Posts Tagged: DAIR

Skyler Castillo: dabbler, artist.

Just 20 years old, into sketching, film and aesthetics, Skyler Castillo has become a regular fixture around Visible Ink, starting out as a volunteer at Brisbane Youth Week and going on to co-found a monthly creatives meet-up, KISVIS. Her passion for creation, motivation to learn, and open, friendly approach to collaboration make working alongside Skyler a lot of fun and we love having her around the space.

Q: So how did you first hear about Visible Ink?
I first found Visible Ink through my school. We were just having a day trip around the city and from the second I was introduced to the space I fell in love with the chill atmosphere. They [Visible Ink] haven’t been able to get rid of me since. I use the space mostly just to develop my skills as an artist by hopefully working on bigger and bigger projects as well as collaborating with other artists.

Q: What does developing your skills mean for you project-wise and how does that relate to being an artist?
Well currently I’m working on building up my portfolio of work. I’m hoping to work in the Art and Graphics industries in Melbourne at some point, although really I’m kind of just winging it. I’m an artist at heart. I’m just your stereotypical struggling paint nerd and  I wouldn’t have it any other way. There’s a saying “What’s bad for your heart, is good for your art.” and I think finding ways to get around a barrier or block is what makes artworks so good. Plus let’s be real, drawing a pretty picture is pretty dang cool.

Q: What are a few of your projects and what are you working on project-wise currently?
Currently I’m building some 3D-printed prosthetics using online resources (check out e-nabled) I’d like to get some working models out of the printer and stylise them so they look more like art to bring attention to what technology can achieve. Lately, I’ve also been exploring digital art, a medium I haven’t gotten into until recently but it has been a fast learning curve.

Q: What would you say led you to where you are today? How was it that you got started?
Probably growing up in an uneasy neighbourhood with little-to-no money, yet I always found a way to do art. I’d borrow friends colouring pencils overnight and ask the teachers for printer paper to make my own sketchbooks. I’ve just always enjoyed being creative so I’ve never let anything get in the way of that. I think this has also incorporated it’s way into my work as far as subject matter goes, I’ve been inspired by almost anything that nobody else sees. Trying to explain things to people can only go so far – and I’ve never been great at describing things – so to me it’s more meaningful to create the visual representation of the warm rays of the sun through leaves or the black abyss, then to merely say it in words which would just sound off and cringe.

If you’re passionate, you’ll find a way. Just keep at it. There’s advice people just don’t give you about starting out or deciding on a direction. So in the end practice makes all the difference, even if it’s just doodling every other day. If it’s finding time do draw, paint, create on the bus or train, while talking to people, while drinking coffee,  there’s always five minutes you can doodle on a piece of paper. And if it’s materials holding you back, there’s heaps of free ways to get what you need. Volunteering at events or finding youth spaces like Visible Ink – almost all are equipped with art supplies – even at your school, ask your teachers if they can help by making it a part of your school work somehow. There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer and do a project for free to gain experience and see where that leads you. Brisbane is surprisingly filled with opportunities.

Q: Now that you’re on this path, what keeps you motivated to keep moving forward?
Just my overall passion for trying new things, this is what I do in my spare time this is what I want to do for a career. If I slow down I’m not moving closer to my goal.

Q: Other than hanging out at Vis Ink, what else do you get up to?
Most of my hobbies are creative as well. I do film projects here and there. Recently I have been dabbling into photography, which started just as a reference platform for my art but I fell in love with it after learning from photographers like Peter McKinnon and Mango Street. I’m also a terrible drummer but it’s fun and hot damn, it lets off steam!

Find me at @kitten_phlegm on Instagram and feel free to message me for art meet ups and collabs!

Announcing our new Developing Artist in Residence!

Each year Visible Ink offer opportunities for young and emerging artists to have space, resources and mentoring to develop their practice. The Developing Artist in Residence (DAIR) works closely with VI staff to curate exhibitions, facilitate workshops for other young people and produce their own works, showcasing them at various venues across Brisbane.

With that in mind, we’d love to introduce you to Skyler Castillo: artist, dabbler, and Visible Ink’s DAIR for 2018. Check out her interview on our Profiles page.

Maeve Baker

An animator, illustrator and human girl, Maeve spends her time creating and communicating visually. She loves getting her hands dirty experimenting with new mediums and collaborating with others. http://maevebkr.com/ 

 Maeve Baker

Maeve Baker is an animator/illustrator. Maeve talked to Visible Ink about her involvement in the space, background and inspirations.

I have always been a draw-er and loved cartoons. During my final year of high school, I made an animated film out of paper which got a bit of attention and won a Creative Generations competition. My art teacher at the time suggested that I study animation, which I didn’t even know was possible, but which seemed to make so much sense to me. 2 years after school I began my Bachelor of Animation at the Queensland College of Art.

I first learn about Visible Ink when I needed to print and bind a 4-page comic for an exhibition in November 2016. A friend at uni said they did free printing and so a few of us went there to print our comics, not expecting very much other than printing. That afternoon I met the staff, who showed me around the art area and explained all of the facilities available at VisInk. I was back the following week to paint.

I have 3 comics underway which I pushed aside during the uni semester, which I hope to finish off and distribute to comic shops in Brisbane. I have also got a couple of short animation projects to complete for the Brisbane Feminist festival organised by the One Woman Project. I’m hoping to finish several large scale paintings and then have an exhibition before the end of the year.

I love being able to create a small world with characters and environments that aren’t real. I like the fact that looking at someone’s animation and drawings is like looking at someone’s dreams in that every aspect of the work is a piece of the artist. Even just a single piece of paper can contain so much information about a person and I love being able to share that. Often you communicate things through art that you can’t speak with words.
Also I think that animation is just magical- moving drawings, whhaaat?!

I have always drawn been interested in cartoons and comics, even when it felt inappropriate to still be watching ABCKids as a teenager. My parents always encouraged my artwork, providing me with paper, pens, pencils and paint to ensure that I kept up the hobby. The more I drew, the more I got associated as a draw-er and the more people would come to me to ask for designs or to collaborate on projects. As I met more and more people with an interest in art and animation, I realised that it is actually a thing and that if you work hard enough you can draw for a living. This is now my project, to try and establish myself as an artist so that I can create animation, drawings and paintings 100% of the time. I’ve not found anything else that has brought me as much joy as creating art, so I’m just going to run with it for now and try to make it work.

What I create for money are specific to the brief given by the person commissioning me, the things I make in my spare time have the potential to be completely limitless, abstract and weird. I still struggle with this, but it’s really fun.
I also like swimming, yoga and reading, but mostly I just lie around, hanging out with my friends and watching 30Rock.

I wish I had pushed myself more in my earlier years when I decided to pursue art. I would draw maybe once a week and usually only as a necessity, for a uni project and never for my own pleasure. I wish I had nerded out on art more and created more because 1 it feels great and 2 it allows you to learn and progresses so quickly. It’s such a simple thing, but it can be so easy to let yourself off the hook and so hard to force yourself, but it’s necessary. Going to galleries or researching an artist whose work you really love is just as good. Look at and make as much art as you can and soon you won’t have to force yourself, it’ll be second nature.

I think the more people you meet and talk to about art, the richer your experience will be. There are so many little exhibitions, workshops and events happening all the time, you just have to know about them. I am definitely a more introverted person, but it has usually always paid off when I’ve put myself out there and gone along to art events happening in Brisbane. You meet inspiring people and see inspiring things and remember why you do it in the first place, it’s great.

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Chris M

“I do everything at Visink! I tried working from home, but it’s never going to happen!”, Chris M. is tapping at a computer, scrolling through a feed listlessly, he’s trying to organise his latest meet-up project and we’re distracting him. Chris M is one of most regular space users, he shows up most days he’s able and has been doing so for a little over a year. Chris is an artist, his practice has multiple focuses, starting in photography and gradually including, drawing, sculpting, painting (anything with his hands).

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Chris came to Brisbane from Kingaroy, trained as a chef, but with a craving to do something creative. He went to Brisbane Youth Service to try out graffiti art, but it didn’t catch, so he started to scope out other kinds of art and wound up at the window at Visible Ink. Chris started drawing creatively a year ago and it’s become a compulsive activity, what he describes as “IMPULSE ART” – “It’s gotta be in existence”. Drawing is pretty new skill in repertoire, and although he’s always taken photos, Chris will essentially attempt any creative medium, considering himself a ‘free-form’ artist and taking an experimental approach through practice and collaboration. “Collaboration is what the world needs… it’s the new apprenticeship”.

Collaboration has been an underlying focus through Chris’ many projects, CHYLD – an attempt to provide an “escape where people can express themselves through photography without being ‘photography’”, PRIMARY ARCADE – a study based art group (“everyone studies design”) and main focus CREATIVE HANDS – the zine that never was, which became a meetup, which became art hopping, which became a place to share events and then back to a meetup!

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It’s Chris’ background with photography that got him involved in 2016 Brisbane Youth Week, where he was part of the team documenting the many events that took place in April. It was what he can only describe as a “life changing” experience, “it opened my eyes to opportunities and how I could work in the industry”. While he’s taken work previously as a creative it’s been hard to professionalise it, “I’ve always underpaid myself, but now I’ve learned to value myself, to value my time”.

Working as a contracted professional, Chris was able to build experience and confidence through working collaboratively with a diverse group of young creatives “I haven’t had the opportunities, so I got to see how I worked… It was good to have the trust”.

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Chris makes use of Visible Ink to “access the equipment I need”, it’s become his defacto studio, “it’s a safe & quiet working environment (when the office isn’t noisy)”, he uses our computers, internet, DSLR cameras, paints and canvases, and he’s incredibly productive. His debut solo exhibition ‘OUT OF PAPER’ at Deagon’s Artrageous was almost a sell out, with the premise to take his drawings and turn them into paintings, “it got me thinking about the future”.

Chris is embarking on a Film & Television course and has been recently experimenting with Video Art. His motivation, determination and adaptability gives him a pretty good shot at success.

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