This painting began as an abstract exploration of colour and texture effects. Nicky was fully immersed in the process, just following his intuition – working with the canvas on the ground, drizzling paint direct from the tubes, spraying, wiping, tilting the canvas to let the paint run, and stepping back to assess. Many layers were applied and erased. It reminded Nicky of wiping a blackboard. As it dried some areas would remain even after disrupting and washing away the surface paint to reveal an earlier state, with some areas stripped back to reveal the almost raw canvas. These areas reminded him of fire, and the old school that was burned down that he liked to visit nearby, so it was given the working title ‘old school’.

Reflecting on the finished painting, Nicky said school was a place he never felt he belonged. He spent a lot of time in school staring at the blackboard with its many layers of white ‘knowledge’, written in chalk then wiped away, with feint ghostly remains visible but not legible. This black scratched and damaged surface was supposed to impart knowledge. Kartadjin Is the word for knowledge in Nyoongar. In the painting it’s like his people’s ways of knowing are there underneath the white culture’s layering. Nicky added a few personally significant numbers and letters in white. The painting suggests a violent struggle, like no matter how many layers there are, the truth finds a way of burning through, and the old knowledge still exists underneath.