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Alexandra Tylee - Painter
Alexandra Tylee is a painter living in Poukawa in the Hawkes Bay. From her early twenties until her early forties Alexandra setup and ran 2 successful businesses, Fuel espresso in Wellington and Pipi Cafe in Havelock North. She has also written 3 cookbooks and an award winning children’s fiction book called If I Was A Banana.Alexandra started painting around 5 years ago. Selling Pipi cafe in 2023 allowed her to devote herself more to her painting practice and since then she has had two sell out exhibitions at Muse Galley in Havelock North.In this episode we talk about her passion for cooking and how it intertwines and connects with her love of painting, feelings, memories, stories and the still life paintings she likes to paint. We discuss how she sees running a business as a creative outlet and her approach to working in hospitality, how she feels now she has sold her business and has finally got time to devote to paintings, the painting lessons she had with NZ artist Helen Kerridge and why that felt important for her to do.Alexandra shares how she choose the objects for her still life works, what they mean to her and what they communicate, the way she sets up a composition that reflects the way she sees things, how she combines different elements and objects in her own unique way and how her paintings create stillness. We also talk about the 4 books she has written and her love of writing despite being dyslexic - I've included the video of Alexandra reading her children's book at the bottom of her blogpost.Support the showNgā mihi, thanks for listening! Follow CREATIVE CONNECTIONS on InstagramLearn more about Creative Connections and see images of each guests work and relevant links on our blog
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1:12:44
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1:12:44
Anna Stichbury - Contemporary Artist
Anna Stichbury is a contemporary New Zealand artist from Wellington whose practice spans painting and installation, distinguished by her bold use of colour, layered textures, and dynamic mark-making. It was a pleasure to meet and talk to Anna, an artist I have admired for a long time, and hear all about her fascinating art practice. We discuss how Anna studied design in Wellington after high school, what she gained from this course and a significant moment that lead to her first gallery representation in her early twenties, which marked the beginning of her established full time professional artist career of more than 25 years.Anna works around a number of themes and styles which all connect and talk to each other in different ways. We explore her floral paintings, her installation work and her most recent portraiture work and how she approaches and manages each of these series. Anna shares how her latest focus on portraiture came about and the joys and challenges of exploring a new genre within her practice.We chat about collage, installation, materials, working between styles and media successfully, maintaining personal creative projects alongside her professional work and why this works for her. And so much more.Anna has a solo show Listening To Flowers coming up at Parnell Gallery August 12th - 26th 2025.Read Anna's blogpostSupport the showNgā mihi, thanks for listening! Follow CREATIVE CONNECTIONS on InstagramLearn more about Creative Connections and see images of each guests work and relevant links on our blog
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1:37:56
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1:37:56
Sur Collective - A Latina Artist Collective
Sur Collective is an artist collective founded in 2021 out of a need to create a sense of place and redefine the space Latina artists use as migrant women in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Sur-Collective are 5 wahine from Colombia and Chile who work with different art disciplines such as sculpture, drawing, painting, textiles, ceramics, photography and embroidery.Today I'm speaking with one of the collective artists Cat Guevara, a ceramic artist who migrated to Aotearoa from Colombia 8 years ago.We have a fascinating chat about how Sur Collective came about and why, how it feels to be a Latina practising artist in NZ and how the collective artists use the arts as a tool to connect, relate and communicate, always with a focus on bringing their heritage and a certain flavour to this land.The Collective see the all of the work they do a bit like a portfolio: the work they create as individual artists that reflects on the collective, art activations, workshops, their studio space at Corbans Art Estate, installations, artist talks, community projects as well as group and solo shows.We talk about some of the amazing Sur Collective art activations and community projects they have delivered, the ideas and stories behind the projects, what they hope to achieve from this work and how they engage and communicate with their audience. We discuss their approaches to the funding process and Cat has some great tips for people applying for funding.Cat talks about her own ceramic art practice and how her work connects back to her heritage, her ancestors and her culture. She shares how she finds living in Aotearoa and NZ people as a Latina wahine and what she has learnt from us, which is super interesting! I am so happy to have had this conversation with an artist and collective who have immigrated to Aotearoa and hope to speak to more immigrant artists who are building community and relationships and developing their art practice here in Aotearoa. Sur Collective: Catherine Guevara (Ceramist); Juliana Duran (Visual Artist); Jesu Vasquez (Visual Artist); Lina Castro (Industrial Designer, Embroidery Artist); Romina Ortega (Visual Artist)https://www.instagram.com/sur.collective/Support the showNgā mihi, thanks for listening! Follow CREATIVE CONNECTIONS on InstagramLearn more about Creative Connections and see images of each guests work and relevant links on our blog
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1:16:39
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1:16:39
CONNECTION - 4 guest artists from the group show
This episode is different to our usual format. Mandy is in the Kumeu Arts gallery at the podcast group show CONNECTION with 4 previous podcast guest artists who have work in the show. Contemporary Fine Artist Dita Angeles https://www.ditaangeles.com/Abstract photographer Chris Melville http://www.chrismelville.co.nz/Painter Yvonne Abrcrombie https://www.instagram.com/yvonneabercrombieContemporary painter Coral Noel Yang https://coralnoelyangart.com/Each guest was asked what they've been up to artistically since we last spoke on the podcast, to talk about their work in the show and how it relates to the theme of connection, which work in the show would they most like to take home and why, what they think of the exhibition and what's next for them.Support the showNgā mihi, thanks for listening! Follow CREATIVE CONNECTIONS on InstagramLearn more about Creative Connections and see images of each guests work and relevant links on our blog
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51:13
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51:13
Mandy Jakich - Talking community with artist Julie Battisti
Hello and welcome to season 9 of Creative Connections. I’m so excited to be back with weekly episodes and a fantastic varied line up of artists booked in from now until mid December 2025.This episode is a bit different. I was interviewed by artist Julie Battisti for The Creative Kind Podcast a few months ago and I thought you might be interested in listening to our conversation. We’re talking community. Which is very topical at the moment alongside the current Connection group show at Kumeu Arts which I curated, involving 60 artists who have been guests on the podcast. This exhibition runs until July 19th 2025 and is absolutely well worth a look.The opening last Friday was a wonderful demonstration of the community that is developing through this podcast, made up of listeners, guest artists, other artists, and some of our Aotearoa galleries. I mention in this episode my previous business Creative Matters, which has been sold since we recorded. Creative Connections is my new business, encompassing creative work in communities, schools and on the podcast, all with a visual arts, collaboration and community focus. I hope you enjoy this episode and make sure you follow The Creative Kind Podcast if you don’t already, where Julie explores listener questions and visual arts topics with artists and experts, offering diverse perspectives and insightful discussions I know you’ll enjoy.The Creative Kind PodcastSupport the showNgā mihi, thanks for listening! Follow CREATIVE CONNECTIONS on InstagramLearn more about Creative Connections and see images of each guests work and relevant links on our blog
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44:42
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44:42