Interview: introducing artist Carley Cornelissen
Posted on June 24, 2016
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Here at Curious Duke Gallery we are very excited to introduce to an artist from far far away. The exceptional talent of Australian artist Carley Corneilissen has come to our shores with her campaign to raise awareness of the plight of endangered animals, but with a twist of collage and Pop Art.
You can see more of Carley’s work here.
Name: Carley Cornelissen
Discipline: Mixed media painting
Where do you live?
In the hinterlands of the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia.
Where did you study?
At RMIT in Melbourne, I finished in 2006 and then moved to Queensland where my family were living and have been very happy living here ever since; it is a really beautiful area with an amazing climate.
How did you start your artistic career?
After finishing my degree and moving north I was trying to find my voice in my artwork for a number of years, then about four years ago I started cutting stencils and playing around with colour, spray paints and revisiting transfer techniques that I had been using at university, the ideas just keep flowing. I can now identify that the aspects of my practice, which really motivate and drive me to create are colour, pattern and the experimental nature of my transfer techniques.
Your artwork is rather varied but they all come back to animals and flora and fauna. Tell us about your beliefs and practice.
I have been obsessed with animals forever, I just love them all. I have been vegetarian for 11 years now, but only really understood what the impact of the growing population and consumerism was doing to the environment in the last few years. With a lot of my work I am taking an animal and creating an environment with can't be touched by human greed, they can live peacefully together.
Do you have a routine, or an exercise you have to do get you started?
I'm not a morning person at all so when I have full days in the studio I am always off to a slow start, but can end up working into the night. I love to binge watch TV shows when I paint, my ideal day is definitely setting myself up with some detail in a painting and my current favourite show.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?
Hopefully much the same as now! I currently work full time so at some point I would like to be able to cut that down to three or four days so I would be able to spend more time in the studio. My husband and I are also planning/dreaming of some big overseas travel, we have both done a lot of travel before we meet but since we have been together my focus has definitely been on my art and I haven't been very comfortable leaving the studio for much more than a week or two, I think I get separation anxiety!
What is coming up next for you?
I have been accepted into a couple of art prizes here in Australia, which is exciting. I am also experimenting with working on layers of Perspex, which is something I've wanted to do for over a year.
Do you have any reading suggestions?
Unfortunately I haven't had much time for reading over the last few years, between working full time and my practice I tend to only listen to podcasts or watch TV because I can do other things at the same time!
My podcast obsession has mainly been focused on Serial and anything Serial related for the last few months but I am about to start the jealous curator: art for your ears which I think will be pretty good.
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Written by Curious Duke Gallery blogger Sinéad Loftus.
Lover of all art and fluffy cats.