Hannah Hunt

Hannah likes to work with iconic comic book and movie characters bringing her own style and emotion to the work.  She works across a range of mediums from paint to pastels and has had great success with sales of her work.

Mr Bean Card

Acrylic paint on paper, 2012

Annelyse Sloper

Annie is a relatively new member of ArtRageUs coming to us after graduating from Mildura Specialist School in 2011.  She loves to work across all mediums with the main subjects of her work revolving around her family and her dog Marley.

My Dog

Pencil and ink on paper, 2012

Sarah Davis

Sarah likes to use colour and repetition in her work and has mainly worked with pencil and texta.  Recently she has been exploring the use of ink in her work with some fantastic and beautiful relults.

Flowers and Colours

Texta on paper, 2012

Becky Phillips

Bianka Miller

‘The Visual Journal’,

The creation of the ‘Visual Journals’ is evidential documentation that combines production with the study of visual art practices through theory.

By creating my version of the ‘Visual Journal’ of the honour students of La Trobe University Mildura Visual Art and Graphic Design, I am attempting to put into context the artists’ developing methods. An analysis of the art practises and narrating the constant changing art methodologies essentially becomes my own art form through text.

Biankah Miller, 2013, ‘The Visual Journal’, Installation of constructed artist’s journals from recycled books, La Trobe University Mildura

Melissa Castleman

Melissa Castleman - Artists Bio

I've always wanted to create and I've loved drawing since I was a kid so when I finished school the

natural thing for me to do was to go to art school.  Art school in my case happened to be Sunraysia

Institute of Tafe and a Diploma of Fine Art - Visual Art.  I only stuck around for a year though as I

had a huge urge to get out of Mildura and go and see the world which is what I did, well I saw bits

of it anyway.  On returning to Mildura some four or so years later I somehow ended up re-enroling

into the second year of my course then from there onto the Bachelor of Fine Art offered by LaTrobe

University.  All up it took me around 9 years from start to finish with time off and part time study

and I think it was 2004 when I finally recieved my BA.  I met some lifelong friends as fellow students

and lecutures and would have to say that I had some of the best times of my life there. 

Since graduating I haven't really created much of my own art, I've created kids and done the odd

bit of oddball craft at home though.  I am very lucky though to have a job within the arts helping to

run art and drama programs for adults with intellectual disabilties at ArtRageUs Studios  This keeps

me in touch with art around town, gives me inspiration and keeps the creative juices flowing.  I have

never stopped having ideas they just haven't come to fruitition, but hopefully now that is going to

change.  It seems in all the different guises my art has taken over the years I can see that the basic

theme has always been the same.  That is our essential elemental, emotional and spiritual existence

as human beings and our mortality, not death though more our finiteness and infiniteness.

 

 

When I look back on all the art I've ever created I can see a common thread that holds it all together. 

The themes of mortality and the essence of our very existence, our place in time, where we are

turning back in on itself to ask "Where are we?".  At once and at the same time being introspective

and yet looking to the world of the material yet mutable to somehow try and answer a question that

if it is asked directly ceases to have meaning.  If it was an image it would need  to be viewed from

out of the corner of your eye because if it was to be looked at directly it would simply not be there. 

Hopefully I haven't gone too far down the path of being conceited and I'm not trying to be clever I'm

more simply than ever just trying to make myself feel whole through creating my art and to create

something that feels authentic to me and hopefully conveys the same feeling to others.

I couldn't throw these rusted nails out, I found them too beautiful and poetic so they sat in the

backyard somewhere growing rustier until something sparked in me.  This is by no means a

comprehensive explanation but I like the idea that iron can symbolise humans potential to prosper

and capatalise. Iron is strong, hard and seems so alien to nature yet it rusts, crumbles to dust and

becomes dirt.  Mortality, lifespan, mutability, finiteness and infinite cycles.

Nails have also been used in binding spells to bring the two elements of a spell together, I like the

feeling of that and it is the thing that can't be looked directly at but I'm sure exists.  It's like a stage

we've had to go through, will go through again and an idea that our will can have power beyond the

physical.  When I am making these I feel a connectedness and a story and a narrative is forming, I

imagine people from past worlds, tribal cultures and future post apocalyptic civilisations. They are

making bracelets for the children and necklaces for binding  together a marriage.  Making these

things make them feel connected too. These things that symbolise where we have been, where we

are and where we are going.

 

Previous work below

 

 

Wedding dress cocoon

Kerryn Finch

 

 

Dog days. (Ink, pencil, graphite and acrylic on paper)

The dog is an iconic image in my work, symbolising loyalty and a constant companion. Growing up, my family always had pet dogs, and they were very much part of the family. One of the saddest memories I have of my childhood is of my pet dogs death. The harshness of mortality kicked in for me that day. The realization that nothing lived forever. Memories fade.

This work represents memory, and the housing of memories inside the cube, both joined and separate at the same time. Some are strong, etched eternally in our minds and hearts, others have begun to fade over the years.

Artist Bio- Kerryn Finch

Born in Footscray, Melbourne in 1980, my parents and I moved to Robinvale when I was quite young. I was lucky enough to grow up in a small community on the Murray River, with plenty of fresh air and freedom. I always loved to draw and create.

Much of my work is based on memories, sentiment and nostalgia. I currently live in Kerang with my partner and our two children. I juggle my role as a mother, practising art and working. I am inspired by my own childhood, my children, and my immediate environment, usually the domestic setting. Dogs have always been an important part of my family, and my life. My grandfather trained and bred kelpies for farming, so the dog has become a recurrent image.

 

 

Curriculum Vitae

Kerryn Finch

Education

• Robinvale Consolidated School
• Robinvale SecondaryCollege
• Sunraysia Institute of Tafe, Diploma Fine Art, Visual Art 2000-2002
• La Trobe university Mildura campus, Bachelor Fine Art, 2003-2004 (incomplete)

Awards and Exhibitions

• Recipient of La Trobe University Vice chancellors Regional Scholarship 2003
• Wentworth Art Show Highly Commended 2004
• Student Exhibitions
• Gannawarra Shire Walk of Art, Encouragement Award 2008
• Swan HillRegional ArtGallery ‘Connections’ 2009
• ‘Nejakarto’ Gallery Kerang Group Exhibition 2009 - 2010
• Shortlisted for the Swan Hill Acquisitive Print and Drawing Show, 2010
• Received a RAV grant for ‘Married to a Blockie’ project 2010-11
• Exhibited in Robinvale, Swan Hill and Kerang 2011

Nellie Howden

Artist: Nellie Howden
Title: “Tribulus Terrestris”
Medium: Mixed

Artist Statement

The noxious weed Tribulus Terrestris, commonly referred in Australia as Caltrop is

an aggressive, invasive species.

It is primarily opportunistic in sandy soil, degraded pastures and wastelands.  It also

thrives beside footpaths, disused railway tracks and where maintenance of the weed

is not enforced.  It needs little water to thrive and a buried seed can remain viable for

more than seven years.

Sheep are the most vulnerable animals to Caltrop and if the foliage is consumed in

large dosages can be toxic consequently causing a painful death.

Two primary elements or issues which I intended to explore in this work are:

• The clearing and poor usage of the land with the introduction of livestock.

• The over usage of herbicides and the consequences of doing so.

 

DARE 2 For Dareton will be an art/craft space for all members of the Dareton community

regardless of the individuals socio, ethnic and/or cultural background.

This art/craft space will provide a safe environment for all participants to express their

creativity freely.

Our intention is for the art/craft space to initially be focussed on women from all ethnic and

cultural backgrounds where they will have the opportunity to be engaged in a creative space.

Leading on from this we further intend for the space to be inclusive to all of the surrounding

community.

 

Our Vision

We envisage that all members of the community will have the opportunity to engage in art

and craft at many levels.

 

These may be:

Practicing artists that are willing to share their skills.

People that wish to “have a go at a project” to learn new skills.

School children and youth.

We wish to engage individuals who don’t normally actively engage in the community.

We envisage urban revitalisation projects creating artworks at a local level.

We would like to create a place where members of the local community can come together to

express concerns or issues through the artistic process.

Anissa McRae

pre·serve  (pr -zûrv ) v. pre·served, pre·serv·ing, pre·serves v.tr. 1. To maintain in safety from injury, peril, or harm; protect. 2. To keep in perfect or unaltered condition; maintain unchanged. 3. To keep or maintain intact: tried to preserve family harmony. 4. To prepare (food) for future use, as by canning or salting. 5. To prevent (organic bodies) from decaying or spoiling.

As we get older the idea of holding onto and keeping our memories alive becomes increasingly important - a concept only age can grasp.  As I become older I think back to my Grandmother and of the knowledge and memories that she dearly passed on to me.  As youths we may think it funny or annoying how the elderly tell us stories over and over again, however as you yourself begin to age the importance of this memory exchange becomes clearer and more significant. 

It’s about preservation.

In trying to capture this idea I decided to preserve sheep’s brains – each brain carefully preserved and bottled aesthetically like my Grandmother in vinegar or brine.  Each jar of brains, signifies a memory that is personally important and worth preserving.

Anissa McRae

Mother/Wife/Artist

Kelly Matsuura

Tara-Leigh Davison

I've lived all around Australia, from Alice Springs to Adelaide, Melbourne to Mildura, and now currently in Bundaberg. 

I've been an avid reader and writer for as long as I can remember, I became interested in the emotive/lyrical form of poetry many years ago and have received some awards for this. And while I have written short stories, fictional and non-fictional pieces, I always come back to poetry. There's something so expressive in a few verses that can be said without the need to lay down a plot or guide the person reading it to where you are. You like them or you don't, there's no need to analyse or break them down.

Curtain Call

Then, there was this trembling, it shook the people to the ground.

And all the fools a'weeping, got took and settled down.

The desperation continued building, as the truth struck and came on in,

still, all the religious in their fervour had no idea just where to begin.

But the painters and the drinkers, the gaolers and the deep,

they faintly felt at all, as they settled back to sleep.

The poets and the writers though, they scribbled thoughts with pens,

while the sinners and the dirty, had scampered off to make amends.

All the families undivided, hugged and held on tight.

While the broken and dysfunctional knew - there wasn't time to make it right.

What? Because the end is coming, does that mean that you should cave,

all for the sake of holding onto something – you'd make yourself a slave?

Freedom always comes, you just never know it's name,

still when it finally gets to you, it's probably just the same.

So all too late as such is fate, although it looked quite like a friend.

Just know you'll never have that long to wait, when it weaves its final end.

Hilary Thiele

Hilary Thiele has lived in Sunraysia for twenty-seven years and has been writing poetry, songs and the occasional short story and article, along with working in education, for most of her life. She has had her writing published in educational journals as well as The Age," and in recent years Hilary has won the poetry competition for the Mildura Writers Festival three times. One of Hilary's songs ("The Dream") was co-written with her brother Mark Seymour, and was recorded on his album, "Daytime and the Dark."

Imperfect Storm

The clouds are lost in battle - there's nowhere for them to hide
but they hear a voice of hope that's speaking softly in the wind
between the bolts of lightning, it is offering a guide
in a rumour bright and shiny and as magical as sin

So even as the vortex drags them downwards in its rage
they have heard they'll be uplifted in a chariot of gold
whose advent will be imminent - it's waiting just off stage -
a deus ex machina reaching out to save their souls

The clouds invoke a chorus, but their voices cannot sing
in anything but discord as cacophonous as cancer
and the sad, bewildered creature hanging limply in the wings
tries to join in, but its croaking voice can never be an answer

Roaring now in desperation, thunder calls for more control
but sobbing quietly in the dark, the clouds become bereft
for this rumbling, poisonous air can only rattle with the cold

And the night grows ever deeper, engulfing all that's left


Unheeded Warning

Expectantly, you peer behind you
but it's only dried, desperate leaves
scattering and teasing the footpath
in a wind whose breath is focused and unforgiving
leaving you behind like a ghost at the gates

A question once formed with confidence
stays unasked and instead
your open mouth becomes a slow gape
of loneliness and realisation

You are witnessing something mapped
in a designated pattern
you glimpsed once in a dream
at the dawn of time
and dismissed as foolish fantasy.

Hilary Thiele