Dad was the apple of my eye.

But Mum was good when... when the shit really came down.

You know, I used to wish that she was more that person.

You know, when my brother was dying,

and we had to turn off his life support,

you know, as anything that was still keeping him alive

was still in there,

my mum just called out and she said,

"Look, Paul was so gregarious and so outgoing,

"I think the last sound he should hear is cheering.

Let's cheer him out."

And then she just roared at the top of her voice,

you know, just saying, you know, "Here's cheers for Paul."

And I always think, "You fucking beautiful woman."

Like, he would've gone out to, like,

"Yeah, Paul, yeah, yay!"

I believe a nice way to be going out, you know?

♪ I could call you on the telephone ♪

My brother was a technical genius

who could build everything,

but I think I got my dad's...

Let's put it this way.

If Dad built a pergola or something,

walking under it was probably not the best idea.

On the weekend, he used to collect old tools

and these are all his old fold-out rulers.

Man, I loved my dad.

♪ I'm somewhere

♪ You're somewhere

You know, I always remember him saying to me,

you know, he was frail, doing up this old house

and he was incapable of it,

and he just said, "David, you've gotta understand,

"what you're looking at is not me, it's frailty.

It's not me."

When did this happen? It happened so fast?

He said, "You've gotta understand"

"that I'm just still a little boy."

And I just think, you know,

maybe we should listen to that little boy a little bit more...

Or that little girl.

You know, I don't know when people stopped

being that in their life.

♪ 15 kids, in the backyard drinking wine ♪

♪ You tell me stories of this faith ♪

Whoo!

♪ And the ones we left behind

The reason I'm actually gonna take 15 minutes

to actually get in is, in all seriously,

I am scared I'm gonna die if I jump straight in

which would be really frickin' cool for the documentary, but...

It ended abruptly!

Yeah, that's it, exactly, yeah. How'd he die?

Oh, just watch the end of the documentary.

How did his children handle it and his wife?

Just watch, they were there.

Oh!

Seriously! Just say just go in! Oh! It's cruel!

Well, actually, no-one's asked me but myself to go in,

and now my back's cramping up.

Don't, please, don't.

She's the one to watch out for, the splasher.

Fuck!

Oh! Oh! Oh, I'm co...

Oh, it's so horrible!

-Oh! -Wow.

Brain freeze!

Oh!

[shouts in discomfort]

What noise was that?

[kid squeals]

[gentle acoustic music plays]

I have never met another person

who lives with his eyes open as much as I have with David.

Whether it's to do with people, art, ideas, creation,

it's how he lives.

He's taught me to have my mind open

to go on that journey to broaden that vision of life is.

♪ 25 years and my life is still ♪

♪ Trying to get up this great big hill of hope ♪

♪ For a destination

He is both the most giving person

that I think I've come across,

and giving not just in material things,

but of himself,

of his knowledge, of his creativity.

He's a giver, an extraordinary giver.

♪ For whatever that means

I don't think he finds life easy

but he's determined not to succumb to that.

You know, it's part of his process

about rising to the occasion on a daily basis.

God!

♪ I'm feeling a little peculiar ♪

I don't know how many layers are on my shoes but

I love, at the end of the day,

givin' 'em a

givin' 'em a clean-up.

My trousers, too.

A lot of people wouldn't think

that David is somebody who struggles,

especially someone with a laugh as big as his.

You know, I think he manages so beautifully

and I think he's so much more aware of how much he has to lose

now that he's got a real sense of fight in him

that I don't think existed in the same way

when he was younger.

And that's due in part to Yuge and to the kids

and all of the wonderful things that he has in his life.

Hey!

♪ And I try

We talk about it all the time,

that what we are doing

is essentially in hope that one of our kids,

or all of our kids, would like to take over one day.

That would be an absolute dream of ours,

and, if they want to,

through being exposed to it from an early age,

then that would be magical.

♪ Every single day ♪♪

What a nice day to be outside!

[laughter]

♪ So I cry sometimes when I'm lying in bed ♪

If I could tell you how happy I am about being alive,

there's just no vocabulary

to turn around and say just how fuckin' much I love life.

Like, it's embarrassing, you know?

I'm wet-my-pants excited

by virtually every minute of every day.

It's fucking glorious.

I just... I love my life so much.

I love my wife so much. I love my kids so much.

I love my mates. I love what I do.

I love the air. I love the sky. I'm...

Like, there is absolutely no doubt

that I've got a certain brain damage,

something's pressing on a part of my brain

where I absolutely love it,

and I think that's why I'm so cut when, you know,

I'm hurting deeply or something,

but maybe that's also why I appreciate it so much.

♪ I said hey

♪ What's going on?

They call Matisse the painter of light.

But he said it took a lot of darkness

for him to be the painter of light, and I...

You know, I want to be a bit of a painter of joy or light,

but I don't just want it to come from darkness.

♪ 25 years and my life is still ♪

♪ Trying to get up the great big hill of hope ♪

♪ For a destination

♪ Don't be concerned about your car not working ♪

♪ Boy, you're losing it ♪

!♪ Don't be confused about these games you're playing ♪

♪ You are choosing it ♪

♪ Leave it alone now, just need time ♪

♪ Time

♪ Leave it alone now, you will find ♪

♪ Find

♪ We all have the lightness to be OK ♪♪

♪ OK, OK for now ♪

♪ We all have the lightness to be OK ♪

♪ OK, OK for now ♪♪

♪ Don't be concerned about your job not working out ♪

♪ You will figure out ♪

♪ Every moment will pass in a moment ♪♪

♪ Everything that you need will be open ♪

♪ Leave it alone now, you just need time ♪

♪ Time

♪ Leave it alone now, you will find ♪

♪ Find ♪

♪ We all have the lightness to be OK ♪

♪ OK, OK for now ♪

♪ We all have the lightness to be OK ♪

♪ OK, OK for now ♪

♪ Love is all we needed to be here for ♪

♪ Love is all we needed to be here for ♪

So, Sean, you're doing a documentary.

What does that entail?

All of the Bromleys saying,

"Look at me do this, look at me do that."

[Yuge laughing]

"Look at our dog, look at our dog running through the grass."

Actually, he is...he's...

I'm telling you, he'll just love it.

['Peer Gynt - Suite No. 1, Op. 46' by Edvarg Grieg plays]

[laughter]

Fuck you, guys, you're always hanging around!

I don't even know who you are! Very invasive!

From the council.

[mock screams]

This is me crying. [mock screams]

Sean, you know what's happened?

You know what's happened

with all the years of hanging around me?

-What's that? -You've become an art critic.

-Yeah! -Come here, come here.

Hello, hello, hello, hello! [singsong voice]

-OK. -Right.

Where are we going?

Going to look at the patterns and hopefully finding the Milo.

Your Milo. I know where my Milo is.

Oh, there's mine!

No, that's actually mi... Oh, yeah.

That's mine. -Mine's on that side. -That's my Milo!

Sean! This is what happens when your film is a flop.

Off with your head and in the cabinet!

[laughter] You're cute!

Yes, little red blobby man.

Oh, you haven't seen Dave's amazing big artworks up here!

Come have a look. Oh, they're so nice.

What is the crab?

Oh... It's actually a French sculptor called... Ooh, shit!

Are you OK, Sean?

I was going in for the crab.

[taps a gentle melody]

[taps melodically]