INTERVIEW
Multi-modal healing: An interview with Matt Ottley Matt Ottley’s The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness is a groundbreaking, large-scale, multi-medium project that weaves literature, music and visual art together in the story of one boy’s journey into mental illness. This pioneering work, created by Northern Rivers-based Ottley, had its musical component recorded with one of Europe’s leading choirs and orchestras, giving this project a truly international scope. Ottley is an award-winning artist, writer and 10 | AUTUMN 2022 northerly
composer, with The Tree of Ecstasy representing a landmark moment in his illustrious career. How did the idea for The Tree of Ecstasy and Unbearable Sadness first emerge, and how long was the process of bringing the project to fruition? The seed of the project came from a poem I wrote in 2010 during a period of recovery from a particularly serious episode of illness. I have type one bipolar
disorder and had been hospitalised after a psychotic episode. I was in recovery for several months and kept a journal in which I often wrote poetry. Five years later, I showed one of those poems to my friend and editor Margrete Lamond. She suggested the poem would work well as a picture book text for young adults and adults. Her publishing house, Dirt Lane Press, which is a not-for-profit publisher, agreed to publish the work. It was to be a large scale multi-modal book and
