There are few artists in Canberra who really get the national capital the way Michael Ashley does.
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Whether it is Pooh Bear hitching on a clogged Kings Highway, or the "Raiders of the Lost Files'' dealing with a smoking filing cabinet or Dorothy's red slippers on the Braddon rainbow roundabout, Ashley's work is both whimsical and on-point.
"It's a tough nut to crack,'' Michael said, of his hometown Canberra.
"But once you get into those tasty kernels, it's so satisfying.''
A born and bred Canberran who went to Daramalan College, Michael, 48, has been creating his ACT-centric artwork since late 2010 when he took a voluntary redundancy from the Commonwealth government.
Yes, he brings a public servant's eye to all he does.
Ashley, who lives in Melba with his wife and son, worked for 23 years as a public servant in data analysis and policy, far from any creative outlet.
"[The VR] was just an opportunity to do something I've been thinking about for a long time,'' he said.
"The niche was Canberra because at the time, nobody wanted to do Canberra stuff at all.
"It's just about capturing the essence of Canberra, it's just years of observation.''
After years of producing pithy posters that just summed up the national capital, Michael has published his own coffee table book of the best images.
The book, It Came from Centenia: And Other Things You'd Get if you Lived in Canberra, features his rendition of - what else but? - Skywhale on it.
Michael, who is back working in the public service as a contractor, sees it as a more portable form of his art, an accompaniment to his bigger digital lino artwork that puts Canberra icons from Manuka pool to the Shine Dome in a different, but still so familiar, light.
The coffee table book will be launched at the Paperchain bookshop in Manuka at 7pm on Thursday, May 3.
"It's nerve-racking and exciting,'' he said.
"When you're an artist, you're putting your personality our there, it's serving up you on a plate and you hope people respond to it. And, thankfully, they have. It's quite flattering, actually.''
What else could you do but embrace an artist so familiar with the tribal divide of north versus south Canberra that he's reproduced a map of Canberra based on Game of Throne territories? Who captures the infuriating nuances of the national capital, from merging traffic to show-pony cyclists to cockatoos screeching at dawn?
"First-world problems,'' he said, with a smile.
"Canberra is the land of first-world problems.''
- It Came from Centenia: And Other Things You'd Get if you Lived in Canberra will be available at Paperchain in Manuka and at the Old Bus Depot and Handmade markets and can already be pre-ordered from Michael's website at www.mickashley.com.au
