This work is my tribute to artist, designer, educator, and friend, Paul Hartigan. Painted from a series of photographs Paul generously shared, NEON (for Paul) centres on his Chevrolet El Camino, a powder-blue classic bearing the license plate
“NEON.” The car, immaculate and quietly parked, becomes a luminous emblem of Hartigan’s creative pulse—a beacon of colour, nostalgia, and radical design. Paul’s practice has long been grounded in the visual language of neon—bold, saturated, and unapologetically modern. His impact on Aotearoa’s contemporary art scene, especially within graphic design and light-based installation, shaped generations of artists and designers. As a former tutor and mentor, his influence permeates not just through works, but through people.
This painting embodies both reverence and disruption. Infused with glitch aesthetics and layered textures, it explores ideas of transmission, signal, and memory. The vehicle is rendered not as a static object, but as energy—reflecting Paul’s vibrancy and my own exploration of visual disruption in an age of digital saturation.
NEON (for Paul) is an act of aroha and creative reciprocity. It commemorates a legacy of light, and acknowledges a guiding voice whose work continues to pulse in the cultural fibre of Aotearoa.
