THE By Melissa Walsh Photos Yanni
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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the things you did.
hen Mark Twain coined the phrase about living a life with no regrets, he might as well have been writing about the philosophy of peninsula artist and passionate community ambassador, Michael Leeworthy. A Red Hill local for the past three decades, Michael is known for his contributions to art, reading, writing and social issues, never being one to back down from a challenge.
Peninsula Essence talks to the colourful character about life, the arts, his interesting career choices, and a unique book club he began a decade ago.
E ssence
46 | PENINSULA
October 2018
“I had always felt like the odd one out in a family of tradies,” says the flamboyant 70 year old from his own gallery studio in Red Hill where he has taught painting and drawing since 2002.
“Three of my brothers are plumbers and dad was a builder. I knew I was different all along and didn’t enjoy school so, at sixteen, I got a job as a window dresser in a menswear store which I loved. I swear I was the only straight window dresser in Melbourne,” he says with a laugh. “I thought it was great; beer, cigarettes, women, sex. I didn’t want to go back to school and the boringness of it. A Catholic College was the wrong school for me. Dad very quickly made me buy a block of land because he said ‘You have to put your money into something for the future ’. That would have been around 1967.”
Mark Twain.