I’ve been making and creating as long as I can remember, always nurtured by my Mum who was an amazing creator. All through school, art and painting was the thing I most looked forward to and after going off on a bit of a tangent, I finally went and studied Makeup and then Hairdressing to work in film and TV makeup.
When I had my daughter I learnt about our natural drive to discover and create, and how much that is squashed in the traditional systems, so we decided to homeschool. I made sure we had loads of art and craft supplies around us and watching the kiddo do her thing freely, I found myself remembering what that was like. I decided to let myself follow the feeling I’ve always had in the background, but never tapped into, of painting for the sake of it.
Talk us through this design and what inspired its creation?
This was one of those paintings or designs that just evolved layer after layer, it didn’t start out like this at all. It was one of the first I worked on when I started finding a bit of flow with my colours and shapes, and it eventually went in a bit of a botanical direction which happens to be my other dream - one day having a big, colourful, leafy garden!
You aren’t afraid of colour which is totallyyy our jam. We love a bit of colour theory and eternally fascinated which colours pair well together, what they represent and the feelings they evoke. Do you find yourself drawn to particular tones, or are you all about covering every inch of the rainbow?
The way we each see and interpret colour is so interesting. There are colours and combinations that seem to be almost universally loved, and unexpected ones too that just seem to work together really well, in my own brain anyway. At the moment the same group of colours always end up on my palette in some form - mostly cool hues and pops of fluoro pinks, corals, plus the earthy, bronze yellow that I can’t seem to leave out. Then there are some that I realise now only make it home from the art store when I think I should be trying something different. They don’t really get used unless I’m playing and mixing and now I think of it, even as a kid, I was never really drawn to them.
If you were to go to a desert island for a month with the sole purpose of creating art, what are the first three things you would pack?
Definitely a bunch of bright acrylics, massive canvases, and huge brushes.
Cancer has touched so many of our lives. How does that make this collaboration particularly meaningful to you?
I get my love of art and creating from my Mum. She was always sewing, crafting and making but the thing that fascinated me most as a kid was her art. Of course she didn’t get to do much as a mum but when she did, we loved it. She earned a scholarship to study art after school, but as the daughter of immigrants living in Northern NSW, a career in art was not a priority, especially for women back then. Mum was diagnosed with Myeloma in 2008, and we were very lucky to have her for 10 more years. It has been a huge part of my decision to focus on my art again.
For those who will wear this scarf, especially cancer warriors, what message do you hope your design will hold for them?
There will always be growth, colour and dreams… even if sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. Find courage and be true to yourself x
Shop Greenhouse Dreams here!