Draft 2 PhD Introduction - ResearchSpace@Auckland

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Ward sees his childhood as being “not extraordinarily eventful”. What he recalls most
vividly is the “emotional intensity” with which he viewed the world, and it is this
emotional intensity he wanted to recreate in Vigil. He states: “I wanted to see a small,
intense child on a farm by himself, combating fierce nightmares and fantasizing
victories over imaginary foes. At the same time, I wanted to convey how a child seems
to see the real world in oblique glimpses, and, like a detective gathering clues, has to
work out what is going on about him”. 257
Vincent attended Greytown Primary School, and because they were Catholic, he and his
siblings along with twenty or thirty other Catholic children, participated in Catholic
religious instruction once a week. At secondary school, Vincent was sent as a boarder
to St Patrick’s College (Silverstream). His sister Ingrid says she was not sure what he
made of St Patrick’s, but “there were one or two stories long after he left about what he
did […]. Basically he abided by the system, but flouted the rules”. 258 At St Patrick’s,
his art teacher encouraged his abilities and he won the prize for art, but to study art at
sixth and seventh form level, he needed to transfer to Kuranui College for his final two
years at secondary school. At Kuranui College he took an active role in school life,
playing one of the leading roles in the school production of Brigadoon, and contributing
drawings to the Kuranui College magazine. Although Kuranui College was a
conservative country high school, Graeme Barnes recalls that Vincent’s seventh form
schoolmates were very tolerant of him and accepted him despite the fact that most of
them were studying science. Vincent was seen as being “way to the left”, but his good
looks, wit and popularity allowed him to be accepted. 259
By the end of his secondary schooling, Vincent had decided to study Fine Arts at
university. Clive Gibbs, his art teacher at Kuranui College, helped him to put a
portfolio together to apply, but his parents were not convinced about his choice. Judy
says: “It was so clearly something he wanted to do”, but she had doubts about him
“being good enough to make a living from it” and suggested to Pat that he should
perhaps train as a panel-beater and keep art as a hobby. Both Pat and she realized,
however, that “he was gifted that way”, after he kept winning prizes for his art although
she admitted: “I kept thinking that was a fluke because I didn’t think he was that
257 Ward, Edge of the Earth: Stories and Images from the Antipodes 69.
258 Lynette Read, interview with Ingrid Ward, 15 April 1999.
259 Lynette Read, interview with Graeme Barnes, 16 December 1999.