Mural tells town and artist’s tale

The artistic creations of Jacob Butler cover the walls of trendy cafes and bars around Perth. Now, the artist better known as Shakey Jakey has run his paintbrush across Quindanning, highlighting the town with a new mural. The 32-year-old spent one week this month revamping the town’s welcome sign after vigorous community input and effort. Butler said the project came to life after word got out about work on an old water tank at his wife’s family farm. “My wife Ange grew up in Quindanning and got immersed into that farm lifestyle,” Butler said. “I started doing these paintings on the water tank depicting scenes of farm kids. “I think word got around town that they really liked the artwork. “One of our friends gave us the idea of painting the town sign to inject a bit of life into the welcome sign and put Quindanning on the map through art and a bit of humour.” The mural consists of three scenes designed to depict farm life with a touch of humour. “Most of the depictions of the kids in the mural are from Ange’s childhood, with some inspiration from mine because I used to live in the country, and we just related it to Quindanning,” Butler said. Butler said there was an element of surprise hidden amongst the mural, drawing on a personal touch. “After several renditions (of designs), we had our laugh because in the centre of the mural with the boy, girl and baby who represent a family, we superimposed my face, Ange’s face and our daughter Sienna’s face into the painting’s of the kids... it was a bit of a laugh our way, getting back to all the changes and making it ours a little bit,” he said. In a “Where’s Wally” approach, he also hid an image of the family’s pet French bulldog, Banjo, in the sheepyard. Butler turned to art to manage his constant hand and body shakes after being diagnosed with a benign essential tremor, which is a lot like Parkinson’s disease. “A lot of stuff we do is based in the city, and that doesn’t really get us excited,” he said. “We love meeting country people, the real true-blue Aussies and love telling their stories, whether it’s through photography or art. “We would love to do some more murals, so any shires out there that have a nice wall, we’d love to come down.”