Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2024 | From the Artist | Karen Coull

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In a captivating conversation, artist Karen Coull delves into her creative journey and influences while discussing her piece "Unidentified Woman Number One: The Subtle Cost of Conformity," a finalist entry in the Sunshine Coast National Art Prize. Rooted in a tradition of reuse, Coull's art recontextualizes lost narratives, offering visibility to forgotten women through playful yet pointed collages and found object sculptures. Her work, deeply inspired by her matriarchal lineage and the drudgeries of domestic life, elevates the unnoticed, utilizing recycled materials in a testament to resilience and creativity.

Highlights

Karen Coull's work highlights the theme of anonymity and identity through collage art. 🖌️
Her artistic journey is deeply intertwined with personal history and social narratives. 🌿
Recycling and reusing materials form a core of her creative process. ♻️
Karen's influences include various pioneering women artists and her strong lineage of matriarchs. 👩‍🎨
Her approach to art is methodical, detailed, and deeply personal. 📚

Key Takeaways

Collage art revives forgotten stories of women through vibrant, recycled materials. 🎨
Artistic influence stems from the multigenerational narratives and domestic histories. 🏡
Self-instruction and the bold use of found objects define Karen's artistic style. 🔍
Residencies offer transformative experiences and foster creative growth. 🏢
Pursuing grants and residencies can provide crucial support for artists. 💰

Overview

Karen Coull's artistic journey is a tale of transformation and inspiration, rooted in her profound connection to her family's matriarchal heritage and the untold stories of women. Her work explores these narratives through collage art, which reimagines lost identities by combining found images and recycled materials. Her piece "Unidentified Woman Number One: The Subtle Cost of Conformity" stands as a testament to her dedication to elevating the forgotten through vibrant and carefully constructed compositions.

Set against a backdrop of artistic innovation, Karen's exploration of collage art is marked by a deep respect for the materials she uses. By giving new life to discarded objects and paper, her art not only tells the story of the women she represents but also speaks to broader themes of sustainability and creativity. Her commitment to these themes is intertwined with her personal experiences and reflections on the socio-cultural dynamics that shaped her upbringing.

Engaging with the viewer through her artistic expressions, Karen emphasizes the importance of art as both a personal and communal endeavor. Her journey through various artistic domains—from whimsical needlework to expansive collages—highlights her willingness to embrace challenges and push the boundaries of her medium. Through residencies and an ongoing quest for expression, Karen continues to inspire with her adaptability, creativity, and unwavering focus on her artistic mission.

Chapters

00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Acknowledgment Nina Shadforth, the Senior Curator, begins the artist talk with an acknowledgment of the traditional custodians of the land. She honors the Elders past and present of the Kabi Kabi and Gabara peoples, recognizing the Sunshine Coast region as a place of enduring cultural, social, and spiritual significance.
00:30 - 01:30: Artist Background The chapter discusses an artist who incorporates the concepts of reuse, recycle, and repair into her art practice. She breathes new life into disposable items and emphasizes small stories through various materials such as vent papers and books. The artist holds a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts, focusing on painting, from the University of Western Sydney.
02:30 - 03:30: Karen's Early Interest in Art Karen has gained a significant reputation in the art world, having her pieces displayed in solo exhibitions both in Australia and France. Her art is not only part of private collections but also held in public ones across various countries including Australia, France, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, her work has been critically acclaimed with reviews featured in prominent publications like the Sydney Herald and The Australian, with notable critics such as Joanna Mendelson, Bruce James, and Courtney Kid taking an interest in her pieces.
04:30 - 07:00: Education and Artistic Development The chapter discusses the achievements of Karen, highlighting her impressive range of critics mentioned in her CV. Karen has been a multiple finalist in various art awards across the nation. She is notably one of the 40 finalists in the Sunshine Coast National Art Prize, recognized for her work titled 'Unidentified Woman Number One: The Subtle Cost of Conformity.'
07:30 - 10:00: Transition to Collage and Unique Art Style The chapter begins with a welcome to Karen, who appreciates the effort made to overcome the technical problems typically encountered in such setups. Karen is introduced as a guest in a program hosted by Nina. Despite the usual issues, they manage to proceed with the interview smoothly.
10:30 - 15:00: Unidentified Woman Series The chapter explores the protagonist's background, highlighting a deep and multigenerational connection to fundamental religious values through the women in her family. Despite these strong roots, the protagonist's interest in art began during childhood. Her early years were marked by frequent illness, particularly chronic asthma, which confined her to bed rest. It was during these times of bed rest that her interest in art started to develop, thanks to her mother's influence and encouragement.
15:30 - 24:00: Collage Process and Studio Practice This chapter discusses the author's experience with collage making and studio practice as part of their artistic development. It highlights an early fascination with art materials and techniques, including collage, cutouts, and painting. The author recalls using homemade glue, learning knitting and embroidery, and making do with available resources. Their interest in art continued into high school, where they chose visual arts as an elective.
24:00 - 29:00: Residency Experience The chapter titled 'Residency Experience' reflects on the speaker's personal journey during their residency, highlighting their passion for art despite challenges. They reminisce about dedicating two days a week to art, which brought them joy amidst their busy schedule. Furthermore, in the balancing act of life during the 70s and 80s, they pursued a show card and ticket writing course in North Sydney, which they started in the mid-80s. Unfortunately, they didn't complete it but had high aspirations throughout their endeavor.
30:00 - 37:00: Influences and Inspirations The chapter titled 'Influences and Inspirations' explores the narrator's early fascination with sign writing, particularly inspired by the beautifully painted shop front windows and Christmas-themed displays from the 70s and 80s. The narrator recounts their admiration for this art form and its influence on their aspirations during that vibrant era, culminating in a significant moment in 1988 with the opening of the Beautiful Gallery at Campbell Town.
38:00 - 46:00: Career Highlights and Advice The chapter provides an insight into the early career highlights of an individual who attended evening painting classes with David Fairburn at a regional gallery. These classes inspired further education, leading the individual to enroll at the University of Western Sydney at the campus in Penrith. The university was noted for being cutting-edge at the time, adding to the individual's educational journey and professional development.
54:30 - 60:00: Engagement with Audience and Future Work The chapter discusses the closure of a University under the Department of Performing and Visual Arts. The university offered a Bachelor of Vance, but it was shut down around 2010 or 2011 by the liberal government at the time. The decision was based on the belief that the western suburbs did not need an Arts University, leading to the disappearance of the arts department.
71:00 - 75:00: Conclusion and Closing Remarks The chapter titled 'Conclusion and Closing Remarks' described the conclusion and reflections regarding art programs, focusing on activities in the arts department that were previously more active in the city. The chapter mentions David Fabin, who has contributed significantly to the art collection and is recognized for his achievements, including being a former SCAP (Sculpture and Craft Award Program) winner around 2011 or 2012. The discussion highlights nostalgia and continuity in the art community.

Sunshine Coast National Art Prize 2024 | From the Artist | Karen Coull Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 good afternoon and warm welcome to all who have tuned in for today's from the artist talk my name is Nina shadforth senior curator for colle I'd first like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land on which we bring you this program and pay my respects to Elders past and present I recognize that the kabi kabi and Gabara people's country of the coastal PLS and hint lands of the Sunshine Coast have always been contined to be places of cultural soci spiritual
00:30 - 01:00 and Ecom Our Guest today artist working in who honors the notion of reuse recycle and repair within her arts practice and giving new life to the Disposable and highlighting small stories within vent papers and books paren holds a ba in Visual Arts painting from the University of Western Sydney
01:00 - 01:30 she is the recipient of trust brand her work has been shown solo shows across Australia and in France her work is represented in private and public collections in Australia France the US and the UK and she of reviews in syney Herald the Australian Sydney da Sebastian smei Joanna Mendelson Bruce James Jes and loley and Courtney kid so
01:30 - 02:00 that's uh quite a impressive um range of critics to add into your CV um Karen's also a multiple finalist in a number of art Awards around the nation and is of course one of the 40 finalists in this year's Sunshine Coast National Art prize with her work unidentified woman number one the subtle cost of Conformity so this work
02:00 - 02:30 is Karen's work here so Karen welcome to the program thank you very much thank you very much Nina and thank you for working through the problems welcome we always seem to have something um it's just never straightforward but we get through so excellent it's great to have you thank you so much so um we'll get started in the questions but um first things first and um you've stated that you know your
02:30 - 03:00 background was firmly rooted in and formed by a profound Narrative of the multigenerational fundamental religious women of your family so that being said how and when did you first become interested in art gosh I think like most people as a child I was a really sick child and so it was the days before ventalin and I was a chronic asmatic so I spent a lot of time in bed and my mother um had an
03:00 - 03:30 art box and I would be handed over this wonderful art box and I did collages and cutouts and painting and of course glue the glue was made from flour and water glue that you cooked up over the stove I learned to knit and croia needle work and I did all of those and so made do then as well going on to high school I chose um visarts as my elective and um I hate in high school
03:30 - 04:00 I'll put my hand up for that but my joy was two days a week I got to do art and it was a great thing um following on from that um and balancing 70s and 80s life I did a show card and ticket writing course um in through North Sydney TA in gosh mid 80s and it was um I didn't finish it unfortunately but I had high
04:00 - 04:30 hopes of becoming a sign writer I was always fascinated with those beautiful um shop front windows with the you know the Christmas paintings and all the rest of I loved it from that um around that time it was still busy it was the you know 70s 80s things were happening life was going on and it wasn't until um 1988 and the Beautiful Gallery at Campbell town had just opened
04:30 - 05:00 that fabulous Regional gallery and it was just a showcase piece and David Fairburn offered evening painting classes there and so I did painting classes with David Fairburn it then went on to after the class finished I went on to University and so I went to the University of Western Sydney in the pan and at the time Cutting Edge University it was really you know there was so much
05:00 - 05:30 going on it was fabulous University it was under the um Department of Performing and visual arts and did a bachelor of Vance subsequently to that um in 2010 or 2011 I was overseas at the time but the University was shut down by the then liberal government of the time who decided the um western suburbs didn't need a Arts University so theart Department disappeared and unfortunately
05:30 - 06:00 there was no more though the only Arts departments doing programs were back in the city gosh um and so David fabin um coincidentally uh has a number of works in the art collection oh fantastic so um and he's also a former um scap winner I think oh goodness me oh might have been 2012 12 or 2011 I think he right yeah
06:00 - 06:30 goodness me so was his influence on you um because it was painting classes so is that where you thought that was your place in in terms of I did and I think um I didn't know of the variety so I went into the painting department and at the time the painting department was a very masculine bloky place it there was only m lecturas and
06:30 - 07:00 the expectation of that time was perhaps I took that on but it was certainly reinforced through a lot of the work was um doing big modernist paintings it wasn't until my last year university and in my final year just before I was making starting to make work for the final graduation program that I thought I'm not painting I'm going to do needle work which went over like a lead balloon and I um It Made
07:00 - 07:30 Beautiful tall boxes on carve handc carved legs and they were padded and really finely hand embroidery over these boxes and collages and a series of collages um and six weeks before the show was due to start one of the lecturers came into my space and he looked at me he looked at the art he looked at me looked at the art again and said it's not too late to whip up a
07:30 - 08:00 painting which was subsequently the the work was really well received and the university bought four of the works for their collection so it went fine and I didn't need to whip up a painting that that landed very well then for you and absolutely and yeah that's great to hear that um it didn't shatter any confidence you had oh no true um and to to push through
08:00 - 08:30 with um an art form that really speaks about what you do now have done have continued to do is that right so absolutely yeah um so I just wanted to um talk about the work that you entered in this year's art prize unidentified woman number one the subtle cost of Conformity so um it's from the unidentified women series is that right yes yes um because there's a few other
08:30 - 09:00 similar um series that I'd like to touch on but um basically the the image is a portrait black and white portrait of an unidentified woman um and she's screened by this regular placement series like a grid of cut colored squares so um it's quite a contrast and so I just want to understand what what it is um about the title The subtle cost of Conformity what what is it that you're wanting to say I
09:00 - 09:30 think um when I I found the images on the Smith zon in and they went on to their free edit images um and it was fabulous you could go through and find images to use in your artwork and as a collage artist it's really important to make sure you're using images that are copyright free and all of the um the male uh photograph the photographs of the men at the time had these great long
09:30 - 10:00 titles you know like captain watsy of the watsy Brigade or and all really detailed in their full names but there was a series of women that had unidentified women because the women didn't have names that was sort of the black and white and sort of sitting back interesting and very interesting and of the you know it was of the times as well you know and like my you know background um it was really important for me to sort of bring these women out from the the background and sort of give
10:00 - 10:30 them these bright colors you know and form formulate a new story for these women and of course my love is paper my primary love is paper and collage and so I was using um recycled and reused paper and retro papers but to give them color and story and you know to bring out a story for them I love it it's um yeah it comes from a
10:30 - 11:00 um a a place of you know your background and looking at yeah how how women were placed in society and and the unimportance of it all really so strong now like you just yeah bringing it to the floor so um so you've got unidentified women series uh you've got invisible women series as well so just unpack a little bit
11:00 - 11:30 about um the work well the Invisible Woman my um I come from a very strong matriarchal line of women and these women the images from when they're younger and there were six sisters and they're all standing there laughing and you know quiet life is you know free and open and they sort of got knocked down as time went through and they became more and more D and my grandmother was a very d a tough woman she was bornn in
11:30 - 12:00 1899 and so lived through a lot of those the gosh depression and all those really hard times and lost two husbands and things moved on and then um had my mother and her sister in her early 40s which is common now but it wasn't common then you know women were aged by you know 65 at my age you were certainly sort of put aside and raising your grandchildren or what have you and um I
12:00 - 12:30 think I wanted to sort of showcase the invisible women all of these women were in the background and even my mother who was a incredibly tenacious woman that lived through so much tragedy and um she was a widow at you know 38 and then she then passed away at just after her 40th birthday so it's about just bringing recognition to these lost women and
12:30 - 13:00 showcasing them yeah Lily it's um yeah and that you know that um the nature of collecting imagery from those ear as well speaks a lot about what you're trying to say in terms of yes these women that are not um not visible not to the Forefront so um uh the thing I wanted to um touch on
13:00 - 13:30 is you um are a collage artist and uh that you know means that you'd be scaring papers and all sorts of things what absolutely what does your studio look like with all of these uh well my studio at the moment is absolutely empty because I moved I moved at the end of July The Residency finished and I went straight I went overseas for five weeks
13:30 - 14:00 so I had to have everything cleared away and I'm looking for a new studio so at the moment my studio is my desk so my idea of portability works very very good so things I can move about so um I'm in the process of looking for a new studio so I can make a mess however I do like an ordered Studio I like things structured and ordered and I think because um I was a single parent with three children yeah and um you know and I made work
14:00 - 14:30 directly talking to the drudgery and monotonous you know every day in the house work so I liked order but I had three children it was never going to be ordered so now I quite like a sort of a pretty organized workspace yeah and so um are you sort of constantly um would you frequent uh op shops for the Vintage content or what where do you find absolutely I am a bit of a um I wouldn't
14:30 - 15:00 say hoarder well just hoarder but I beautiful things and beautiful papers I use what it's about you know and I've always that making do and that's of that generation too that you know from the women of my past you had to reuse and recycle and make do and as a when I started making art I was a single parent going through uni I had no money so I
15:00 - 15:30 made do and I used what I could find and um not only through op shops in those days the side of the road people were always throwing out things and I was using readys and found objects and where a lot of my work that's gone on I've found on the side of the road and in one um work that I spoke about actually last week at Cula and it was in their collection is a beautiful bre that I found on the side of the road and
15:30 - 16:00 this beautiful and weathered and aged and the bristles sort of out like a symmetrical wave and with that one um and with a series of work I covered them with rose thorns and blackberry Thorns found from the side of the road okay and so um in each of those Thorns I had um a son that I put him in the front seat to keep him occupied and he was the spot and as we're driving around through
16:00 - 16:30 these Country Roads you call out there's a patch and I jump out with my secretar and cut these and harvest these prunings of you know blackberries and take them home and at night very carefully peel off all these rose thorns and sand their little bottoms so they're all flat nothing if not detailed um and my hands were always blooded and scratched MS and last year I
16:30 - 17:00 Revisited um the process and made a work that was accepted for the valara small sculpture price and again I had bloodied and scratched hands well sure it was worth um so let's talk more about your 3D um tendency you know that you you like working in 3D forms and um even with paper forms I see absolutely abs abolutely
17:00 - 17:30 expressions of um you know sort of paper forms that are coming out from the page or coming out from a flat surface or holding its own as a three-dimensional form so yes yeah is there any um particular works that you'd like to sort of highlight I think um challenging Journey to the year I became invisible okay was a big one a big piece I think it was maybe I don't know one 1.3 by
17:30 - 18:00 about one and it won the drawing prize at um The W art prize Waverly wavy art prise and it was layers of vintage maps and layers of vintage maps and vintage drawings and papers which I stitched together and so I do love paper that you can stitch it and move it about and it sort of um then made a map of places
18:00 - 18:30 I've lived at and environments that were you know special to me but all with that beautiful vintage paper that you can't get the colors or anything else with that and again it was affordability yeah so these maps that i' sort of carted around for years so yes I do have a stash of papers and things that I love and I love needle workor and so that was this repetitive you know monotonous process but also very Mindful and you know enjoyable I could sit there and just you know listen to a podcast or
18:30 - 19:00 something but I could keep stitching and sort of sew and work on these detailed always detailed in time consuming but I really like the process of slow art slow art yes and um just another term that links to that that I discovered on your Instagram page is um analog collage the hashtag so what is that analog collage is handcuff handmade collage so um as opposed to
19:00 - 19:30 digital collage which is some people's jam and that's great for them but I love the process the handmade and um so sitting and mindfully cutting out and placement so a lot of people now are doing collage and whether or not they you know put the thought into it that I do because they love the time it's spent
19:30 - 20:00 with it in fact um when why analog collage is so important during lockdown and the pandemic I went online and online is social media has got some great Horrors to it but online for the Arts Community it's actually quite a supportive community and the analog and the collage women fabulous Community across the world you know and doing wonderful things and always supportive
20:00 - 20:30 and you could put work out there and sort of get feedback on it so I think that part of the community was really good as well that's that's great and um um in terms of like digital collage that's not your jam you you don't don't feel like you would ever sort of play in that space or um possibly but digital is not my thing technology is not my thing Nina so it's um no I look I worked in the
20:30 - 21:00 corporate world for a few years and it was always wonderful to be able to pick up the phone and ring the it desk and someone would come down and fix it for you I like that too yes and they're there to help um so um so you love the process of um cutting and collecting and um and of course arranging so every piece on that
21:00 - 21:30 work that's in the uprise so every piece um that's been cut as a square you've been quite um purposeful in where like it's gone everything absolutely and um I think I love working in series for that reason that everything is different but you're actually moving through real process and
21:30 - 22:00 you can use that series to sort of move through ideas and processes and as a whole I love seeing series as a whole so the um the work in that one and all of the behind that they're all cut out the squares are cut out so it's like it's sort of waven into the story and that's what I wanted and the lining up I don't cut a straight line at all very well I even with a Ru of the St ends up crooked and and um so cutting out those holes
22:00 - 22:30 with the process as well yes gosh yeah and there's a lot of squares there are a lot of squares you can see yes and they all had to line up and be perfectly symmetrical yes destroyed a lot of Works doing that oh so that's well there's something you know what challenges do you find when you do create these collage um when I am creative I really like can't using a razor to rub out a mistake oh absolutely
22:30 - 23:00 my hands are I've got gardeners and artist hands they're they're always looking a mess in their Scar and bloody they're never going to be pretty someone recently said to me um oh why don't you get your nails done I said I've worn nail polish three times in my life it's just I don't want to showcase these hands things they're working hands Working Hands um what you the challenges I think is because I've started working big because I thought these women deserve to be to be
23:00 - 23:30 seen and to be shown so I wanted big getting them framed is difficult moving them about is difficult because the joy of working in smaller domestic size and portable you know I can sit at the kitchen table I could work on these smaller images and take them with me yeah um I've recently come back from I was overseas for five weeks in the US and I took work with me and it was the first time I've actually not done work
23:30 - 24:00 it was I read a couple of books though which was very nice but I took it with me and it is that thing about being portable but with these women it's they deserve to be seen and deserve to be big so that was a an important consideration now with the challenges of working big and so those um obviously the the um the source image or the the primary image natur isn't that size so um image
24:00 - 24:30 then scanned in and printed to because they are yeah it is quite a large work the one that's in the art prize so yes um so they are scanned and printed and then they come back to me and then I work on them but I often work on a smaller image first to see how it's going to work and I'm quite um anal about where I put things so I'll do a smaller one first I do mockups and
24:30 - 25:00 I sort of work out my colors and what works best and I've been knowing to after spending hours and you know days on a work if it doesn't look good I'll destroy it so um one of those women disappeared unfortunately but it just wasn't right and so I wanted you know they deserve to look great so um they've moved on and framing them you know I've got a wonderful framer at B um Andrew Basset who does the most Divine beautiful
25:00 - 25:30 frames and so they someone said you could pin them onto a studio wall or pin them into a gallery wall and I thought no they you know they deserve to be framed um and um so you before you went to the state you just finished a residency so it was the city of Sydney um had have six studio apartments that are leased
25:30 - 26:00 out for 18 months time um for a very very pepper corn rent and so it's highly sought after and especially now this round I know a few people that have applied for it and hundreds have gone for it wow so um it's a fabulous spot above the Australian Design Center in William Street Sydney so you're right in the center of it it's great you can you know get about and openings and get about and see things
26:00 - 26:30 and they one-bedroom units they're fabulous there a rooftop Terrace up the top and you're with other fabulous artists so you've sharing this community of um support and sharing ideas in the city of Sy fabulous they their Arts people were so good and always coming back to you you know any questions that'd come back to you immediately and respond and were there for any ideas or thoughts they would be so to it and really Keen to you help you out so it
26:30 - 27:00 was very sad to leave it and so I finished that up on the 31st of July that ended but I went overseas on the 30th of July so it's been a busy few months s and so um having that residency experience what what are your takeaways from that um in terms of um potentially informing Future Works informing Future Works it gave me the um
27:00 - 27:30 because I still work I work part-time as an inator host at a a big Gallery sounds glamorous it's it's not glamorous it's hard work on you're on your feet all day so um it gave afforded me the possibility to only to go down to parttime I do three days a week the rest of the time could be devoted to Art I was so close um to my workplace that I could be home and sitting at the desk
27:30 - 28:00 and making art at night after work and um going to openings and what have you I think what I take away from that is put your hand up for Grants I'm you know 63 and for years I wouldn't touch them I thought the process was too hard anyone that's offering grants and prizes they you know they want to help you yes contact them with emails and what have you and people I think are just sometimes so put off by the RS of paperwork that they
28:00 - 28:30 necessitate right and it is um you know in the past it's been quite daunting and I I think you know that it's it's slowly getting a bit easier to um interpret and and express what it is the project that you're trying to get funding for so um but that's that you know that's a great um setup in terms of The Residency it's absolutely part of everything and now with Sydney rentals is so so
28:30 - 29:00 high that it's um really I think the applications have closed but it's um and they will be announcing their next six people again soon but it wonderful program and there other are other programs out there and there are other guest residencies you know um bueron have some uh in the city I'm thinking what else will are and has wonderful residency spaces and too so go for them
29:00 - 29:30 say yes say yes to everything that's good advice um for anyone who's sort of um practicing and and thinking about residencies it's um great advice absolutely um aside from your family influence um in terms of art who or what has been the greatest influence oh gosh we've got such strong Australian women artists I think it Fiona Hall Fiona Davies Flur
29:30 - 30:00 McDonald um Julie rap Deborah Kelly in the collage um realm Broman Oliver the most wonderful Broman Oliver that we lost um overseas Louise bouar of course in the early days Judy Chicago and the dinner party series you know I was just cutting edge for me and opened my eyes so much to what was women's s and and the women's house artists and I was
30:00 - 30:30 lucky enough to see the women's house um exhibition in Paris in the manarine Paris in the late two 2000s and it was just you know this great sort of um opportunities out there I think my number one primary um inspiration would be rosley gascoin and of course rosley gascoin with her found assemblages and sculptur with the master of
30:30 - 31:00 transformation and she had her first solo show at 57 she just have sit around the kitchen table and make art and so she you know she's out there she was out there and doing stuff and collecting and she was a bit like me with a bow bird collecting from the side of the road but it's never too late you know get up and do it and life short just say yes I love that I think that's good um and yeah we um she was such
31:00 - 31:30 um yeah such a prominent female figure yes um and so you know distinct in terms of her aesthetic and and her um art making so um and career highlights for you is there career highlights you know I've had some wonderful career highlights and I've been very lucky to win some prizes and do things and travel do you know I think my highlight
31:30 - 32:00 was University I think people don't realize how fabulous and lucky you are to you know be at University surrounded by Art I went to University our course was five days a week and so it it was a balance and I was convinced I was going to be caught out as being a fraud because I went as a mature age student you know in my 30s but I um so I really put an awful lot of it effort into it but you have that
32:00 - 32:30 environment where everyone's talking about art you're getting feedback on your art you can make art and live art and it's a really important time in an artist career and to make the most of it and you often get overwhelmed and you know essays and balancing work life and you know working as well but it's such a good time in an artist career I think that was you know one of the highlights of my career oh that's great and you know as you said ear that exhibition that your graduate exhibition absolutely
32:30 - 33:00 you chose not to paint yes in the painting department it was fabulous and create something that was true to you and I yes yeah that to me I was going to ask you about you know what was the transition from painting to collage but that was it and that yes that from there you launched I guess um in terms of your practice and what what you enjoy making and creating absolutely absolutely and um um and your first Gallery solo show
33:00 - 33:30 how did that come about gosh where was that was that fora well fora Gallery was it fora or um performance space well 4A performance space yeah that I applied for in those days you applied for your shows and I was you know bold and full of you know courage and but you sent off slides and of course we had these you didn't have these digital images you can do now so you'd only have to have a few
33:30 - 34:00 supplies of your slides and so often they were glass slides so that have to be wrapped up in bubble wrap and you'd literally send them post them off to um Galleries and um you'd have to keep your fingers cross and just hope and a lot of but a lot of it now is going out and being seen at the right galleries now I had three children at home and single parent I wasn't doing all the schmoozing that you miss I missed out on I think at University and um open nights but do
34:00 - 34:30 that get out go to the openings go to the galleries because you need to be seen and recognized but in the old days no we sent off our slides and just hoped we you know we think do I send off these good ones or these second good ones and it was the time of slides and you know talking to people and I think um I was very lucky with um the wonderful John Kirkman from coula Powerhouse who was a the director at the time of the gr opening and he was just such a great
34:30 - 35:00 support and sort of you know carried me through and invited me to make art for that that original show so that was a great opportunity for me um and that was collage as well that was that was 3D um sculptures and surprisingly and with apologies to anyone that bought these works like ebony Russell's work with the the cake you know the cake with the plas and the clay I actually made royal icing
35:00 - 35:30 um beautiful 2D hanging on the wall made out of royal icing and rose thorns it had to be stuff I had at home cation issue but yes absolutely so I don't think the royal icing ones has survived anymore and they sold out very well um and it was funny because another work that was in the um that show was a pair of silicon gloves covered in thorns and
35:30 - 36:00 it was about called Soft Touch and so it was about the drudgery of housework and um recently and they're in a particular collection um the Cula Liverpool collection and an Arts worker said to me and they've deteriorated of course they were silicon gloves Arts worker said to me um well why would you make work out of um a work that has material that has the potential to deteriorate well it was 30 years ago I
36:00 - 36:30 also was a young single parent and you may do you used what you had and you you know that is why I made work well and anyway I still think they look fine they''re discolored but they're doing all right you get to see them every and out again it's uh absolutely absolutely um okay we're getting close to um um the end of our chat but I want
36:30 - 37:00 to see if we've got questions from the floor and um oh look at that so um the first one I've got here which contemporary historical artists inspire you contemporary historical artist what's a contemporary historical artist contemporary SL historical so either or Oh either SM me rosley gascoin I'll go back to rosley gascoin it has to be I
37:00 - 37:30 once took a um a temp job because I used to be a temp to balance art and kids and all the rest of it and I was a temp and um I once took a job at alen's law firm in Sydney which has a wonderful Australian art collection because opposite where I would be sitting with this beautiful rosley Gasco and so I took the job I think it was eight week job just so I could sit there and look at this artwork that's fantastic that's um that was a
37:30 - 38:00 nice little bonus for the job yes absolutely with that um comment from rocks from the floor love that freckly Rose Thorn work so ro oh thank you so much Ross I appreciate that um and can you talk about your sleep pillows series ah the sleep pillows this is a Dreadful thing but someone contacted me recently and said I
38:00 - 38:30 wrote about your pillow and I said oh the sleep pillows no that was a different pillows I did a couple of series but i' forgotten about them the sleep pillows were pillows I made 60 because I never do anything small scale and I did series um series of bedroom pillows covered with beautiful oranza and beautiful French seams and they were done perfectly but all the the words and all of the pillows were talking about
38:30 - 39:00 lack of sleep I still sleep poorly I haven't slept you know the joy of being up sleep more than four hours is a good thing but on the pillows I um in beautiful text with pin and I mean you know these pillows individual pillows weigh a ton because there was so many pin spelling out these words and all talking about words of sleep so everything from you know French words
39:00 - 39:30 and just anything that had to do with sleep valium or sleep or night night and all of these words and these beautiful pillows and um unfortunately when I moved overseas um they went into storage because they were supposed to go into a move onto a show that the show fell over so and the pillows just aren't around anymore right and um and so the intention of um those in terms of like the gallery context how
39:30 - 40:00 how were they how would you um plan to install them you know like install them look possibly with a bed possibly on the floor I did a show at um at fora Gallery with the wonderful Melissa Chu who's now the director at the Hera in um the states and she curated this show and it was um I did a organza quilt filled with feathers that
40:00 - 40:30 I picked up from a chicken farm washed all of these feathers cut all the ends and threw this sort of big quilt across the floor and these sort of soft sort of flowing um pillows made out of feathers so I don't know I didn't get that opportunity and I certainly didn't have a studio at that time big enough to sort of move around these 60 pillows but that would take up a bit of space I would have I I would have thought about it well look you know is that something
40:30 - 41:00 that might uh sort of come to the surface in the future I have got so many ideas and I think because I'm um at the age I am I sort of had this Fierce desire to get work out and to do work and so I've got lots of ideas and it's just about having the time and the space to be able to sit down and make art and so my theory is I come home from work and if I'm tired suck it up sit at your desk and do some art and it's I can I
41:00 - 41:30 can sleep at another time so it's um yeah so Arts my focus and making arts that focus and I've got a huge list of things I want to try and sort of move forward with especially with the Aging women Series yeah so that's what you're currently working on and that's absolutely yeah um so that's bringing us to the end of our chat um but uh you can follow Karen um with her arts practice
41:30 - 42:00 on her Instagram page and the handle is love walking in snow I do too so um I'm not sure I couldn't find um I didn't have a chance to find a website but there's a Google search Karen call artist and you'll find a a whole bunch of things um interestingly the um you were talking about community ities our communities before and there's a collage one that you're a part of that
42:00 - 42:30 I saw which was really interesting excellent have a look yeah but we'll the link um we put in the chat and um so Karen I wanted to say thank you once again for joining us and thank you n sharing your insights about your practice and thank you so much there may be some more questions coming I'm not sure but um maybe stick around on on in the back end and have a look
42:30 - 43:00 and if there's any questions you can respond in the um so we've got one more from the outst talk uh before the exhibition closes in um just over a week's time so next week um our director Joe Juke will be back from L and she'll be talking to another finalist on the Tuesday at 1 o' rather than our usual Wednesday um next week is also our night of nights the announcement of the of the
43:00 - 43:30 art prize and um so there's the major prize sponsored by argon law and Sunshine Coast Council there's the uh highly commended sponsored by daine Family Trust The People's Choice Award sponsored by kandra uh Chamber of Commerce and uh the artist residency award which is sponsored by uh the Montville country cabins so there's still some tickets available for that
43:30 - 44:00 night so that's on the Thursday night the 3rd of uh October not August October at 6 o'cl and followed by uh the judges walk and talk to her on the Friday morning at 9:00 um and I think there still might be some tickets available but just jump online to the calor's website to find uh the bookings and um we also there's still catalogs of available um at the gallery where you'll see Karen's work alongside
44:00 - 44:30 the other um 39 finalists and uh thank you once again for supporting arts and culture on the Sunshine Coast and Karen any last words thank you very much for including me in such a strong year the final is a fabulous work and it's just such an honor to be part of the group well thank you for joining us today and uh wish you all the best for the thank you much thank you so much great speaking to you
44:30 - 45:00 bye bye bye now bye bye