What motivates you to create?
My motivation to create comes and goes at times. I have a busy lifestyle with kids, sport, work etc so it is something I do to relax my mind and relieve anxiety.
Where do you find inspiration?
I find inspiration from all things around me be it the beaches or the bush, nature, animals, family and friends. Sometimes it can be just from what goes on inside my mind!
What is your favourite medium/style?
I enjoy making jewellery from shells and things I find on the beach. I like to create different one-of-a-kind pieces. I also enjoy painting and like to explore with different styles and mediums from acrylic on canvas to palette knife painting to watercolours.
What are you currently working on or finished?
I am currently working on some paintings for our up coming exhibitions. Trying to get a few new works done to display so working hard to get them done in time!
How long have you been creating art and what got you started?
I have always loved creating art. I used to draw a lot in high school. After leaving school I worked in hospitality as a barista and waitress for years in different cafes and pubs and restaurants. Being a barista I guess I was creating by doing patterns on top of coffees for customers but I felt after years of that I needed a change from hospitality and needed to do something that made me feel happier inside. I left the hospitality industries for a while and my mental health declined as I didn’t know what I was meant to do with my life. So I had a lot of spare time and started to create things to fill in that time. I was having major anxiety issues. I found that it helped to slow my overthinking and relax my body when I sat and focused on creating. That was about 8 years ago now. I think I started to share things I would create or paint on my social media and someone said to me that was the path I should take. That gave me more confidence to think maybe that was something I should pursue as an actual career, so Three years ago, I decided to enrol in Cultural Arts at Tafe to learn more and things really took off from there. I was lucky to have an awesome teacher that showed me where art could take me and taught me a lot about design and industry jobs. Im very grateful I took the steps to enrol in the course and to have gotten the chance to learn and create with some amazing people who became like a family and helped me to take my art to the next level and make a career from doing what makes me feel happy inside.
Any major success?
Having completed Certificates 2 through to 4 in Cultural Arts I was awarded the Student of the year for Creative Design Ideation at the Tafe Gili Awards 2022 and the Student of the Year for Creative Design Ideation at the Tafe NSW Excellence Awards 2023.
Where do you see yourself in the future with your art?
I would love to see my art being shown in Galleries all around. Eventually I would love to create my own clothing line featuring my art and maybe even step it up with the jewelry and create pieces from precious metals and stones not just things I find from nature or on the beach!
Where was your starting point?
I was buying used canvases from the opshops and painting with cheap paints and creating wall hangings and jewelry from wool and shells and beads and anything I could find or buy very cheaply and mostly giving my creations away to family and friends.
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