David Booth [Ghostpatrol], You Start Crying, The Planet Floods And The Universe Begins Again, 2023. Pencil and gouache on paper, 111 x 77cm. Courtesy: the artist and Hugo Michell Gallery, Adelaide.

“Growing up I was lucky that the scrap drawing paper in my home was nice large never-ending sheets of dot matrix paper recycled from my dad’s work as a bridge engineer. Sometimes this paper had CAD plan drawings on it, and I remember spending a lot of time colouring, scribbling, and playing on that side of the page. There must have been something in those technical drawings that my brain liked.

The task I set my drawings is to exist as a beacon or portal to help people feel optimistic and remember to access their own magical playground in their mind.

I have strong childhood memories of watching my dad on our holidays admiring massive dams or impressive bridges and observing him soak up all the detail and beauty of these drawings brought to life. My daydreamy child brain loved joining the dots between plan drawings and being dwarfed by the epic structures as we walked across my dad’s bridges. This is my foundation for believing that ‘Drawing is Magic’” – David Booth [Ghostpatrol], 2023.

Follow this artist