A Man From Malta


By Paul Andrew
Artwork by Derek Murphy

Being Maltese must be an exhilarating experience these days. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has just made her fourth visit to the tiny island in the Mediterranean, located just a stone’s throw from Sicily.

So why is that a big deal? Well, I recently interviewed artist Derek Murphy, who earned his bachelor’s degree in Malta. And it was accepted here in Taiwan as a degree that qualifies him as a native English teacher. In fact, Maltese is the official language of Malta, as is English. Murphy is in fact an American from Portland, Ore. But that’s irrelevant now he says.

“I studied philosophy and theology,” says Murphy speaking of his four years at the University of Malta. “I was going to study four years there as an artist at the Angel Academy, but the course didn’t suit me.”

Murphy, 25, is a teacher, but he is also an avid oil painter with religious themes — though it was not instantly obvious when I looked at his paintings the first time we met at his home in Tainan City. Actually, my first encounter with Murphy was when he had just flooded his living room with an inch of water intended for his fish-tank.

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“I fell asleep and woke up to a flooded living room,” he said without batting an eye. “It took me two hours to mop it up. I almost electrocuted myself with the light in the fish tank.”

It’s a beautiful early November afternoon in Tainan and Murphy and I are eating at one of the few cafés on Haian Road, which has been dubbed “Art Street” in Tainan because of it’s intermittent yet permanent, artistic displays. One of them appears to be a reverse blueprint of an interior house design highlighted by fluorescent black light at night. Another is a wall of 8x10 framed pictures. He seems very much at ease in this neighborhood.

“Am I an xpat for life? Did I say that?” Murphy says, after I told him it was on his website. “Yeah, probably. Life (in America), seems to have so much more expectations. It’s so much easier to become embroiled. I would probably stay in Asia. I have been here for two years. I have a nice girlfriend, Taiwanese.”

“Teach….? Probably. I have to get a career doing something.”

Perhaps this is an acknowledgment that he will not become a career artist. But we eventually start talking about his paintings, one of which, a smiling Buddha holding a milkshake, hamburger and fries, was available locally in February for a brief time as a cheap poster.

  “I printed about 1,000 of those and I sold about five,” he says. “I didn’t expect any reaction. I do it so people will question their beliefs, kind of,” he says about his art. “People might think it’s offensive. Some of my Christian art is like that. My friends and family think it’s great, but don’t want me to put it on my website.”The Buddha poster may have sold better otherwise, but the Armory, a pub in Tainan City, thought it best to sell it ‘under the counter.’ However, the Taiwanese who have seen my copy on my living room wall seem to enjoy it and wonder where they can get a copy.  

Although Murphy has precious few paintings on his wall at his house, his website www.derekmurphy.org, has two very impressive galleries. The images he has created, although abstract, look fantastic in their digital form. His religious themes include a painting of a corkscrew on a cross and a First Communion depicting two adolescent girls performing felatio on either end of a crucifix. Why would anyone find this offensive?

“Religion tells you a certain way to look at it,” Murphy explains. “Each religion has its own god. There’s some room for interpretation. I’m still deeply fascinated with religion. I like Christianity,” he says when cornered on a specific religion. “I just don’t believe it.”

In addition to the Happy Meal Buddha, other Murphy paintings do much to stimulate thought. Such as the Sex Dispenser, where a statue of a naked woman allows sexual indulgence in the form of a coin operated dummy; China Girl, whose fingers are entwined in circular Celtic knot-work; and Mandress, which has a half-naked woman using two live men as a dress.



One of the other less obviously “themed” paintings is Red Girl, which comes across simply as modern art but is nonetheless striking in its design. Murphy has been painting for seven years and his art is available at very reasonable prices through his website. Numerous young musicians and artists have had much success selling their art online rather than using traditional channels that involve more time and money. Perhaps that would explain how Murphy finds time to write his book, also themed on religion.

  

“I’ve been writing a book on the astro-foundations of Christian myth,” he says casually. “For them, Christian myth is offensive. For them, the bible is how it happened. I studied this for years. And what I’m trying to do is write this book in ‘normal’ terms – not academic,” he explained. “You have to be a biblical (expert) to understand academics.”

“I’m still deeply fascinated with religion. I’m not orthodox. But spiritual I guess…I hate that term,” he adds after a moment. “Everything that is not Christian is pagan.”