Hello world!
A new website, a new blog, a new beginning.
Thought I would take this new opportunity to tell you about the past.
You see, I've created a lot of things, but this is the first time I've been able to showcase it all nicely and together. Hopefully this will grow to be a sort of living portfolio of my work and future endeavors to come.
All throughout my life I've been creative. Drawing, painting, you name it, I was doing it. But it wasn't until 2021 when I joined my local art group that I started to take my passions as a creative more seriously.
My first time exhibiting my work was a huge learning for me. It was a shared exhibition space with the Nelson Art Group, a simple small artworks exhibition. Yet I learned so much about the simple basics of showing your art in real exhibition space. From proper fixings on canvases to time management and planning. It was a huge wake up call, one that was very important and well needed. But it also got me inspired to keep showing my work. What could I do next?
The next few times I showed my work was also through the Nelson Art Group at their annual Art in the Park event. The first time I attended I was ridiculously nervous. I had a whole stall put together with most of my work from the past year, and this was my first time facing the public with all my own work. But the reception of my art was better than I could have anticipated. Not only did selling some of my work make me feel hugely validated, but the kind comments and feedback from strangers and other club members was a big boost to my confidence and deeply appreciated.
In 2023 I was fortunate to be selected for the Zappekin: Get Zapped! Artists Residency. This was an incredibly cool experience; 8 weeks of studio space to create as one pleased, followed an opening event at which all artists gave a talk about their work, and with the exhibition going over two weekends. This was my first proper taste of what being a professional artist was like, and I loved every second of it. From the creating, to the organizing the event, and speaking to the public; it was super engaging and a personally rewarding to be a part of something like this. It only invigorated my passion to pursue the arts further.
Then at the end of 2024 I applied as a Working Artist with the Nelson Suter Art Society. Again, I was nervous, as there was a selection process to be considered for a Working Artist membership. Thankfully I put together a good body of work and was happy to learn that I'd been selected.
Since then, myself and some of my other Society members worked hard to put on a joint exhibition, the Power of Colour, which took place over July 2025. The other 5 artists and I were responsible not only for creating work for this exhibition, but for coordinating amongst ourselves and planning how to put together a good show and opening night. The support from the Society and my fellow artists was invaluable and without them, the show and my own work would not have been as successful as it was. Overall, it went very well, and we had a great range of vibrant and eclectic work on display as well as a busy and fun opening night.
Currently I’m working on some personal projects, seeking more inspiring creative opportunities, and branching out into new things; such as film photography and photojournalism. If these sound like anything you could help me out with dear reader, I would love to hear from you.
So that brings us to the present, more or less caught up to speed. There will be full tales told on my above experiences, all in due time. But for now, I’m very excited to share my creations with you. They have brought me a lot of joy creating them, and I hope to give that joy to you.
Aroha nui.