Tell us a bit about yourself (name, location,
affiliations, personal stuff).
My name is Karena Colquhoun and I live in Adelaide, South Australia.
I work from a home office/studio under the business name Magic Jelly as a freelance illustrator/designer. I get to do all kinds of exciting stuff for my clients – t-shirt design, greeting cards, posters, portraiture, photo restoration, logos, web graphics, etc. As well as providing my services to clients, I’m also developing my own product lines, such as hand-printed greeting cards, that I’ll be selling in the new year to local retailers and via my site (which will hopefully be launched in January)…and in my Etsy shop of course. As for fine art…I’m preparing for an exhibition in August '07. I just love the diversity…there’s something new everyday. I worked as an office clerk for 12 looooong years and hated every minute of it. I eventually left and went to art school. My career as an artist has only really just started coming to fruition after a good few years of hard work and sacrifice – I still have to pinch myself that I get to make pictures for a living and not sit behind a desk in the Public Service everyday, staring at the minute hand dragging itself around the clock. I still can’t get over how surreal it is working here in little ol’ Adelaide, yet my work travels to all kinds of far flung places. One minute I’ll be on the phone to a Creative Director in LA discussing a new project, the next I get an email from someone in Spain who just bought one of my t-shirts. I’m so lucky!
What is the first thing you can remember making by hand? How and why did you make it?
One of my earliest memories is at Christmas time getting one of those giant compendiums of art materials – pastels, coloured pencils, felt tips, watercolours in their little palettes – rows and rows of beautiful colours; and getting a crisp white sketchbook with it, and smelling the pencils and paper and just feeling so excited by the infinite possibility of all the things I could make. I used to love making paper dolls and also had a brief obsession with mail. I’d make my own envelopes and stamps and address them to imaginary people and draw on little postmarks.
I have my Mum to thank for encouraging my creativity; she was always buying me boxes of pencils and things – thanks Mum!
What inspires you? Where do your ideas come from?
Where do I start?! I think the past inspires me a lot, as vague as that may seem as an answer. When you’re little you believe in the magic of fairies at the bottom of the garden or ghosts under the bed or something…then you grow up and lose that sense of wonder. To me, the past is the ultimate magical land…forever elusive and totally subjective. There’s a quote that springs to mind, it’s the opening line to one of my favourite books – The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley – “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there”. Dipping into that pool of nostalgia is the ultimate escapism and endlessly fascinating because it’s full of unanswerable questions. Vintage photography inspires me because I can wonder about who the people were, what their names were, who they loved, what made them laugh, what their lives were like…and the ultimate excruciating pleasure…wondering what’s going on just off camera. That ephemeral moment committed to print is a wonderful thing.
I also collect mid-20th century magazines. I love paper and ink. The way it interacts, wears, fades, bleeds and ages. Paper textures, halftones and off-register print effects work their way into my digital work as well as my printmaking and painting. Apart from that, I’m inspired by advertising, signage, comics, street art – direct, accessible forms of communication that as an artist, I can use to express my ideas. If there’s one thing I dislike about the art industry it’s any kind of pretentiousness or elitism.
My friends inspires me too – the fact that they're proud of me really drives me to do better. It can be difficult at times being self-employed and working from home; having to motivate yourself and stay focused and disciplined. But as an artist you also need a lot of self-belief and there are times when tapping into your inner resources just isn't quite enough, and having the support and encouragement of friends around you is so important. I have a lot to be thankful for, especially my friends Mark and Alex...they're the greatest!
What are your favorite materials?
I’ve kind of come full circle. I started off painting and drawing, mainly using pen and ink, graphite and coloured pencil, and acrylics. Then I went to art school intending to major in ceramics, hated that, & decided on digital imaging and printmaking instead. I’ve pretty much concentrated on digital media for the past six years, but am now also combining that with traditional techniques. I’ve just bought myself a relief press so I can produce larger edition linocuts and am just learning about photopolymer plates, which is really exciting. I also love my Gocco – so great when workspace is an issue – I have four different models including the larger Arts for Paper. Digitally, I use Photoshop and Illustrator, sometimes Painter, and am just learning Flash and Poser.
The combination of the old and the new - traditional and digital – really appeals to me. The neurotic perfectionist in me responds to the precision of digital techniques, but I love to incorporate the warmth and tactile nature of traditional printmaking and painting into the process. Almost everything I make starts off with good ol’ pencil on paper though.
My plans for the next year or so are to move to a larger studio and buy large format screen-printing equipment, a bigger printmaking press, and a large format digital (gicleé) printer. I’d love to get my hands on an old letterpress some day.
What is your favorite color?
When I was a kid it was red, then for years it was pale greeny-blue (eau-de-nil), but I recently bought a new handbag which is a really rich, bright red and the colour makes me so happy that I’m thinking maybe it’s red again!
What are your most and least two favorite films?
Argh! It’s too hard picking a favourite! O Brother, Where Art Thou? is definitely in my top ten faves…so is LA Confidential…but there are so many others! Withnail and I gets an honourable mention. I love old b&w movies too…even the bad ones.
As for least favourite… I’m thinking Titanic.
What are you reading right now?
I’m working through The Artist’s Way with a friend of mine, which is a 12 week course of exercises to help you fulfil your creative potential. I have to say, it’s hard to find the time to do it properly, but I’m trying! I also like to read art and design magazines, mainly Juxtapoz, Computer Arts and IdN. Because I’m so busy, I don’t really have the time at the moment for long sessions on the sofa with a nice cup of tea and a good book, so I tend to stick to bite-sized stuff like poetry and short stories. I recently bought a book of Charles Bukowski’s poetry with the greatest title ever - Love is a Dog from Hell. And I’m constantly buying art and design books…I’ve just come back from Sydney where I went on a book-buying frenzy. I’m running out of bookcase space!
Any tips on selling handmade stuff?
It would be nice if it were true that if you make what you love then people are always gonna love what you make, but it’s not a perfect world. Some of my favourites of my own work haven’t been the best sellers. I think it’s all about balance…it’s possible to gratify your own creative urges and make a living. Sure, you need to be conscious of your market, but focusing too much on what other people are making and buying can be counter-productive. It’s a competitive world out there, so it’s important to distinguish yourself with some kind of point of difference to minimise your direct competitors – in other words, individuality and originality count. Not just in terms of sales, but for creative integrity and fulfilment too. Making things for the love of it, following your instincts, and experimenting with new materials and techniques will keep your work fresh. I think if you’re true to yourself, then your work rings true for other people too.
Apart from creating things, what do you do?
You mean I’m supposed to be doing something else??!!
How can Etsy be improved? Any feature requests?
I can’t think of a single thing…v2 is the bestest! |
