I think it was in my second grade that I was caught drawing the bust of a nude by Michelangelo. I was sent straight away to my school principal, and my school principal, a sweet nun, looked at my book with disgust, flipped through the pages, saw all the nudes -- you know, I'd been seeing my mother draw nudes and I'd copy her -- and the nun slapped me on my face and said, "Sweet Jesus, this kid has already begun."
大概是在我小学二年级的时候 有一次在课上临描米开朗基罗的作品半身裸像被发现了。 我被直接叫去了校长室, 我的校长是个慈祥的修女。 她对我的画册显然很反感, 一页一页翻过去,看到了那些裸体画像—— 其实,你知道的,我只是模仿我妈妈画那些—— 那个修女打了我一耳光,说: “上帝呀,这孩子已经开始变坏了。”
I had no clue what she was talking about, but it was convincing enough for me never to draw again until the ninth grade. Thanks to a really boring lecture, I started caricaturing my teachers in school. And, you know, I got a lot of popularity. I don't play sports. I'm really bad at sports. I don't have the fanciest gadgets at home. I'm not on top of the class. So for me, cartooning gave me a sense of identity. I got popular, but I was scared I'd get caught again. So what I did was I quickly put together a collage of all the teachers I had drawn, glorified my school principal, put him right on top, and gifted it to him. He had a good laugh at the other teachers and put it up on the notice board. (Laughter) This is a part of that. And I became a school hero. All my seniors knew me. I felt really special.
我当时根本不知道她在说什么, 我也直到九年级(中国的初三), 才又一次说服自己去画画。 这得感谢一次无聊的课程, 我开始画学校老师的漫画肖像。 你知道的,因为这个我变得更受欢迎了。 我不怎么运动。我特别不擅长体育。 我家里也没有那些时髦先进的电子产品。 我也不是班上的前几名。 对我来说,卡通画给了我强烈的认同感。 我受大家欢迎,但也害怕再被老师抓到。 所以我就很快地 把所有老师们的漫画像都画到一起, 美化了一下校长(把他放在最顶端), 然后把漫画送给了他。 他看了其他老师的漫画像笑了很久, 把这漫画放在了告示板上。 (笑声) 这是其中一部分。 然后我成了学校的英雄。 所有的学长都认识我。我觉得自己很特别。
I have to tell you a little bit about my family. That's my mother. I love her to bits. She's the one who taught me how to draw and, more importantly, how to love. She's a bit of a hippie. She said, "Don't say that," but I'm saying it anyway. The rest of my family are boring academics, busy collecting Ivy League decals for our classic Ambassador car. My father's a little different. My father believed in a holistic approach to living, and, you know, every time he taught us, he'd say, "I hate these books, because these books are hijacked by Industrial Revolution."
我得告诉你们一些我家人的事情。 这是我妈妈。我爱她的全部。 她告诉我怎样绘画,更重要的是,怎么去爱。 她有点嬉皮。 她总叫我别说,哈哈我还是要这么说。 我的其他家人都是挺无聊的学术型, 他们为了拥有经典的大使牌汽车而忙于考取常青藤盟校。 我爸爸有点不同。 他觉得人应该更全面、整体地看待生活, 他每次教导我们的时候, 都说:“我讨厌那些书, 他们都被工业革命控制束缚住了!”
While he still held that worldview, I was 16, I got the best lawyer in town, my older brother Karthik, and I sat him down, and I said, "Pa, from today onwards I've decided I'm going to be disciplined, I'm going to be curious, I'm going to learn something new every day, I'm going to be very hard working, and I'm not going to depend on you emotionally or financially." And he was very impressed. He was all tearing up. Ready to hug me. And I said, "Hold that thought." I said, "Can I quit school then?"
当他还享有那个世界观的时候,我十六岁。 我请求镇上最好的律师作证, 我哥哥Karthik和我, 让我爸爸坐下,然后我说:“爸爸, 从今以后我决定了, 我要守规矩, 我要保持好奇心, 我每天都要学些新的东西, 我会很努力, 而且我不会依赖你了, 精神上,经济上。” 他听了之后很感动,泪流满面,还准备拥抱我。 然后我说:“等一下, 那我能退学了吗?”
But, to cut a long story short, I quit school to pursue a career as a cartoonist. I must have done about 30,000 caricatures. I would do birthday parties, weddings, divorces, anything for anyone who wanted to use my services. But, most importantly, while I was traveling, I taught children cartooning, and in exchange, I learned how to be spontaneous. And mad and crazy and fun. When I started teaching them, I said let me start doing this professionally. When I was 18 I started my own school. However, an 18 year-old trying to start a school is not easy unless you have a big patron or a big supporter.
后来,长话短说, 我退学了,专职画卡通画。 我大概花了三万幅卡通画。 我会为生日会、结婚、离婚画画, 会为任何人、任何事情画。 但最重要的是,当我在旅行的时候, 我教孩子们画卡通画, 同样地,我也变得更自然纯真, 痴迷,疯狂和有趣。 当我开始教他们的时候,我说:“这就是我的职业了。” 十八岁的时候我开办了自己的学校。 但是,一个十八岁的人要想办学校, 不是件容易的事情,除非你拉到一大笔赞助, 或者有个很厉害的支持者。
So I was flipping through the pages of the Times of India when I saw that the Prime Minister of India was visiting my home town, Bangalore. And, you know, just like how every cartoonist knows Bush here, and if you had to meet Bush, it would be the funnest thing because his face was a cartoonist's delight. I had to meet my Prime Minister. I went to the place where his helicopter was about to land. I saw layers of security. I caricatured my way through three layers by just impressing the guards, but I got stuck. I got stuck at the third. And what happened was, to my luck, I saw a nuclear scientist at whose party I had done cartoons. I ran up to him, and said, "Hello, sir. How do you do?" He said, "What are you doing here, Raghava?" I said, "I'm here to meet the Prime Minister." He said, "Oh, so am I." I hopped into his car, and off we went through the remaining layers of security. (Applause) Thank you. I sat him down, I caricatured him, and since then I've caricatured hundreds of celebrities.
所以我翻了翻印度时报, 发现印度总理那时候 正好在我的家乡,班加罗尔访问。 就像所有这里(美国)的卡通画家 都知道布什总统一样, 如果你能见到布什, 那将会是最有趣的事情, 因为他的脸就是卡通画家的最爱。 我必须去见我们的总理! 我去了 他的直升飞机要着陆的地方。 我看见一排一排的警戒、保镖。 我用漫画生动地画了三排警卫们, 他们看了之后特别喜欢, 但我还是卡在了第三排。 幸运地是, 我看见了一个原子科学家, 我曾经在他的派对上画过卡通画。 我跑过去和他说:“你好先生。最近怎么样?” 他说:“你来这里做什么呀,Raghava?” 我说:“我是来见总理的。” 他说:“哦,我也是。” 我跳上了他的车, 然后我们顺利通过了剩下的所有安保警戒。 (掌声) 谢谢。 我让总理坐下,给他画了漫画肖像。 从那以后我画了成百上千的名人。
This is one I remember fondly. Salman Rushdie was pissed-off I think because I altered the map of New York, if you notice. (Laughter) Anyway, the next slide I'm about to show you -- (Laughter) Should I just turn that off? The next slide I'm about to show you, is a little more serious. I was hesitant to include this in my presentation because this cartoon was published soon after 9/11. What was, for me, a very naive observation, turned out to be a disaster. That evening, I came home to hundreds of hate mails, hundreds of people telling me how they could have lived another day without seeing this. I was also asked to leave the organization, a cartoonists' organization in America, that for me was my lifeline. That's when I realized, you know, cartoons are really powerful, art comes with responsibility.
这一幅我记得很清楚。 Salman Rshdie肯定气死了。 不知道你有没有注意,我把纽约的地图做了些改动。 (笑声) 下一张幻灯片—— (笑声) 我是不是应该把它关掉? 下一张幻灯片 是稍微严肃一些的。 我一开始有些犹豫到底应不应该把它放在演讲里。 因为这幅卡通画 是在911后不久面世的。 这对我来说,其实是一个很天真的视角, 但它最后变成了一个灾难。 那天晚上,我收到了上百封愤怒的邮件。 几百个人都在告诉我 他们没法忍受这幅画。 我被要求退出一个组织, 一个美国的卡通画家组织, 它就像我的生命。 那时候我才明白,卡通画的力量是多么强大, 艺术是伴着责任而来的。
Anyway, what I did was I decided that I need to take a break. I quit my job at the papers, I closed my school, and I wrapped up my pencils and my brushes and inks, and I decided to go traveling. When I went traveling, I remember, I met this fabulous old man, who I met when I was caricaturing, who turned out to be an artist, in Italy. He invited me to his studio. He said, "Come and visit." When I went, I saw the ghastliest thing ever. I saw this dead, naked effigy of himself hanging from the ceiling. I said, "Oh, my God. What is that?" And I asked him, and he said, "Oh, that thing? In the night, I die. In the morning, I am born again." I thought he was koo koo, but something about that really stuck. I loved it. I thought there was something really beautiful about that. So I said, "I am dead, so I need to be born again."
后来,我决定 给自己放个假。 我辞去了报社的工作,关掉了学校, 把画笔和墨水收好, 我决定去旅行。 我记得,在旅行的途中, 我碰到了一位伟大的老人, 我是在画画的时候碰见他的。 原来他是个意大利的画家。 他邀请我去他的画室,说:“过来看看吧。” 我在那里看到了我见过最恐怖的东西。 我看到一个他自己的、死去的裸体雕像 挂在天花板上。 我说:“天哪,那是什么?” 我问了他,他说: “哦,那个东西?夜晚,我死了。 早晨,我会复活过来。” 我觉得他有点诡异, 但那个雕像一直留存在我脑海里, 我喜欢它。我觉得它有一种不同寻常的美。 所以我对自己说:“我死了。所以我得重生。”
So, I wanted to be a painter like him, except, I don't know how to paint. So, I tried going to the art store. You know, there are a hundred types of brushes. Forget it, they will confuse you even if you know how to draw. So I decided, I'm going to learn to paint by myself. I'm going to show you a very quick clip to show you how I painted and a little bit about my city, Bangalore. (Music) They had to be larger than life. Everything had to be larger. The next painting was even bigger. And even bigger. And for me it was, I had to dance while I painted. It was so exciting. Except, I even started painting dancers. Here for example is a Flamenco dancer, except there was one problem. I didn't know the dance form, so I started following them, and I made some money, sold my paintings and would rush off to France or Spain and work with them. That's Pepe Linares, the renowned Flamenco singer.
所以我立下志愿,要成为他那样的画家。 不过,我还不知道怎么画油画。 我去了艺术品商店。 那里有上百种画笔。 即使你知道如何绘画,忘了吧,那些画笔也会使你措手不及, 那些画笔也会使你措手不及。 所以我决定了,我要自己学习油画。 我会播放一个很短的片段, 是关于我如何绘画的, 你还会了解一些我住的地方,班加罗尔。 (音乐) 这些画作比生活中的都要大。 所有的东西都得画得很大。下一幅画更大。 更大。 所以我作画的时候不得不跳起舞来。 我非常兴奋。 除此之外,我还开始画舞蹈家。 比方说这个,这是个弗拉门戈舞者。 但是有一个问题。 我不会跳这种舞,所以我开始跟他们学。 我 卖了我的画赚了些钱, 然后就冲到法国和西班牙去和他们一起工作。 这是个有名的弗拉门戈歌手舞者Pepe Linares。
But I had one problem, my paintings never danced. As much energy as I put into them while making them, they never danced. So I decided -- I had this crazy epiphany at two in the morning. I called my friends, painted on their bodies, and had them dance in front of a painting. And, all of a sudden, my paintings came alive. And then I was fortunate enough to actually perform this in California with Velocity Circus. And I sat like you guys there in the audience. And I saw my work come alive. You know, normally you work in isolation, and you show at a gallery, but here, the work was coming alive, and it had some other artists working with me.
但我有个问题,那就是我的画不能跳舞。 不管我花了多少精力, 他们都无法跳舞。 所以我决定——那是个凌晨两点的疯狂想法—— 我找来了我的朋友,在她们身上作画。 然后让她们在一幅画前面跳舞。 突然之间,我的画活动起来了。 非常幸运的是, 我真的就和Velocity马戏团在加利福尼亚表演了这个节目。 我当时就像你们一样坐在观众席, 然后看着我的画被赋予生命。 通常,我们都是一个人创作, 把作品在画廊展出, 但这一次,我的画被赋予生命, 而且还有其他艺术家和我一起。
The collaborative effort was fabulous. I said, I'm going to collaborate with anybody and everybody I meet. I started doing fashion. This is a fashion show we held in London. The best collaboration, of course, is with children. They are ruthless, they are honest, but they're full of energy and fun. This is a work, a library I designed for the Robin Hood Foundation. And I must say, I spent time in the Bronx working with these kids. And, in exchange for me working with them, they taught me how to be cool. I don't think I've succeeded, but they've taught me. They said, "Stop saying sorry. Say, my bad." (Laughter)
合作的成果真是好极了。 我对自己说,我得和见到的每个人合作。 于是我开始设计服装。 这是我们在伦敦的一个时装秀。 最好的合作当然是和孩子们一起。 他们是硬心肠的,诚实的, 但同时又总是充满活力和童趣。 这是我为Robin Hood基金会设计的图书馆。 我必须得说,我花了很多时间 在Bronx区和孩子们一起工作。 这换来的是, 他们告诉我了怎样变得更酷。 我不觉得自己成功了。但他们告诉我: “别总说‘抱歉’,说‘我的错’(更口语化的说法)。” (笑声)
Then I said, all this is good, but I want to paint like a real painter. American education is so expensive. I was in India, and I was walking down the streets, and I saw a billboard painter. And these guys paint humongous paintings, and they look really good. And I wondered how they did it from so close. So, one day I had the opportunity to meet one of these guys, and I said, "How do you paint like that? Who taught you?" And he said, "Oh, it's very easy. I can teach you, but we're leaving the city, because billboard painters are a dying, extinct bunch of artists, because digital printing has totally replaced them and hijacked them." I said, in exchange for education in how to paint, I will support them, and I started a company. And since then, I've been painting all over the place. This is a painting I did of my wife in my apartment. This is another painting. And, in fact, I started painting on anything, and started sending them around town.
然后我又对自己说:“我做的这些都好极了。 但我要像一个真正的画家一样画油画。” 美国的教育太贵了。 我走在印度街头, 看到了一个画广告牌的画家。 这些人都是创作巨幅绘画的, 它们看起来非常漂亮。 我很好奇他们是怎么站在如此近的地方完成作品的。 所以,当我终于有一天碰到一个画家的时候, 我问他:“你是怎么做到的?谁教你的?” 他说:“哦那很简单。我教你。 但我们正要离开这座城市, 因为广告牌画家 并不常见,他们大多都没了饭碗。 因为数码印刷彻底替代了他们。” 我说:“作为对你教我画画的回报, 我会支持你们。”于是我开了一家公司。 从那以后,我到哪里都会画画。 这是我为太太在我的公寓里画的。 这是另一幅。 我开始尝试在任何材料上作画, 并把它们送到镇上的各个角落。
Since I mentioned my wife, the most important collaboration has been with her, Netra. Netra and I met when she was 18. I must have been 19 and a half then, and it was love at first sight. I lived in India. She lived in America. She'd come every two months to visit me, and then I said I'm the man, I'm the man, and I have to reciprocate. I have to travel seven oceans, and I have to come and see you. I did that twice, and I went broke. So then I said, "Nets, what do I do?" She said, "Why don't you send me your paintings? My dad knows a bunch of rich guys. We'll try and con them into buying it, and then..." But it turned out, after I sent the works to her, that her dad's friends, like most of you, are geeks. I'm joking. (Laughter) No, they were really big geeks, and they didn't know much about art. So Netra was stuck with 30 paintings of mine.
对了,说起我的太太,Netra, 我和她的合作是最重要的。 Netra是在她十八岁的时候遇见我的, 我那时候十九岁半吧。 我们俩是一见钟情。 我住在印度。她住在美国。 她每两个月来看我一次。 后来我对她说:“我是男人 我是真正的男人,我得付出同等的爱。 我得穿过七片海域,去见你。” 我只坚持了两次就破产了。 于是我对她说:“Nets,我该怎么办?” 她说:“为什么不把你的画寄给我? 我爸爸认识一些有钱人。 我们可以试着说服他们去买。 然后……” 但是最后,我把画寄给她之后, 发现她父亲的朋友们, 就像在座的大多数一样,都是电脑狂人。 开玩笑的。 (笑声) 他们真的是电脑狂人, 他们不怎么懂艺术。 这样Netra那里就积压了我的30幅画。
So what we did was we rented a little van and we drove all over the east coast trying to sell it. She contacted anyone and everyone who was willing to buy my work. She made enough money, she sold off the whole collection and made enough money to move me for four years with lawyers, a company, everything, and she became my manager. That's us in New York. Notice one thing, we're equal here. Something happened along the line. (Laughter)
我们就租了一辆小货车, 跑遍整个东海岸想卖掉它。 她联系了所有 愿意买我画的人。 她卖掉了所有的画,赚了足够多的钱, 那些钱足够让我搬过去住四年, 还有律师费,公司,所有的东西。 她成了我的经理人。 这是我们在纽约。 注意, 我们在这里是平等的。 这里却有所变化。 (笑声)
But this brought me -- with Netra managing my career -- it brought me a lot of success. I was really happy. I thought of myself as a bit of a rockstar. I loved the attention. This is all the press we got, and we said, it's time to celebrate. And I said that the best way to celebrate is to marry Netra. I said, "Let's get married." And I said, "Not just married. Let's invite everyone who's helped us, all the people who bought our work." And you won't believe it, we put together a list of 7,000 people, who had made a difference -- a ridiculous list, but I was determined to bring them to India, so -- a lot of them were in India. 150 artists volunteered to help me with my wedding. We had fashion designers, installation artists, models, we had makeup artists, jewelry designers, all kinds of people working with me to make my wedding an art installation. And I had a special installation in tribute to my in-laws. I had the vegetable carvers work on that for me.
但有了Netra的帮助, 我获得了巨大的成功。 我非常开心,觉得自己像个摇滚明星了。 我喜欢被大家关注。 这些都是媒体的报道,我们就说: “庆祝吧!” 我想最好的方式就是把Netra娶回家。 我对她说:“我们结婚吧。” 我还说:“不仅是结婚登记,我们得把所有帮助过我们的人都请来, 所有买过我们作品的人。” 你一定不会相信, 我们列了一个7000人的重要客人名单,这真是不可思议, 但我决心要把他们都带到印度,当然 很多人当时就在印度。 150个艺术家自愿帮我们办婚礼。 他们中有时装设计师,装置艺术家, 模特,化妆师,珠宝设计师, 各种各样的人。 他们都把我的婚礼变成了一个艺术装置。 我还有一个献给Netra父母的特别礼物。 还有一个蔬菜雕刻家帮我做了这个。
But all this excitement led to the press writing about us. We were in the papers, we're still in the news three years later, but, unfortunately, something tragic happened right after. My mother fell very ill. I love my mother and I was told all of a sudden that she was going to die. And they said you have to say bye to her, you have to do what you have to do. And I was devastated. I had shows booked up for another year. I was on a high. And I couldn't. I could not.
媒体报道了所有这一切激动人心的 婚事。 我们上了报纸,三年之后还有关于此报道。 但不幸地是,悲剧随后便发生了。 我母亲病得很重。 我爱她。 有一天突然有人和我说她快去世了。 他们和我说你必须得和她告别。 你必须得这么做。 我伤心欲绝。 我的画展已经有预约到第二年, 我正处于事业的顶峰。 但我不能开画展。我真的不行。
My life was not exuberant. I could not live this larger than life person. I started exploring the darker abscesses of the human mind. Of course, my work turned ugly, but another thing happened. I lost all my audiences. The Bollywood stars who I would party with and buy my work disappeared. The collectors, the friends, the press, everyone said, "Nice, but thank you." "No thank you," was more like it. But I wanted people to actually feel my work from their gut, because I was painting it from my gut. If they wanted beauty, I said, this is the beauty I'm willing to give you. It's politicized. Of course, none of them liked it.
我没那精力了。 我没法继续实现伟大的梦想了。 我开始探索人性的黑暗一面。 当然了,我的画不那么鲜艳漂亮了, 而且, 我失去了客户。 那些以前常和我去参加聚会的 宝莱坞演员也不见了。 收藏家,朋友,媒体, 所有人都和我说:“挺好的,但是……谢谢。” “不,谢谢”可能更能表达他们的意思。 但我更想 让人们从内心真正理解我的作品。 因为我就是用心绘画的。 如果他们想要美丽, 我会说,这就是我想给你们的美丽。是带政治色彩的。 当然,没有人喜欢。
My works also turned autobiographical. At this point, something else happened. A very, very dear friend of mine came out of the closet, and in India at that time, it was illegal to be gay, and it's disgusting to see how people respond to a gay person. I was very upset. I remember the time when my mother used to dress me up as a little girl -- that's me there -- because she wanted a girl, and she has only boys. (Laughter) Anyway, I don't know what my friends are going to say after this talk. It's a secret.
我的作品也开始倾向自传性质。 那个时候,还有件事情也发生了。 那就是我非常,非常,非常好的朋友 出柜了, 而那时候在印度,同性恋是违法的。 你无法想象人们怎么对待一个同性恋。 我很愤怒。 我想起我妈妈曾经 把我打扮成一个小女孩——那就是我—— 因为她想要一个女孩,但家里只有男孩子。 (笑声) 我不知道我的朋友们看完这个演讲之后会说什么。 这是个秘密。
So, after this, my works turned a little violent. I talked about this masculinity that one need not perform. And I talked about the weakness of male sexuality. This time, not only did my collectors disappear, the political activists decided to ban me and to threaten me and to forbid me from showing. It turned nasty, and I'm a bit of a chicken. I can't deal with any threat. This was a big threat.
总之,这之后我的作品变得有点暴力。 我说到阳刚之气是人需要而不是表现出来的。 我还提到男性的性弱点。 这一次,不仅我的收藏家消失了, 连那些政治活动家也决定封杀我, 恐吓我, 禁止我办任何展览。 这糟透了。我也有点畏缩。 我害怕任何形式的威胁恐吓。那很严重。
So, I decided it was time to end and go back home. This time I said let's try something different. I need to be reborn again. And I thought the best way, as most of you know who have children, the best way to have a new lease on life, is to have a child. I decided to have a child, and before I did that, I quickly studied what can go wrong. How can a family get dysfunctional? And Rudra was born. That's my little son.
当时我想, 是时候卷铺盖回家了。 这一次我得尝试些不同的东西。 我得重生。 我觉得最好的方式,你们中有孩子的人应该明白, 就是给自己一个新机会—— 有一个孩子。 我决定要个孩子。 在那之前我很快地想了想可能犯的错误。 一个家庭是怎样出乱子的? 后来Rudra就出生了。 这就是我可爱的儿子。
And two magical things happened after he was born. My mother miraculously recovered after a serious operation, and this man was elected president of this country. You know I sat at home and I watched. I teared up and I said that's where I want to be. So Netra and I wound up our life, closed up everything we had, and we decided to move to New York. And this was just eight months ago.
他出生之后,两个奇迹发生了。 第一,我母亲在经历一系列重大手术之后, 奇迹般地康复了。 然后这个人当选了美国总统。 我当时是在家看选举结果的。 我流泪了,我想这就是我要去的地方。 所以Netra和我准备开始一段新生活, 我们停下了以前做的所有事情, 搬到了纽约。 那仅仅是八个月前的事。
I moved back to New York, my work has changed. Everything about my work has become more whimsical. This one is called "What the Fuck Was I Thinking?" It talks about mental incest. You know, I may appear to be a very nice, clean, sweet boy. But I'm not. I'm capable of thinking anything. But I'm very civil in my action, I assure you. (Laughter) These are just different cartoons.
我搬到了纽约,画的风格也变了。 我的作品变得更加异想天开。 这幅叫做“我到底在想些什么?” 它是关于心理上的乱伦的。 你可能觉得我看上去像个善良,干净,可爱的小男孩。 但我不是。我什么都能想得出来。 但我保证我的行为还是很文明的。 (笑声) 这只是不同的漫画。
And, before I go, I want to tell you a little story. I was talking to mother and father this morning, and my dad said, "I know you have so much you want to say, but you have to talk about your work with children." So I said, okay.
在我离开之前,我想告诉大家一个小故事。 我今天早上和我爸妈聊了会儿天。 我爸说:“我知道你有好多东西要说, 但你一定得说说和孩子们工作的经历。” 我说好。
I work with children all over the world, and that's an entirely different talk, but I want to leave you with one story that really, really inspired me. I met Belinda when she was 16. I was 17. I was in Australia, and Belinda had cancer, and I was told she's not going to live very long. They, in fact, told me three weeks. I walk into her room, and there was a shy girl, and she was bald, and she was trying to hide her baldness. I whipped out my pen, and I started drawing on her head and I drew a crown for her. And then, we started talking, and we spent a lovely time -- I told her how I ended up in Australia, how I backpacked and who I conned, and how I got a ticket, and all the stories. And I drew it out for her. And then I left. Belinda died and within a few days of her death, they published a book for her, and she used my cartoon on the cover. And she wrote a little note, she said, "Hey Rags, thank you for the magic carpet ride around the world."
我和世界各地的孩子们工作。 那就是个完全不同的演讲了。 但我想在离开前说一个故事, 一个真正激励我的故事。 我认识Belinda的时候她16岁, 我17岁。 我当时在澳大利亚。 Belinda得了癌症, 别人说她不久就会离开人世了。 其实他们告诉我她只剩三个礼拜。 我走进了她的房间,她是个很内向的女孩。 她没有头发,她自己想极力掩饰这一点。 我拿出我的笔,开始在她的头上画画。 我给她画了一个皇冠。 后来我们就开始聊天了。那非常愉快。 我告诉她我怎么会来澳大利亚的, 我怎么收拾行装的,怎么骗人的,又是怎么拿到机票的, 所有那些故事。 后来我给她画了幅画。 然后我走了。 Belinda离开了人世。 之后没几天, 有人帮她出版了一本书。 她用我的卡通画做了封面, 她还写了一小段话: 你好Rags,谢谢你和你的神奇魔毯带我环游世界。
For me, my art is my magic carpet ride. I hope you will join me in this magic carpet ride, and touch children and be honest. Thank you so much. (Applause)
对我来说,艺术就是我的神奇魔毯。 我希望你也能踩上这块神奇魔毯, 触动感染孩子们,做个真诚的人。 非常感谢。 (掌声)