The Thousands

Everyone loves furry little animals right? No silly, not real ones. Real ones poop, and bite, and scratch, and smell. That ain’t cute. What I’m saying is, everyone loves drawings of furry little animals. Nick Moran is amongst the finest of Adelaide artists and illustrators who love to draw animals.

I first saw his work in a huge dimly lit, hollowed out warehouse. Moran had crafted much-larger-than-life birds from layered card. They perched sweetly along the cracks in the old walls. A year later during Format Festival, Moran was selling teeny, tiny, perfectly accurate fox badges. Oh! And there was badgers and red pandas and rams too.

I’m not sure what it is about Moran’s desire to replicate the animal form that I can relate to. It certainly doesn’t spring from the place of animals in my everyday reality. There are none. Maybe that’s it. Maybe in this ‘modern life’ we all need a little romance and nostalgia for something that maybe never existed anyway. Picture a sweet thatched cottage on a green hillside, endless scones with jam and cups of tea, and rosy-cheeked girls and boys petting a tame fox. Picture rosy-cheeked girls and boys sipping cheap drinks at a fashion boutique in the heart of the city, coveting sweetly crafted fox badges.