Design and Art Australia Online

cartoonist, painter and feminist activist, lives at Maylands, WA. She studied animation at Perth Technical College in 1985 and in 1986 completed a BA, majoring in film and including units in language, literature and culture with an elective in animation. In 1990 she undertook classes in cartooning, comic art and caricature at the London Cartoon Centre, and she completed four modules towards a Preliminary Certificate in Art and Design at the Perth School of Art and Design in 1990–91. She studied caricature with M. Collins of Black Splash Graphics, Perth, in 1992 and received her Diploma in Cartooning and Illustration from the Australian College of Journalism in 1997.

Her cartoon If only… dated 1989 was published in Drawing Away: an Australian women’s comic book no. 5 (1990). Apparently autobiographical, it shows a woman first regretting her unhappy childhood (at a rally dreaming of the right of everyone to have happy one), then realising that a happy childhood would have meant she’d have married and had kids (“NO!”). Issue no. 6 (1991) has her cartoon of a teacher looking in a boy’s shorts for his brains. In 1991 she drew a series of witty blasphemous cartoons about the birth of Christ, Mary Xmas . Some were published as postcards (see file) and some appeared in Refractory Girl 41 (summer 1991) – Xmas issue, e.g. “Hey, Aunty Mary! It’s the 3 Wise Wimmin!” (mounted on camels and reading Refractory Girl ), cover; Mary coming out of 'Abortion Clinic’ and saying to Wise Men: “I decided my career comes first” (p.6); Joseph saying to wise men, “I’m sure I put him in the manger”, with grinning wolf in sheepskin among the animals in the stable, p.18; Mary Xmas 1990’s Nativity Scene with 'Mean Muther’ outside 'Government Flat’ saying, “Yeah, I’m Mary, what of it? Hey, you guys wouldn’t be from the Welfare would ya?” (p.31). Also Mary Xmas/ The herstory of I.V.F… Wise Man, “What do you mean there’s seven of them?’ (p.34); Mary Xmas 1990’s Nativity Scene (Holy Family under bridge with hippies), “Remember the good ol’ days when you could always find a decent stable to sleep in…” (p.45).

Other 'Rona’ cartoons in Refractory Girl include Game of the Century! The System vs Token Woman (p.36, modern woman against hundreds of gladiators in Roman forum): “I can see it’s going to be one of those days” 1990 and Laughing at the Patriarchy n.d. (Three witches going 'He He He He…’, p.43).

Responding to a survey published in Heinrich Hinze’s [David Pope’s] Scratch! A scrapbook of radical cartooning in Australia in 1991 in which contributors were asked questions about their practice, Rona replied:

“Materials A4 photocopying paper; mostly Artline drawing pens – sizes 0.3, 0.4 and 0.6; any old pencil and rubber I can find; white-out. Attraction The materials I use are great because they are so portable and the pens produce a good black for reproduction. Drawbacks The line width is constant not variable

“Process Draw ink rough in my ideas book (hardback and fits in pocket). Later, I pencil rough (to mark out spacing) not much rubbing out at all, then ink up detail and whiteout mistakes. Show it to my partner who doesn’t 'get it’ so make modifications so that it is understandable even to the visually illiterate! Then I number, enter into my records and file in numerical order. I always send clean photocopies to prospective buyers. Advantages Speed and convenience. For me it is crucial to capture in the moment. The drawing can come later. Disadvantages You can lose expression in the re-draw phase. This is why I use minimal pencil and quickly move to inking up. It is amazing how fast your confidence (and your output) increases. For me “rubbing out’ is 99% procrastination.”

Chadwick drew regular cartoons for Adelaide’s monthly Lesbian Times , e.g. LESBIAN ETIQUETTE: RULE # 1 , 'NEW DYKES SHOULD BE SEEN & NOT HEARD’ (a non-scene woman introducing herself to a couple of mean-looking dykes wearing t-shirts labelled 'KOOL’ and 'TUFF’); LESBIAN ETIQUETTE: RULE # 2 , 'NEVER, NEVER, NEVER ADMIT TO FEELING VULNERABLE &/ OR NEEDING HELP’ (the same woman saying 'I’M NEW TO THE SCENE. MAY I SIT WITH YOU?’ while the dykes look uncomfortable and embarrassed; and ENID PERSEVERES WITH HER HOMEOPATHIC REMEDY FOR THE 7 YEAR ITCH (a lesbian in couple in bed, one saying 'PASS ME THE OINTMENT, DEAR’ and the other reading a book called LESBIAN PASSION THEORY ). A drawing for the cover of No.11 (January 1993) titled Bliss dated 1992 depicts two women embracing on a broomstick flying through a sky full of stars. She discusses more of her ideas about cartooning in the same issue:

“I’m a Perth dyketoonist who doubles in my other life as a Training and Development Officer for Youth Workers. (Unfortunately, cartooning alone does not keep me in the style that I aspire to…)

“Why do I cartoon? Cos I love making fun of EVERYTHING! I also like to dispel the myth that feminists/dykes have no sense of humor. Best of all, I like to give the boys an opportunity to show that they can “take a joke” when they happen to be the butt of humor for a change! Alas, so far, the boys have been rather cool on women having fun at their expense!

“I’ve been producing Broadcards, a range of wimmin targeted postcards, since 1989. You may know my Mary Xmas cards which strive to bring wimmin/dyke’s perspective to the “festive season”. The latest Mary Xmas cards include designs that are blatantly lesbian!”

In an e-mail of 13 September 1999 to JK, Chadwick said that she had over 900 cartoons on file:

“My best ones (up to 1996) are in the Hysterical Women books – i am particularly fond of unpopular marriage celebrants and therapists to watch out for. i have heaps of gay and leso identified ones since then as i do editorial cartoons for [a] local G & L publication. My first luv is feminist cartooning tho.”

Chadwick, a member of the Australian Black and White Artists Club (at least since 1994 & probably earlier), participated in nineteen group exhibitions in 1993–99 and played a key part in the two WA Women’s Electoral Lobby feminist cartoon exhibitions entitled Hysterical Women . In the first, held in 1993, she won the Megan Sassy and Pam Simons Award. Her cartoons were published in the book, Hysterical Women: A Collection of 100 Australian Feminist Cartoons (Perth: Women’s Electoral Lobby, 1993), where she identified her chief influences as being Cath Jackson and Angela Martin. She starred in the second volume of Hysterical Women , published in 1996, with work on the cover as the winner of the exhibition’s major Joan Williams Award sponsored by WEL (WA). In July 1997, with over 30 other Australian cartoonists, she was included in Barbary O’Brien’s The Cartoon Show at Noarlunga Community Arts Centre (SA). Fellow exhibitors included Judy Horacek, Joan Rosser, David Pope (Heinrich Heinze), Sue Wicks, Glen le Lievre, Michael Atchison, Peter Broelman and Angie Lyndon. She has tutored and given workshops in cartooning for the Applecross and Woodsome TAFEs, the Kwinana Town Council School Holiday program, the Bandyup Women’s Prison and for social housing workers at Shelter, WA.

In October 1999 at the Verge Gallery, Perth, Chadwick held her second solo exhibition, Iron Maidens: Real and Unreal , on 'female archetypes who have inspired the women’s movement’, the female archetypes being painted on canvas-covered ironing boards. The exhibition was supported by a Centenary of Women’s Suffrage Grant, by Pride Inc. and by the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WA). In 1999 she published a cartoon of a dyke with a wandering male hand grafted on that harrasses women in the WA gay and lesbian newspaper Westside Observer . Another, called Dyke hoons to watch out for (one yelling from a speeding car, “Hey Sis! Show us your tits!”), appeared in Women Out West (1999, p.7). Such ambiguous cartoons were discussed in her APSA 2000 paper, written with Joan Eveline and Michael Booth, and focused on themes such as sexual harassment drawn for specific audiences.

Chadwick studied oil painting under Lee Baily and in 2009 was a finalist in The Lack Swan portrait prize with her portrait Angelina Melio with Merit Oppenheim. Chadwick is interested in Her/story and, concerned about the neglect of women in the arts, has embarked on a series of portraits of contemporary women referencing women artists painted on canvas-covered ironing boards. In 2011, she also did a series of four portraits painted on recycled doors. The doors were exhibited in a solo exhibition entitled “Door Stoppers”.

Her works, Diana Warnock with Clarice Beckett, Bill and Sweety the Cat (2010) and Black Swan: Tina Wilson with Dora Marr, were finalists in the Black Swan Salon De Refuses in WA.

Currently, besides her painting and cartooning, Chadwick is exploring stencilling.

S. Battye Library Pictorial Collection, SLWA; The Bunker Cartoon Gallery Collection, Coffs Harbour, NSW; Hysterical Women: First Australian Feminist Cartoon Awards Collection (1993), Women’s Electoral Lobby (WA); Glasgow Women’s Library Pictorial Collection; Glasgow Women’s Library.

Writers:

Kerr, Joan
rona
duggim

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2014