“The Art of Humanity” shares stories of inspiration and selfless acts by Australians.

It explores humanity through exceptional moments in time, captured by George Petrou’s remarkable portraiture.

When George Petrou spoke to the club about his book “The Art of Sacrifice,” we didn’t suspect he would return so soon to tell us about his second art project, “The Art of Humanity.”  The book features forty inspiring stories contributed by forty different authors, with accompanying portraits by George. 

It is still a work in progress, which he hopes to publish in ten weeks. It puts the spotlight on 22 women and 18 men: while you may recognise some of the portrait subjects, you may not know about their humanitarian work.

George started his talk with his definition of humanity: “the quality of being kind, thoughtful and sympathetic towards others.”

The first section of the book, “Healers with heart,” is devoted to wonder women of WW1.These women doctors and nurses went to the Western Front despite the disapproval and discouragement by officialdom, and were never recognised for the work they did. 

It features male and female, military and industrial, trailblazers and Australians of the year. 

He made particular mention of Olive King, who converted a truck into an ambulance for sixteen people, which she used on the Western Front to aid the wounded and to carry supplies. She joined with the Serbian Army who recognised hew work with a decoration, while the British and Australians ignored her. 

Photos: Olive with "Ellie" (short for elephant) her ambulance. and George's portrait of her.

George also described the story of Themi Adams, a member of a successful Australian pop group (“The Flies”) who went on to study philosophy. He sold all his goods, became a Bishop, and then moved to assist the poor in Sierra Leone. He returns to Australia each year to raise money for his projects, and George considers he deserves sainthood. 

Photos: Themi Adams as a pop music star, and as a bishop  - then George's portrait of Bishop Themi.

In an interesting aside, he described how Dame Nellie Melba was given her honour, not for singing, but for raising money for the poor and needy families during World War1.  She was nicknamed “The Queen of Pickpockets” because she frequently asked people to empty their pockets for the needy. 

Questions from the Zoom audience were about how George selected the stories for his books. the story about Mr Singh in his on-screen background, and the possibility of another book. The name, “The Art of Adversity” was floated. 

MC Pam Crockett thanked George for his interesting presentation, and mentioned our donation to Australian Rotary Health Research Fund in his name. 

“Through these stories part of the fabric of Australia has been woven. The threads of our national fabric are represented in ‘The Art of Humanity’. These threads tell us who we are, what we stand for, how we go about life and what our values are.” - General the Honourable David Hurley AC, DSC (Retd) Former Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.