robert creed

 A Solitary Man

An angry voice

Drove into my back

Startled

I flinched

Absorbed in my painting

Back to the door

I snapped into the real world

Turning

A short profile of a man

Etched against the entrance to the office

My eyes grappling with the light contrast

Walking into the office

His features

Emerging out of the glare

Where is Leonard?

I explained that he was on holiday for 3 months

And I was renting his office as a painting studio over the Christmas break

Well he did my house over two years ago

I wanted to get some minor work done

So

when I enquired at the Council

I was informed I was in contravention of the regulations as I was occupying the house that

I had NO Occupation Certificate and I would be subject to a fine!

This was Leonard’s responsibility

And I want it fixed now!

I explained that I was an architect and I will telephone Leonard

And get his permission to resolve this issue for him

Giving him my card

I will give you a call

I took his and name

Iva Davies

As Leonard was overseas

It took a couple of days

Leonard had basically fucked up

he was happy and relieved for me to resolve it in his absence

ringing Iva

I teed up a meeting at his house

Doing my usual due diligence

I checked him out

I was gob smacked

When I discovered he was the front man for Ice House

I had no bloody idea!

being overseas when they were big

YouTube up datingv my musical education

Apart from Great Southern Land

Which is a classic

I regarded Ice House as just another pop band

Then I heard

A Man of Colours

I was really moved

It was a beautiful, heart felt song

Iva

Was a bit of rebel

From a Melbourne middle class family

Studying classical music

Primarily the oboe

It was his oboe solo in Man of colours

That I found particularly moving

Arriving at the gate

My face pressed to the intercom

The gate clicked open

There was a garage

Then a steep set of stairs down to the two storeyed house

With a bridge linkage between the two buildings

The door swang open

With a convivial greeting

As I was ushered into the open plan living room

A grand piano in the corner

The gold record awards on the walls

Some great artwork

Leading to a terrace

A pool

All overlooking Whale Beach

Spectacular

With the sound of the distant surf

Crashing below

I was given a guided tour of the house

Outlining the work that was done and in what stages

Together with the associated issues

The bedrooms being upstairs

With a bridge connection to his music studio above the garage

The studio

Which had panoramic views of the ocean

had a series of guitars on stands

A music mixer

Together with other musical gadgetry

And smelt heavily of smoke

Iva was a chronic smoker

But never smoked in the house

They had just finished doing the musical score for

The Master and Commander film by Peter Weir

With Russell Crow

Walking back to the large dining table

We went through all his documentation

Over coffee

I gave him an over view of how I would approach it

Firstly

getting the occupation certificate for the old work

Then designing documenting and supervising the construction

Of a new fence and landscaping work

Including a new security system

Pissy stuff really

Not what I normally do!

But we had an immediate rapport

I liked him

Agreeing to do the work on an hourly basis

Iva

Led the conversation

Into his private world

He came back from touring one year

with the house had been totalling stripped

All the furniture was gone

Everything

Iva

Firstly

Alarmed

concerned about his family

The wife and two kids

Desperately ringing around

It became clear

His wife had left him

Taking the kids and literally everything in the house

No explanation!

There was nothing left

The pain walking across his face

As he related the ordeal

The conversation

Drifted into the resurrection of Ice House

The related concerts

Together with acoustic solo performances

Mainly within Australia

The renewed notoriety

Resulting in a besotted woman fan

Who lived in Queensland

Arriving at his house

Asking to come in

Shouting at the intercom

He had to call the police

And take out a restraining order!

Hence the new video security intercom system

She then proceeded to stalk him at his appearances

At one point, security guards

Having to fend her off

Iva had no idea what she would do next!

It was clear

This was deeply distressing to him

Compromising his personal safety as well as his kids

During the marriage breakup

Then the resulting financial disaster

which took him years to unravel

He had started seeing a phycologist

Who he subsequently started a relationship with?

As I could testify

His home was easily researched on the internet

He felt very venerable and exposed

As the work progressed

We would have almost weekly sessions

We would have extended conversations in the driveway

Just walking around

Or over coffee

Looking out over the ocean

Sometimes for hours on end

Always deviating from the task before us

Into life, art, music, politics

The Man of Colours

Was written about his uncle

the song had a special meaning for him

Which I connected with directly

Being an amateur artist

It still moves me now

As we talked

Iva always opening up further

As our relationship evolved

Iva was a lonely solitary man

Estranged from his children

An ugly divorce

With an over protective psychologist lover

Building walls around him

Feeding his developing paranoia

Several times we discussed

Doing other things

as we had mutual interests

Maybe coffee or diner

We both lived in the area after all

On each occasion

Time lapsed

The follow ups dissipated

Then obvious excuses

It was clear to me that he had spoken to his lover psychologist

As our conversations lurched from a series of really enjoyable sessions opening up to one another

To shutdowns

It was all about protecting himself!

Or herself depending on which way you look at it

The work went on in this manner for about a year

All going well

I almost hand crafted the elaborate lit mail box with integrated video intercom

Taking it from one workshop to another to get it done

It is still there

Knowing we both appreciated single malt whisky

He presented me with a gift at the end of the work

Of a bottle of expensive single malt whisky and glasses

I was touched

Each Christmas

I always send out a group email to all my friends

A seasons greeting as it were

With usually some piece of my artwork or photograph

I always sent Iva a similar email, but individually

He responded in the first year with a photograph of his children by the Christmas tree

A lovely shot

We usually exchanged a couple of emails

Just touching base each Christmas

One year

His email only showed a Christmas tree

No kids

For some reason

This saddened me

Again

a closing off of his private world

all understandable?

This year he beat me to it?

Iva sent me a greeting email

Which really surprised me

It was like a reaching out

Of a solitary, famous man

Aloft in his world above the sea

It still saddens me

It was a loss to me

of what could have been