unstretched and unframed canvas, and other changes included a considerable increase in scale; the creation of series of works in contrast to individual paintings; and "a new gestural freedom in his brushwork." These differences were apparent in Northland Panels and The Wake. Thematically, his art was at times concerned with developing a painterly nationalism. McCahon himself explored issues of Christianity and pacifism both within and outside of this national identity. McCahon's graphic design work in theatre, posters, and jewelry is lesser known, although said to be influential in his art practice. Of his painting Jump, McCahon wrote in 1971:I am not painting protest pictures. I am painting about what is still there and what I can see before the sky turns black with soot and the sea becomes a slowly heaving rubbish tip. I am painting what we have got now and will never get again. This is one shape or form, has been the subject of my painting for a very long time. He felt that: Most of my work has been aimed at relating man to man to this world, to an acceptance of the very beautiful and terrible mysteries that we are part of. I aim at very direct statement and ask for a simple and direct response. Any other way the message gets lost. My painting is almost entirely autobiographical – it tells you where I am at any given point in time, where I am living and the direction I am pointing in. In this present time it is very difficult to paint for other people – to paint beyond your own ends and point directions as painters once did. Once the painter was making signs and symbols for people to live by; now he makes things to hang on walls at exhibitions. Influences At the Dunedin School of Art, McCahon met Rodney Eric Kennedy, Doris Lusk, Anne Hamblett, and Patrick Hayman, a group whose members all went on to become notable New Zealand artists. J. D. Charlton Edgar and Arthur Gordon Tovey were among their teachers. He met Mary Cockburn-Mercer in 1953 on a trip to Melbourne; she rekindled his interest in cubism. During a visit to the United States in 1958, McCahon saw paintings by Barnett Newman, Kazimir Malevich, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Piet Mondrian, and Willem de Kooning. Before this trip, he had only seen these works reproduced in books. He was