Artist Dick Frizzell steps into the Confession Box

Artist Dick Frizzell confesses to three of the seven deadly sins. Photo / Dean Purcell

Artist Dick Frizzell steps into the Canvas Confession Box.

PRIDE
Which sin would you like to start with?
Let's start at the top: pride. I have been reading a lot about the Renaissance lately and I thought how silly the whole list is, even the idea of deadly sins. It's kind of meaningless these days. Like pride, what's wrong with pride? Christians have a lot to answer for. When I get a painting right, I feel pride - especially if it's been a difficult one to finish. I Iike to come into the studio at night and turn on the light all of a sudden and look at it and go, "Wow, did I do that?"

Isn't that an earned pride? I think when you look at pride as a sin, it's vainglorious, it's not warranted or it's getting in the way of other things.
That's just delusional stupidity. Is stupidity a sin? It's not something you can correct.

You are known for painting ordinary objects and making them beautiful.
It's a strange sort of sentiment, getting attached to a Wettex sponge cloth. I express my faith in the material world through the painting. I don't have any sort of value hierarchy, so a diamond isn't worth any more than a Wettex sponge cloth. For some peculiar reason I am capable of looking at them in that detached way. There's no moral high ground.

Are you a collector of things?
I don't collect them; they just seem to accumulate around me. My studio is insane because of that superstition about hanging on to stuff, that sense that these things might be handy any day now. People might say that's a collection but not really. There's no curatorial ambition.

Where do you see yourself sitting in the New Zealand art world?
I just created this kind of one-man niche that I inhabit. I designed "Dick Frizzell" and I am the only one who can do it properly. It's kind of funny. It's a funny little country; we're only big enough to have one of everything, so I'm it.

You're writing and illustrating an art history book. Do you find writing difficult?
It's difficult in as much as the more you write, the more there is to write - that's the problem. It's one rabbit hole after another. Once you start, all the stuff you didn't know you know appears on the page. But it's fun, I absolutely love it. I am dying to get back into the manuscript and nail it.

ENVY
What makes you feel envy?
I'm pretty content with what I have carved out for myself. I remember when Jude and I had very limited resources, back in the day, I used to get quite envious. You'd walk past restaurants you'd heard of and they would be chock-full of rosy-faced young accountants in their white-collared shirts drinking rosé and you'd think, "Gee, I'm going to go in there one day." Now I can afford to go in them, I don't want to.

Why is that?
Because of all those people.

You want to avoid the rosy-cheeked accountants?
Well that's another sin, isn't it? Feeling superior. Ha ha ha! Inverse snobbery, I'm very good at that.

SLOTH
Where does your fear of sloth come from?
We were brought up to value labour but I think it was this business of creating this "Dick Frizzell" character that I was talking about it. Doing it was pretty ambitious. The only people who succeed are the ones who get out there and go for it. Really, really go for it. Read about it, work it out, understand it inside out, where you fit, what's required. You drive yourself relentlessly on. Sloth looks a lot like giving up. Sloth looks too much like death, you know, so I am constantly running. Fear of sloth motivates me more than anything else. I'm so terrified of sloth or laziness that I am in constant motion, staying ahead of it. I have my sloth all rationed out.

So retirement doesn't interest you much?
Well, I don't know how you'd do it. I joke about retiring and taking up painting. I think you just peter out, you get too old to do it, which is another argument against sloth. You have these things you want to get done and sitting around dreaming about it doesn't do it.

Use it or lose it, eh?
Yes. I'm 76 and I am still amazed how magic painting is, the phenomenon of picking up a loaded brush and suddenly a tree appears in front of you. I can never quite figure it out. Every time I go to paint, I have to remember it all again. Moving faster than the speed of thought is a favourite trick of mine. You can talk yourself out of something pretty damn quick.
-Eleanor Black

Limited-edition glasses featuring Dick Frizzell's signature woodgrain print are available in Specsavers stores now. For each one sold, $25 will be donated to the Fred Hollows Foundation NZ.