Hub

THE STORY OF HUB

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I was born in Perth, Western Australia, growing up across the river from the city in Rivervale, a working class suburb more known for it's close proximity to the airport and cheap motels. 

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The family home I grew up in was across the road from a small primary school. 

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Every day after school kids stayed at our house until their parents could pick them up. Most days there'd be up to 20 kids at our house and from the time I was two, whatever they did, I would join in.

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I was the youngest of all the kids so the older kids called me Bub, which over time grew into Hubba Bubba, name after the bubble gum.

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This nickname would evolve to every incarnation of the word, Hubba, Hubby, Hubcap, Hubster, Hubib to eventually work its way to Hub.

 

This name stuck from when I was about 4 years old and as I approach 50, in many circles, it remains stuck. 

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​As a kid I spent most of my time at the school playing something, usually on my own, like an autistic kid. I developed a bag of skills that came in handy for all the sports I played.

 

From the time I was born my dad played baseball, so like all kids I wanted to follow in his footsteps and was obsessed with baseball form the age of 3. 

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Then when I was 6, an international Baseball Stadium, call Parry Field was built about 1.2 kilometres from my house. I spent a lot of time there. 

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Baseball was my first true obsession and it would become the platform for how I was educated throughout my life.

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When I was 15, I was the starting catcher for the first ever Australian U/16 baseball team.

 

As a junior player I made every team there was to make and expected to become a professional. It was my dream to make it to the major leagues, like several of my teammates did over the years. 

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But by the time I was 19, the dream was over through no fault of my own. The opportunities just stopped. 

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Instead of dwelling in it, I analysed it. I viewed success in life as finding something you love to do and then to find a way to get paid to do it.

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This being the essence of what wanting to play baseball in the major leagues was. 

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I became good at baseball because I loved it and obsessed about it. If I could find something I loved, I could obsess over that and try to get good at it also. 

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This is foundation of where the passion for art was made. 

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I lived my life constantly searching, trying to find what this thing, 'what I loved to do', was. 

 

I followed my heart and felt a strong desire to do something creative. 

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At first I thought 'the thing' was writing.

 

So I started writing a book, spending the next 3 years, working during the day and trying to write a book at night. I went to writing classes, seminars, lectures, whatever I could to help write a book.

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Over time, I realised I didn't love writing a book. But I knew liked something about being creative, so I switched to writing film scripts. 

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I worked during the day and wrote film scripts at night. I went to film school, learning screen writing, I wrote TV Shows, feature films, lots of stuff, but then had no idea what to do next. A lot of dead ends. 

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There were times when chasing 'the thing I loved to do' was just blatantly depressing. It was a constant battle, a frustrating fight, never feeling natural and never easy like something you love should be. 

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Whenever chasing the thing I loved to do depressed me, I painted. 

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I went through a cycle of feeling depressed, painting, feeling better and then stopping painting. 

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I sold my first paintings somewhere around 2003 or so. But I never thought much of it, I was just stoked that anyone would want one of my paintings.

 

While continuing to see it as the thing I only did because I was depressed. ​For years I didn't paint because I was happy and it never occurred to me that you could also paint when you weren't depressed. 

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This all changed In 2012.​ 

 

I was going through a tough time and so I did what I would any other time I was depressed and started painting.

 

Only this time, something changed. ​I painted one painting and then instantly started another until eventually I noticed that I wasn't depressed and in fact, I was pretty happy and yet I still had a burning desire to keep painting?

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You mean it's possible to keep painting even if you weren't depressed? 

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This is when the penny finally dropped.

 

Since 2012, and as of 2026 when this is written, I have never stopped. 

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I found the thing I love to do and every day I spend hours trying to do it the best I can.

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Every day. 

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I applied all that I learned from baseball to art and it has become my new obsession. I have been working from one painting to another ever since. 

 

I have no intention to stop any time time soon and will do this for the rest of my life.
 

This is how I live my best life. .

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