In my life I’ve never had any kind of calling except that painting gave me a sense of self-worth. Painting seemed to find me.
In the book I write a story about my first painting, painted on LSD. I was painting on a sheet. I only had red and black paint and was watching The Doors movie. I was trying to paint a Jim Morrison painting, but I spilt the water which ran all over the page. This spilled out in a weird monster-face hermaphrodite Jim Morrison.
I’ve had a few nice paintings, many of which I’ve lost over the years. Here are some of those (if you’d like to purchase any, please email malcolm@malcolmblack.co.za):
One of the coolest paintings I’ve made was named: ‘THelective LiSp THPerm’ (an Adam Watson-Smithism). It was a close-up of a little bird – a swift – flying against the background of a mountain. I painted it on the stoep of an isolated house in Mpofu nature reserve outside Craddock for days while hundreds of these birds constantly darted past my head in to and out of their nests. A bukake of swifts if you will. I was happy to give it to a humongous crush of mine.