Hub

THE STORY OF HUB

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I was born in Perth, Western Australia.

I grew up across the river from the city in Rivervale, a working class suburb more known for it's close proximity to the airport and drug addled motels, than it's list of successful artists.

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The family home I grew up in was across the road from a small primary school.

Every day after school my mum would look after kids from school at our house until their parents could pick them up. Most days there'd be up to 20 kids at our house and from the time I was two, whatever they did, I would join in.

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As I was the youngest the older kids called me Bub, which by the time I was four, I had outgrown so the older kids started to call me Hubba Bubba, after the bubble gum.

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This nickname would evolve to every incarnation of the word, Hubba, Hubby, Hubcap, Hubster, Hubib to eventually work its way to Hub. It stuck.From the age of four, everyone called me Hub. Even my school teachers.

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I had a lot of energy as a child, constantly moving. So it was a good thing for me that schools are only open for about 18% of the time.

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82% of the time, the school across the road was my personal playground.

I was fortunate kid, growing up with my own basketball court, tennis court, football oval, cricket pitch and importantly, hitting facilities.

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I spent most of my time at the school playing something, usually on my own, like an autistic kid, developing a bag of skills that came in handy for all the sports I played.

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Just as kids started to call me Hub, Parry Field, an  international Baseball Stadium was built about 1.2 kilometres from my house. 

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Baseball was my first true obsession and it would become the platform for how I was educated throughout my life.

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When I was 15, I was the starting catcher for the first ever Australian U/16 baseball team playing against Japan.

I went 0 for 4 with 3 strike outs. On this day, I  would ignite a lifelong obsession with the psychology of hitting a baseball.

And as luck would have it, my coach at this time, who would mentor me for the next 3 years was Dr. Bob Grove, a Doctor of Sports Psychology and the Head of Human Movement at The University of Western Australia.

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Baseball would be my school for life. I coached and played my entire life and never stopped learning.

All the lessons I learned through the game I applied to every aspect of my life. Especially to Art.

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When I wasn't kept busy with baseball, I could not sit still. If I had time to kill I would naturally fill it by doing something creative. I spent years writing a book, tv scripts, movie scripts but never felt the way doing these as I did painting.  

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I painted off and on through my life and always loved it. I sold my first paintings somewhere around 2003 or so. But I never thought much of it, just stoked that anyone would want one of my paintings.

But I never really saw it as something that you could devote your life to or make a living doing.

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In 2012, something changed and I had a burning desire to start painting.

I applied all that I learned from baseball to art and it has become my new obsession.

I have not stopped, going from painting to painting ever since, just trying to get better at it, each time and make something I think looks cool.

I have no intention to stop any time time soon and will do this for the rest of my life.
 

This is how I live my best life. .

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