wizard energy
embodying myself
We decided I needed to have style that went with me, to use in promoting my work. Tash and I brainstormed it with lots of ideas. Slowly out of the ideas what emerged was basically myself.
I started with eccentric, as that was one of the first manifestations of a character that grew in 1985 when I first started working at Chakola in the Kangaroo Valley. An outdoor centre, and as a play on words, the staff were dressed up by our boss, Derek Lucas as ‘coloured people’, with loads of bright colours. Being a rather obsessed rock climber at the time, and a bit of a seamstress, I set to work to make clothes that embodied eccentric. Many a patchwork pair of baggy climbing pants emerged from my sewing machine at the time.
Actually, my most memorable ones were actually tights. I think it was skiing that introduced me to lycra and nylon tights to wear. Warm and cool, great for avoiding abrasions when you crash hurtling yourself down a hill. The pair that still comes to mind today, that I still actually have, are diamonds in red and blue, each patch lovingly sewn together. I skied in them passionately and relentlessly.
One day, after falling of Cadenza at Mt Araplies, I sprained or probably chipped my ankle when I slammed into the slab bellow. So I spent the next few days spread out on a rug reading off my foot. A couple came up to me and asked if I was Len, and if I still had my harlequin ski pants. They had remembered me skiing at Guthega years earlier. Perhaps it was my shock to long curry hair that reminded me of them. Apparently I was unforgettable.
My hair has remained long my whole life. I cut it short twice. Once when I started lecturing for UTS in Kuwait, and the other when I wanted some anonymity in Darwin after feeling threatened. Both occasions are long stories that I will tell in the future sometime soon.
The beard and the grey is something much more recent.
I have a love for scarves and coats. An a penchant for shamanism too. Again something I will return to explain.
Being a life long educator, and now in my early sixties, I embrace the older versions of the magician and the fool, and realise that I am indeed the embodiment of a wizard. Full of knowledge and wisdom. Full of intuitive powers and the ability to see what is going on and help. I think that is the most important part of my wizardry, my intuitive self that is. Being connected with my higher self.
One of my early embodiments was Leonard the Lizard. Libby had this singlet on back in my days at art school, probably 1985, in my first year. It had Leonard the Lizard holding a brief case and said ‘Leonard the Lizard on his way to Work’. I loved it so much I convinced her to trade the amethyst necklace I was wearing for it. It was a quick trade as my necklace was also rather beautiful. I wore that singlet so much. Kate painted me two two more Leonard Lizard singlets, one was purple. Both stunning. I wore them so much too.
Years latter I noticed how often I would see lizards, and realise this was a gift of a totem. That lizards and my connection with them had happened naturally. That my obsession with the blue tongue lizards that lived in my back yard as a kid was probably the real start of this connection with them. I would leave them water, and scraps of meat, and ensure they had good rocks to hide under.
When August Wolfe decided to photograph her version and creation of the tarot deck, they started with me as the Magician. I asked why they wanted me as the Magician, and their response was heartwarming and beautiful. ‘You are the magician’ they said.
I must thank Tash for helping me figure this out. It was through this discussion about branding that I realised much of the style I have been exploring for the whole of my adult life is indeed that of the magician and the wizard.
I also must thank Cyn for the hair and beard work, and the styling of the shoot. We had so much fun that day. It was meant to be an afternoon, but by the time she had finished my hair it was already late, and shoot went late into the night.
It is such a beautiful thing to stop and reflect on, to solidify and describe. It is a who am I moment to feel a sense of identity, and it is extra special to feel that with an archetypical one. I do wonder where it came from. Perhaps it started in the seventies with Geoffrey Bayldon in those episodes of Catweazle or even Tom Bakker in Dr Who, that helped me along this path. More recently it is Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf in the Lord Of The Rings.
There is one thing you can’t see here, and you have to take my word for it, and that is I am soaked in the colour purple in these images. My favourite colour by far, followed quickly by Cyan, a bias that only came with the naming of my son. When I was a child it was red. I don’t remember when I dropped red and jumped headlong into purple.
I really take pride in my eccentricity, my uniqueness and my quirkiness. Perhaps it was my art school training, or my hippy sisters. I really don’t know where it came from, but as an artist, it is something that we definitely need to celebrate.
It really is worthwhile to define and embody your inner self. Perhaps it’s archetypical perhaps it isn’t, I don’t think that matters. But what does matter is that we work on who we are, and embody the best versions of ourselves that we can.
Art has taught me who I am, as has being an educator. Who are you and what do you embody is a question I’d so love to leave you with.
Photographs and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2026