Interview: Kate Rohde

If a picture equals one thousand words, then the first photograph that Makers of Melbourne snaps of sculptor Kate Rohde has this piece written. Looking down to admire the resin-stained floor of her Northcote studio, we spy feet encased in clog-like shoes so spattered with the detritus of her creative expression that they camouflage almost completely. It’s as if there is this person that has sprouted out of two seeds planted in the very concrete upon which we stand.

The urge to use this image to create the connection between the artist and her work – fantastical sculptures and vessels made with a psychedelic eye for colour and form – is irresistible, not least because of the obvious reversal: her zoomorphic sculptures balanced upon small paws serving as expression of her fascination with the natural world, while she herself stands upon feet given the appearance of art.

Kate: “I guess I kind of put all my energy in to making the work. It’s pretty consuming, in a way: I get a bit antsy if I don’t get something done, some way, in each day. At the end of the day, if I hadn’t ended up being an artist then I would still make work in some capacity.”

That she ended up an artist at all owes more to serendipity than concentrated intent. Raised in a “very un-arty, tradie family” in the Dandenongs, the young Kate segued a passion for arts and craft projects in to art school.

Kate: “I never had a strong direction. I was always open to opportunity and things that came up. So I just keep going, really: I still sometimes think about getting a real career, something that’s in the drop down menu that’s in the bank. I just imagined art school would be the hold music in my life until I did something else.”

Happily for lovers of her work, that “something else” never materialised. Instead, Kate has spent more than a decade perfecting an approach to expression that first manifested with her intense love for dramatically decorative arts inspired by her passion for Rococo sculpture – an era that still deeply informs her practice.

It has been, she admits, an obsession: that mix of animal imagery, the natural world and an unapologetic flamboyance lighting in her the fire of imagination that has given rise to Kate’s own unique signature.

What is intriguing in all of this is the apparent contradiction present between the basis of Kate’s art work and the element of control (self-expressed) that impacts upon her own nature. On the one hand there is Kate the sculptor daubing her vessels with ad hoc lumps of un-worked clay and dripping resin, on the other is Kate the facilitator expressing concern at the “clutter” of her highly organised studio space.

Not so much a conflict as a paradox, and one of which Kate is very much aware. It serves as the basis for the dramatic push and pull that engenders so much of the artistic tension that draws observers in to her creations.

Kate: “Deep down I always want to be more crazy and more out of control, but deep down there is a part of me that can’t. Stephen Bush, locally, is one of my favourite artists and, the way he paints… He lets these areas be completely random and other areas that are controlled and structured and I guess that’s what I do in my work: let some areas go unconscious – dumping clay and not doing too much to it, and then the other areas that you really work it up, getting that really fine detail and finish.”

Her unique approach has garnered plenty of fans, resulting in an inspired exhibition of flora with designer florist, Cecilia Fox, as well as ongoing projects with fashion designer, Alexi Freeman and fashion super duo Luke Sales and Anna Plunkett of Romance Was Born (Kate’s work is currently for view as part of the ‘Express Yourself: Romance Was Born’ exhibition at the NGV).

Along with her ongoing relationships with Pieces of Eight Gallery and Karen Woodbury Gallery, and her three-day-per-week art technician role at a Melbourne private school, these are all relationships that keep Kate's work rate at a constant high hum. It is a productivity she enjoys, though focus is maintained on keeping some free space should an unexpected proposal stoke her creative will.

It’s a well-maintained balance – chaos and structure poised in life as it is in her art. Requiring constant recalibration, Kate nonetheless appears as someone for whom predictability could breed a feeling of malcontent.

Kate: “It’s always a learning process and that’s what keeps me interested – that ongoing acquiring of skills and learning of new processes. Everything I make I want to live with and I would want to have around me, and then it’s a benefit if someone else would like to have that in their lives as well.”

Interview: Lucy Hardie

An artist is quickly identified by the way that they present themselves to the world and how they interact with their surroundings.

This is definitely the case with fine artist Lucy Hardie, who Makers had the pleasure of meeting recently for coffee at the Black Cat café; where the bohemian interior was a perfect match for Hardie's delicate aesthetic.

Immaculate Heart 2014 - Ink and metal leaf on cotton paper by Lucy Hardie

Based in Melbourne, Hardie tells us that she’s only recently returned to the city after time spent in nearby Ocean Grove. Although not such a long distance to travel, Ocean Grove and Brunswick Street couldn’t be further apart in terms of creative output and she confides that she’s happy to have settled into a more artistic neighbourhood.

Lucy: “When I was little I was inspired by the black and white line drawings that accompanied my favourite fairy tales.” 

We’ve ordered drinks and Lucy has begun to explain her art: incredibly detailed compositions of light and dark texture created with layers of fine lines and dots, carefully drawn onto cotton-based paper. The resulting work is romantic and dreamy, with a strong emphasis on the female figure. 

Lucy: “I was really inspired by the illustrative style of Vali Myers, who created the most finely detailed drawings. I taught myself to draw by looking at her work.”

Myer’s influence on Hardie’s work is striking, with both women working with pen, ink and gold leaf.

Salomé 2013 - Ink on cotton paper by Lucy Hardie

Although she has spent most of her life drawing, Lucy only started to seriously consider art as a career once she was in her early twenties

 Lucy: “I always thought of myself as artistic but never thought of myself as creative, but I think that’s only because I never saw art as a realistic option to pursue while I was growing up. I think that’s because people say, ‘Artists don’t make money, what are you going to do with your life?’ I always thought, ‘why the hell am I good at drawing, why can’t I be good at maths’. I didn’t really see the point of it, it was always more of a hobby.”

It was around the age of 22 that the artist decided to make the push. It was her sister that called her out, questioning as to why someone with such a beautiful body of work hadn’t thought about exhibiting.

Knocked back by a few galleries, the self-taught artist found her work accepted in to an artist-run space, staged the exhibition and was astounded to sell out on opening night. It was all the reinforcement she needed that this could in fact be a viable career pathway – that hers was not a talent that ought be taken for granted.

In 2010 at the age of 26, Lucy returned to school to complete a Bachelor of illustration. Although there had been previous attempts to enroll in other courses, she states frankly that she “never really followed through”. The decision to return to University came about after a brief period spent in Austria under the tutelage of US artist, Philip Rubinov Jacobson.

Mary 2012 - Ink on cotton paper by Lucy Hardie

Lucy: “We connected online because I’d asked him if he could recommend any courses to me, since I’m really interested in artistic technique, and that’s not really focussed on at Fine Art school, where it’s more about concept and philosophy. He suggested his course and I said, ‘done’. I was there for four weeks; it was an intense course and we were painting everyday. It was amazing to be surrounded only by artists, only talking about art. Before that I had always loved art, but it was only after I arrived in Austria that I realised that this is what I’ve been looking for my whole life.”

With study well and truly behind her and the recent move back to Melbourne, Makers is intrigued to know what possible influence this may have on her future creative output.

Lucy: “I’m starting to bring in more structure with [pictures of] buildings and things like that. But I think my work will always have a feminine feel to it. On my trips to Melbourne I would go past these factories that just seemed like they were in a different world, areas with no roads around them that only the train goes past. You can see these tiny little buildings with ladders going up them and smoke coming out of turrets - I felt so inspired and took many photographs, they’re like world unto themselves."

It seems the fairy tale influence hasn’t left her completely.

You are Here 2014 - Ink on cotton paper by Lucy Hardie 

lucyhardie.com

Interview: Lily Mae Martin

If a lot can be told about a creative by their studio, artist Lily Mae Martin’s decidedly feminine space speaks volumes.

Located at the back of her property in Preston, the converted garage is a virtual candy land of artistic ephemera; a collection of old box brownie cameras, canvases, reference books and rough sketches sit next to a prized collection of old photographs, carefully collected from flea markets, fetes and fairs across the globe.

“I love old cameras and I love old books,” Martin begins to explain as we take shelter in her workspace, avoiding a sudden downpour outside.

“And I love collecting old photographs. Wherever we travel I go and collect old photographs. Some of those are very fancy ones,” she says as she gestures to the fading pictures she has chosen to fill her space with.

“Though it’s not the fancy ones that I’m drawn to specifically, it’s when you’re in markets and you come across big boxes [of pictures] and it’s someone’s whole life. It makes me feel a bit sad. I’ve got so many photographs of mamas and their little kids, and of nuns. I’m really drawn to nuns.”

It is this dichotomy between traditional feminine roles and the objectification of women in art that has possibly played the greatest influence on Martin’s work to date, a collection of paintings and sketches focussing on the nude female form, with an emphasis on pregnancy and the gestating body.

Working across the fine arts, Lily Mae has been drawing for her entire life, but only began painting while she was in VCE.

Lily Mae: “Female nudes are important to me because, even though most of art is based around women being nude, I feel like it’s still quite devoid of the female experience. That’s what I’m trying to capture, that’s why in recent years drawing and painting women in pregnancy and after has been quite important. And it’s not just the male gaze. Because most of the art that is referenced is by men, women do it too. That’s the way that we’ve grown up to view the female figure, so I really want to capture all the bits and pieces in my work. "

A finalist in the 2014 Benalla Nude Art Prize, Martin admits that it can be hard to avoid objectifying her subjects.

Lily Mae: “People always talk about people in art always being objectified and it has such a negative connotation, but sometimes I see people and all I can think about is painting their cheekbones or drawing their hair.”

But it isn’t just about contributing to the reboot of how society thinks about women in art – plenty of her own experience as a person and as a mother funnels from her paint brush and on to the canvas. With experience and with time, the artist has enjoyed developing the ability to convey hers as a universal portrait representing the ‘other’ as much as it tells the story of her ‘self’.

Lily Mae: “There’s a very therapeutic and cathartic aspect to my work but I think, as I have grown along with my work, I’m able to talk about it and explore…in a broader sense. It’s not such a personal thing anymore.”

Lily Mae Martin is represented by Scott Livesey Galleries

Interview: Jason Parker

Where some would view shyness as a social hindrance, artist Jason Parker has used it as a frame within which to build a melancholic painting style that defines his art and – to some extent – his life.

Makers first met Jason in a shared creative studio after spying samples of his work resting half-complete. Painted in oils, the studies of his subjects are stirring for a suspended sense of loneliness.

Jason: “People are the main story in my work. I’m obsessed with watching my fellow man, I love watching interactions between groups of friends and I often find myself staring at people until it becomes…maybe creepy. I think it’s because I’m such an introvert that I feel a bit of a disconnect and by painting them it creates a connection in you to something bigger.”

There is a fine nuance to the tone of his canvases that is wrought by the creative tension between painter and subject. Caught in benign poses, one is never sure if the sense of menacing emotional darkness depicted is the state of the study, or the projection of the artist.

It’s a conflict Jason himself is open in recognising

Jason: “I attach my own sense of loneliness and vulnerability to the subjects. Whether that comes from the subjects I choose or whether that is me putting my stamp on them, that’s hard to say. What I can say is there is a recurring theme of loneliness and longing in my works.”

Having only recently made the transition from acrylics to oils, the 25-year-old is still deep in the process of defining his artistic voice and developing his craft: trained as a graphic designer, he is in the process of consciously moving away from compulsions to create beautiful composition and instead to work on production of pieces that hold the essence of a feeling derived – not from the subject – but from his subconscious.

The response to his vision, so far, has been encouraging: having last year rented a space to show his work, the selling of some 80 percent of paintings exhibited served to strengthen his self-belief. One must imagine it’s a spark that continues to flame as others within the Melbourne art scene also begin to take an interest: on July 25, his paintings will be on display at Off The Kerb gallery and studios on Johnstone Street in his first commissioned exhibition.

Jason: “I’m turning 26 this year so I’ve taken a huge step back to reassess what I want to do and – with art – it’s almost like, if I don’t give it a go now it will never happen for me. I guess all of this affirms that this is what I should devote myself towards."

Interview: Patrick Martinez

“My family were blue collar working people. I didn’t know anyone in galleries or whatever. I use that difference as ammo: to keep working and pushing and keep it honest.”

-       Patrick Martinez

Patrick Martinez

When local shoppers of the Los Angeles-area supermarket, El Tapatio Markets, took to the their ritual visit in October last year, they could have been excused for failing to notice, well, a little subtle redecoration.

Forget a new chocolate display, this was a full-scale, contemporary fine art installation: from the neon works casting subversive comments on life as we have become accustomed to living it, to the mixed media works camouflaged by our own indifference (think a plaster and paint Tupac ‘cake’ slipped in the dessert cool freeze). 

The artist was Patrick Martinez, the exhibition was “Break Bread” and the sentiment is something Makers sits with him to discuss off the back of his compelling Carbon forum as he prepares to return home following a brief visit to Melbourne.

"break bread market installation" - A one day site specific installation in a market context 2013

 - Photos by Brandon Shigeta.

In a new art landscape where widespread interest in graffiti is being used by street artists as a launch pad in to an artistic career, Martinez presented as something different: a young artist of incredible focus for whom graffiti simply served as a small step on the climb up the fine art ladder.

Patrick: “The graffiti stuff, it’s place in my art was kind of like putting together a piece with colour and composition and subject: I was doing my drawing, then it was marker drawing and then it was a spray can that I picked up and then I was 22-years-old and always doing canvas work. It’s part of the journey.”

The “journey” is something Patrick has been on since sketching his way through a childhood filled with likeminded artistic family members who, despite their gifts, never succeeded in converting their creative passions (photography for his father, painting and sculpting for his grandfather and uncle) in to viable careers. 

'A dream deferred' - Neon 2013

But perhaps it was his mother that most influenced him, a woman with a passion for objects that got him thinking about the way we use decoration to construct the set that works as the backdrop to the performance of our lives.

Patrick: “She would buy things that she thought would enhance our house, but it was not quite right – china that was not great or mirrors with frosted bouquets of flowers that were meant to imitate a Rococco frame. She was just trying to work with what she had and that was interesting to me: people really try to dress up their situation and that stuff is inspiring to me if anything.”

Perhaps it’s this genuine curiosity and lack of judgement that (for the most part) saves Patrick’s works from falling victim to cynicism. In its place there is a spirit of the quizzical observer who is keen to present us all with a different perspective on life’s more mundane freeze frames. 

'Bread, butter, milk and eggs' - mixed media on acrylic plex and neon 2012

Patrick refers to it as keeping his gaze on “the phenomenology of his surroundings”. And it is this idea behind the art – as opposed to the catchy neon light box works that have garnered him such attention – that he prefers to think of as defining his artistic vocabulary.

Patrick: “I understand that right now, with technology, the neons are easy to digest. The internet is visual. It’s a perfect square to fit instagram which, as a medium, just kills for that stuff. It’s seductive. Having said that what I find interesting is the way that social media and the internet just gets it and multiplies it. But it’s not really my signature.”

So while we’re all busy regraming his incisive commentary – Pawn Your Dream For A 9-5 – Patrick is birthing his next powerful expression.

'Tough love' - Melted down hand guns, hard plastic, metal (bow) automotive paint with flake and clear 2012

Patrick: “I love to be in my studio and just have my ideas and some of them are set and some of them come at me and I am taken aback – I will have to work on that piece.  Right now I’m working on an eight-foot by sixteen-foot piece and it’s huge but I had to stop because I was slammed by inspiration for another piece, and then I’m also working an a sculpture right now. It’s just about continuing to create and find that relationship in what it is I’m creating.

'Savage Journey To The American Dream' - mixed media on plex and neon 2012