Latest / The Booth Juice Creative Podcast / Ep16 - Costumes, Canvases & the Creative World of In-house Artist Donna Ward

Transcript

Ep16 - Costumes, Canvases & the Creative World of In-house Artist Donna Ward · The Booth Juice Creative Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: All the juice straight from the makeup booth.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the Booth Juice.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode of The Booth Juice.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: My guest today is well overdue for her own episode.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: She is my favourite artist, but some would say I'm a little biased.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: So please welcome my beautiful mum, Donna Wood.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you have been watching The Booth Juice, our very first episode, I had Mum on to talk about how make it came about, but today I would love to get into Mum's creative journey.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, one of the most fascinating things about Mum is that she has a really incredible memory.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: She seems to be able to recall very earlyhood memories in a lot of detail, so I just thought maybe that would be a good place to start.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, Mum, can you recount one of your earliest creative memories as a kid?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: I can remember back to about two or three years old, but creatively, I think the first thing I can remember is um being at kindergarten.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um anyone listening from Port Peary will remember the famous Holiday Kindergarten, the train, um, and they had this great big old, like a real train carriage, and um it was painted from what I can remember, red and black and kind of like the belly hoolie.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, and but it was in the playground of the kindergarten.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um and in playtime they would give us buckets of water and and paint brushes, and they would let us like paint the train, and it's just such a core memory of mine that I would just be going up the steps and come back down the steps, and I'd be painting this train, and and the it would go obviously bright and shiny when it was wet, and I hope it would just give me so much joy, and then um don't know where I get it from, and then when as it would dry, it would get dull again, and I'd be like and I can vividly remember like sitting down with some other kids and giving them a brush and going, we need to paint, it's gotta stay shiny.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so probably my first memory of being a control freak as well, but um yeah, holiday kindergarten for me was um and and that the smell of the that thick cheap paint that they used as kids on the butcher's paper, and you'd take it home, it was so thick it would crack off, and yeah, so um definitely started back then, and I and I kind of remember conversations with the teachers with mum, and what'd she do today?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, she just painted the tree.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness me.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Not autistic, but yeah, maybe on the spectrum.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a little bit of the chism going on there.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: We've got a little bit of us.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_02: So then the other memory I have was probably like a few years later than that.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my mum and my stepdad had purchased this little house and they were renovating it.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'm not really sure why.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was probably six or seven, like I'm thinking probably 1980.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: Perhaps maybe because they were sick of buying me colouring inbooks, but throughout the renovation, they painted one half of my bedroom wall with blackboard paint.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: And here I was seven years old, you know, everyone, all the other kids, girls were having pink bedrooms, and my parents allowed me to have this blackboard wall and just gave me a bucket of chalk and said, Go your hardest.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I can remember all my friends would come over and we would you know, because the wall was so big, we'd all have a space, and we'd you know, I vividly remember drawing a lot of smurfs and maybe strawberry shortcake or something, I don't know, but um yeah, I I was allowed to be set free, yeah.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I I adored that process.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: And whilst they were renovating, I do remember um the fascination with jiprock because essentially it's just chalk.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: So if I could break off a piece of the gyprock, um I would use that as chalk.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but also the the other thing was that just watching them jiprock the walls was satisfying to me.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: I remember like, and they'd get to the joins, and dad would run the bit of white paper down and and put the plaster over it, and I was like, I could do that, that looks pretty satisfying.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Again, seven, eight years old.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: Just a typical little girl.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would I would sort of try and convince Dad to let me do the joins.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_02: I probably thought he wasn't doing it right.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then you know, the the stuff would set, and then I'd want to sand it all flat, and I'd be like, don't get the paper, it'll get a bulge in it.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'd want to undercoat it and I'd want to paint it, and I think then my parents just thought this kid is a nutcake.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um passion for renovating came from is to be able to take an old old interior and and turn it into something beautiful.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, I loved that.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: So then, like that was you as a kid.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: So then being so creative, did you did you think, oh okay, well then I'll be a creative in my career?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Or I think so.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: As a as a um maybe like through year eight and year nine, and that I always thought, yeah, yeah, I'll be I'll be a painter, I'll be um an interior designer or something.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Did you think about studying?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um kind of.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I do remember we had a computer um and so starting you know your life or career on a computer was where a lot of people were heading.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I also was too busy for that.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: I just didn't want to sit at a computer.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: By the time I got to year 12, I was very good at art and everything, and teachers were always sort of trying to guide you into going into graphic design or or something.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: No, no one ever really said just be an artist.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know if I really wanted to because I I probably didn't want to do it as a career.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I quite enjoyed just getting money from doing something else mundane, yeah.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Being able to create openly without someone trying to um pigeonhole me into something.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um I was a signwriter for a little while.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: That was fun.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: For someone, for someone listening who doesn't know what signwriting is.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like a younger generation.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: How can you not know what signwriting is?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I guess.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, well, nowadays it's vinyl lettering.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: And and to a point it was vinyl lettering then.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: But I had the opportunity to work with a couple of cool guys from Adelaide that still painted with the big long brush and a stick, and you know, they they were just champions.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: I I admired them so much, and we had so much fun.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I was probably 20 and they were 30, and every day was a laugh.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that was a good part.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then I progressed into pharmacy, um, which in itself was kind of creative because I was allowed to merchandise all the shelves, and and you know, if it was a Mother's Day thing, I remember bringing in my whole cupboard from home once so that I could, and the girls were just like, holy.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, it's yeah, it's for me, it's about creating a space that people want to linger and and look at, and um it was whether it was my bedroom or mum's house or whatever, I always felt like the need to make the space warm and inviting.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, when I was little, if we went and visited a new home, like a friend or something, I always asked if I could go to the toilet straight away.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: And um my mum would look at me with this lingering stare because she knew exactly the I wasn't I didn't need to go to the toilet.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: She knew that I was scoping out the house from where we were sitting to the bathroom and back because I just wanted to check out their decor.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then I would come back and report to her and say, I don't think they're couched, you know, or whatever.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: That could do with some new light shades.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've just met you, just visited your think.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: You need to change your lampshades, yeah.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: We yeah, so then you went pharmacy, and then was that when you built the bus?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um 1999, uh we were living a fantastic life.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: Your dad and I, we we were he was a great footballer, and um we had loads and loads of friends, and you know, life was about going to live music events and and just partying up at the footy club and that we had a brilliant laugh, but we also decided that we would like to go and travel America, so we did, and on that trip, we did a contiguo tour, we met loads of Aussies.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, for context too, my parents got together when they were like in high school, like 15-ish.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: And that I guess when I met Jeff, one of the things that I loved about him, he wasn't even 17, but he had such an adult uh brain and uh such a broad dream of building his own bus.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Mum always tells the story of the napkin.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I was just like a little piece of paper out of one of those little lined pads with the spiral.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: And it was so it was this big, and he had drawn the out, you know, the the layout of what would be like a motorhome, and I still got it, and I should frame it and put it on the thing because it was I reckon within the first two weeks of meeting him, he was like, Oh, I want to do this, I want to build a bus and travel around Australia.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: And he'd travelled a little bit with his family, so he had a had a taste of it.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I was like, Oh yeah, cool, whatever.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: Didn't really think much, I hadn't travelled much at all.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so when we were on this um contiguous and we'd met all these friends, and when Jeff and I meet people, we tend to like you know really meet people and we fall in love with friendships, and we got like, we're coming to visit you.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um we realised we had all these people all the way around Australia, and there was no way we could see them all.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and Dad just said, Um, I'm gonna buy that bus and build that bus, and we're gonna go around Australia and we're gonna visit all these people.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: So within a few weeks of getting back from America, we had um gone to Adelaide to a bus.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: People used to say to me, 'Where do you buy a bus?' I'm like, I don't know, you just go to like get on trade, what's it called?
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like a like marketplace, yeah.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_02: But like a actual, it's like a car yard, but it's got all buses in it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: And um we found, you know, the first day we found what we liked.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: It was only$8,000.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: It was um we we had enough left on our credit card after our American trip, so we bought it on our credit card.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we had to take my dad with me to drive it home because you had to have a bus licence, and we didn't have a bus licence.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um so Rodney got us home got it home for us, and we spent the next we parked it in our um yard.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: We had spent the previous couple of years renovating, so we had all the gear and a bit of idea of how to do it, and um I thought, oh yeah, we'll just keep it how it is and put a bed in here or whatever.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I come home the first day, and Dad had stripped it to nothing.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_02: He had like, I mean, I don't know where Reef gets it from.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: The seats were out, the nose cracking every point.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so um he had like cut open the doors, and yeah, it was a shell.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: So it took us about six months to rebuild it.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: It was like a 36-foot, like imagine like a big school glass.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: So we had by the time we'd finished um building it, it had you walked in the front, it was like the lounge room area, um, then it went into a full kitchen, full fridge.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, then it went to the bathroom and the toilet, uh, heaps of cupboard space, and then our big king-size bed at the back.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: There was two air cons, it was TVs, uh, there was a boast stereo system, you know.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like we dad always used to say I was a princess, and that if he didn't do it right, I wouldn't last, which was probably true.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but then we had a I had a Suzuki Sierra soft top, so we put that on a trailer, and we had a motorbike.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: He had a TT600 which went on the front, and a tinny that went on the on the top, and yeah, we were 13 ton all up, and we had a bulldog, we've always had bulldogs, so that was Grievous's era.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he came with us when we did the West Coast.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: We you there was a lot of dog uh parks that were allowed animals on the West Coast, so we took him with us, and yeah, we were on the road for over a year and when we fell pregnant with you in Broome, and um were you sort of working along the way?
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so my he was a plumber, which was easy for him to get work, and my experience with the pharmacy um was easy to get work, and by then pharmacies had opened like their own sort of photo labs within them, and with my creativity, I sort of got thrown into the deep end in the photo labs.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_02: And when I got to Broome, um I applied for a job at the pharmacy, and um Anthony Massey there, who I also owned a big camera house, he was like, you know, I don't have any spaces in the pharmacy right now, and he had you know 30 or 40 girls working for him, but he said, Um, if you want to go into the lab, you know, I can teach you how to do that, and I was like, Yeah, sweet, whatever.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: And that was probably the most funnest job I'd ever had.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it was just this five girls chucked in this lab.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: And when when your um your day consists of looking at other people's photos, you know, it is an absolute hoot.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so we would print out extra ones if they were really funny and and stick them on a pole that the customers couldn't see but we could see, and you know, as they come in, we'd have a little giggle at what we knew they'd got up to, and yeah, um, probably the funniest thing that ever happened was um I had developed a film from these young hot girls, and as I was flicking through the boys in like the guys who were probably in their 20s were my mates, but these I was living in Broome and these photos had been taken in Darwin, and I was like, Oh my god, I know these guys, like these guys are my best friends, and they were like getting it on with these hot girls, and so of course I took copies and um didn't have mobile phones.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we did have mobile phones, but not with cameras, yeah, and yeah, sent a photo to Uncle Marcus and said, Uh, I know what you think.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, so that's like stalking before stalking, like social media too.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no such thing as social media back then, but gee though that was funny to to um see his face pop up on it, and he wasn't doing anything wrong.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: No, but yeah, that was pretty funny.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: So that was the West Coast, so then you came back and had me.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, and then um we went back into our house and we decided then that we weren't gonna stop.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: We wanted to do the East Coast and we would just take you with us, so we stayed home for a while.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we dad ripped out a heap of cupboards in the middle of the bus and turned it into a bed for you.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that became your bedroom for the next few years.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: Funny story when when we got here to Port Douglas later, um, when we bought a unit, we I was pregnant with your brother, and I kept saying, and you were three, and I kept saying, You're gonna get a bedroom, and everyone kept saying to you, Oh, you're gonna get a bedroom, what are you gonna have?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: And you were like, Yes, I'm gonna get a bedroom.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then one day you turned to me, you said, What is a bedroom?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: And your dad and I just were like, Oh, yeah, you actually get a whole room to yourself, like four walls, you don't just have to sleep in the cupboard.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: You were like, Okay, and I I didn't need all that room, yeah, and I did think that you were gonna never um not sleep with us because you were just so close to being in proximity of us and just going, hi, oh yeah, absolutely yelling out to us from your bed.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: So, um, but no, it was an awesome way to raise you for those first few years, and um I painted a bit while we're on the road because of course you're not your time is not taken up with housework and all that sort of stuff, so it was like you know what particularly when you came along and um I'd build a barricade and let you play, and we would paint and draw and yeah, I vividly remember making like little computers out of cartons and painting and all that stuff hanging out in the bus.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, yeah, there's always a way to be creative, it's it's good fun.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then um yeah, if I got bored, I would redecorate the bus.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: You know, there were days when we first left Port Period, it had all these bright colours, and then you know, as time went on and fashion changed, and then I Jeff would come home from work and I would have totally restyled the bus and um or I'd organise parties for whatever was on TV.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: I can remember when um Australian Idol first came out and you were so you you were obsessed with Shannon.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, um and how good is Knowlesy and you would sing, What about me?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um so we I said to you, why don't we have a party for the grand final tonight?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: When daddy gets home, we'll just celebrate between Guy Sebastian and Channel.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: So we'd had a party for that, or we'd have a party for Big Brother, and um yeah, it was there was just always a reason to decorate or have costumes or or whatever.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: We've had some huge costume parties, yeah.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think it just always sets the scene for a good time.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it probably started back in your your footy days, did it?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like yeah, so when I was a kid, my parents um pretty much ran the local footy club.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I was there after hours, and the ladies would do organized, you know, fundraising nights where the they'd put the players into groups and say, you know, do like skits, you know, like a red faces type skit.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I remember those nights so much um fun and banter.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: And um when I got older and I started dating Jeff and we transitioned to the opposition club, I sort of took it into their committee and said, Look, what if we try and raise money by doing this?
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think ports had done it before, but I remember kind of I was at that time in my life where I could make men put anything on that I wanted.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I was pretty pushy, and uh I had most of the team in fishnet stockings or lacy lingerie at one stage or for the bowl.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like Lady Marmalade show, like just so good.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so no, that was um sort of the the beginning of me realizing how much fun you could have if if you let go of that um social hierarchy that people had when they were just in their normal clothes, and um I feel like everyone's on an even playing field when you're in a costume.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because there's no yeah, the alter ego that you have, yeah, um, or the persona that you take on gives you either extra confidence or it's just a vibe.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_02: Just love it.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I I love coming up with um new ideas.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: I love kind of going, well, we've got that pub up the road that's got this kind of feel about it.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: Let's dress to match the feel.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: I can remember giving my mate her a surprise 30th birthday.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, she didn't want to do anything, and she was heading to New Zealand for two weeks, and so the minute she left, I had everyone on board, and we were like, Go, let's do Western party, and we made corsets, and you know, we just had the most amazing costumes, and we had it at the Iron Bar because it was a saloon sort of style.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I I learned um even though I had a love of interior, I learned very quickly that a party was about what you were wearing and the people in it, and the gathering of souls, more so than you didn't want to waste time making the venue, yeah, like wasting money on the venue.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: You needed to choose a venue properly.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so the venue is already there.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, I did the same with my 50th when I wanted a Studio 54 party.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I kept thinking of all the normal places around town that you could have a party, but really what I wanted was a small dark place with with bright lights.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I went and asked N17 if we could have it there, and they had not had a private function, and Simon was excellent.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: He was like, Yeah, let's do it.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_02: So all we had to do is get ready here, walk up there, and it was just instant, wasn't it?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: It was just vibes on, yeah.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um pick your venue, yeah, and then pick your theme.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think what probably plays into that whole creative love as well is the photos that you get afterwards, too.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because obviously, you grew up capturing photos and tech, you know, making all these albums and then working in the development, you know, industry as well, and then to host these costume parties and then to have all these epic photos afterwards.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think that is that's my favourite part of it, is to be able to look back on it and go, Oh my god, how much fun was that?
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so it's definitely like a tradition I feel like has been passed down and you've started like and I'm glad that you've gone back to printing steel photos because um I think the digital world, as much as good as it is that we have all these photos um on our phones and stuff, you you do lose them.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, I have all whole eras.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: People have passed away, and I've gone to find photos of that era, and it's they're just gone.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so yeah, you've got your iClouds and things like that, but nothing beats an old steel photo.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, and being able to be the next generation flicking through your album is the best.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that was the best way that I learned about getting to know you guys as people, as well as not just my parents.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: But you're like, Oh, these guys have had so much fun, and you can't delete them.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you can rip them up and put them in the bin, but yeah, with digital, you can really manipulate nowadays what you look like, and you know, you can build this fake life if you want to.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, whereas uh you know, raw dogging it back then was like you look at an album and I cringe and I think oh, but also.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Get so much feeling from looking at them, you know.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: Like it might be a shit photo of you, but it's also it was real, and that that's what you look like, and and yeah, the you only ever got a photo till maybe 10 o'clock at night, and then it was nothing because you didn't take cameras out where you went, and yeah, you know, a lot of my paintings, and I think what I will do going forward is paint memories that I don't have photos for, yeah, because it's all up here, yeah, which I love.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but it would be nice to get it out so that other people can enjoy it as well.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we've been to some epic concerts and we've done some really cool shit, yeah.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but there's no photos, you weren't allowed to take cameras, yeah.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Before we move on, because I obviously want to talk a lot more about your art, but just to wrap up the costume conversation, I'd love just to throw back a minute to the ward stock party that we have because I do feel like that was probably like the most iconic, most extravagant thing we've ever hosted.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we had bought acreage out of town, dad had dreadlocks, yeah, you were Rain, your brother was reef, you know, the whole hippie lifestyle was going on.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: We'd be living in a bus.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the next um thing that sent normal was to have a Woodstock party.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: So, of course, our last name being Ward, we changed it to Wardstock.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we had heaps of mates that because we'd finally settled and we'd bought a big property, they were like, right, we're coming.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_02: So um, our besties from Port Purie, I think there was 50 of them with the kids.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they hired six like Winnebago vans from Cairns, they flew to Cairns and then got the vans and then drove up.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: We had to get the electrical phase chain, power change, yeah, just to house all these things.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: But it was a um a well-oiled machine.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: We had mates, um Sammy Drummond was good enough to cook all weekend in the carport, and we had this work, you know, fuck a food station set up, and I was getting fresh food deliveries from Blood Orange every morning.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: We had like, I think that was probably like 120 people every day.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Every day for the three days except three-day festival.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, do you surprise magic?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Never let us forget it.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Never what else did we have?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: We had Nikki G come out and do the toad races on the deck on Friday night because it was too hard for us to get all the people into Port Douglas, so he came out and then he DJ'd.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: We had different bands throughout the weekend.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we had a masseuse, yeah, we had, and yeah, our best friend at the time, you know, he's passed away now, but um Robbie Parry was a skydiver and a um bass jumper, and he was like, Alright, if we're gonna do this, we need to have a chopper.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_02: We had a chopper everywhere we went, every party going boys.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: My kids grew up thinking there was always gonna be a chopper, even a camping trip.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_03: Oh yeah.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: So um Robbie and um Brad from Sky Safari, they organized um this chopper to be at the house, and um people paid, and there was a full manifest, and it was all done very professionally.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: But I think at the end of the day, Brad said that's the most um up and downs he's ever done in one day.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_02: I think they got to 34 or 35, and all our friends were able to go and you know do a loop around over Port Douglas or whatever and come back and land.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_02: And the kids were hilarious.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we had this slip and slide across the front yard, and every time the helicopter took off or landed, we all had to dive onto the slip and slide because it was gonna fly out of the yard.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that was pretty funny.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and everyone wore different costumes on different days, and I I was very, you know, the invitation was perfect, of course.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_02: And um, everyone had their different structure of what kind of outfits to wear on different days, and we've got some brilliant photos, and I made a little book at the end of it.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh we even had like personalised beer bottles as gifts for dad.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, just brother Phil made wardstock bottles, and then Uncle Marcus, I think, organised or someone else organised um all these singlets that had so dad had dreadlocks for 14 years, and he's got this iconic photo of him sticking the dreadlocks up his nose, and so we had t-shirts with that, and then I remember before everyone arrived, mum was still spray painting the biggest wardstock logo that she had created.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, we had a logo for this party, and she'd spray painted in fluorescent spray paint wardstock across the front hill of our driveway.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: So every time you went up in the helicopter, you could see from an aerial view this massive wardstock sign, and it was just incredible.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think that took like six months.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it was yeah, it was Chip's 40th.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: We mentioned that that it was his 40th.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we'd been renovating the house, and it was kind of like a come come see our new home.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, so yeah, that was that was a big one.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_02: We my full 40th was massive too.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: We did a rockabilly, yeah, and we painted the whole bloody front half of the house red, black and white, and we had a big black and white dance for the mobile.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: We had a flash mob, like we'd organised a flash mob.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: Just don't do anything else.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: So no, yeah.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, costume parties have been a massive part of our love.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel like that that really tied into so then like my childhood in the dance, you know, being a performer, mum used to build stage sets and do the costumes for the kids, and she would do the entrance every year for the BIM concert.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: So one year there was like red carpet and draped curtains, and she'd climb up the top and bloody arrange all of these amazing entrances, and so it kind of like tied into every aspect of my life.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Mum would just always, whether it was in a social aspect or dancing or school or whatever it was, there was always this creative element to it.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_02: So and I could and I could incorporated painting into everything I did, but I didn't um I didn't necessarily always feel that painting a picture on a canvas was the be-all and end all, and I still don't.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: I still really like the idea of painting on other mediums and and things, and I'm I'm probably gonna go into doing some more timber work, and I make these um artisan cuffs where my paintings have been put onto a piece of jewellery, and and I would like to go down the wearable art um avenue as well, so yeah.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: To me, it was never just about canvases.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's the big picture, and you've had property, you know, you had Airbnbs and yeah.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_02: So in 2017 I bought two apartments um to make Airbnbs, and that was to be a creative outlet for me as well.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'd spent every day running the plumbing business with dad, and I just I wanted the investment financial for us, but I also wanted to be able to paint a painting and put it on the wall and the guests could sort of essentially buy it.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: I went out to Dab and learnt pottery, so and I was I had plates and things like that as well.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then somewhere along the line, one of my mates, a guy um from Adelaide that I adore, he would sort of ask me about my artwork and how it was going, and I was like, Oh, you know, I I felt like I was fulfilled creatively, but sometimes people, when they're asking someone about their art, they do they're just very specific about well, are you painting?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know, are you you know, and that that is sort of seems to be the definition of whether you're an artist or not.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: And he'd showed me these prints that he'd bought from an artist, um, and he paid like six hundred dollars for them or something, and they were to me, they were just literally a bit of colour splashed on a piece of paper, and I just was like, Why would you do that?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: And he said, Well, because she's having a crack, and I was like, Okay, yeah, all right.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: So there was a part of me that thought, if if anyone's ever gonna take you seriously as an artist, or if you are gonna leave a legacy, it can't just be there was a costume here or there, like you actually need to start painting some paintings where we can do prints and they can be around.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um and that, yeah, kind of just was a thought in my mind.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'd started building the studio at home and I thought I'll start painting when COVID hit, and and you sort of come home and and it progressed into well, let's build a shop where we have all different artists doing and makers doing things, and I'll just be one of those.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: And it's it's actually been the coolest transition because there's not a lot of pressure on me to do everything because we buy from so many artists, yeah.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I also get to immerse myself in art and creativity every day.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's my job.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: I don't get told off for scrolling Instagram.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's my job.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm working, yeah.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, absolutely.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like there's that beautiful connection of being able to chat to people about your stuff as well in store and working out what people do and don't like and yeah, and like the funniest thing, and the and you girls will agree with is me wanting to like hightail it out the back when someone starts to fangirl me.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and they're like, Oh, we want to see the artist, and I'm just like, Yeah, don't make me talk about it.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, because sometimes you just do it, you either do it commercially or you do it, you know, for what's in here, and if it's if it's really in here, then I tend not to want to talk about it.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and if it's just commercial, I'm a bit like yeah, whatever.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so there's there's the pros and cons of that sort of thing, but I really um I do feel very lucky that I get to interact with the customers on a daily basis, and I I think at being an artist, the last three months painting for the affordable art fair have taught me that it there's a solitude to being an artist, like these people, I I really feel for them now because they get up every morning and they go, Oh, what am I gonna paint?
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_02: and they spend all day in their in their studio, and you know, they might not like what they've done at the end of the day, and I could see how it could really get to you.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, whereas I'm so lucky I can throw out a painting and then come here and go, yeah.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and you girls gotta take over, you stick it on the wall, you talk to people about it, and and I can just flit off and not have to look at it again.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, I'm I'm really grateful to Steph and Dave at the C Gallery next door.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: If if you're not aware of who they are, just Google SEA gallery.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um Steph's a painter and and Dave's a photographer, and they are absolutely outstanding at what they do.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm really stoked to go to the the art fair with them.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um so that's that is next weekend, so from the 7th to the 10th of May down in Brisbane at the showgrounds, is that correct?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and we've been given a uh an allocated amount of um tickets.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: So if anyone's in the area and they would like to go along to the art fair on any of those days, just reach out to Rain or myself or Steph and Dave, um, and we can send you a link to get free tickets um for that art fair.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's it's I think it's the biggest exhibition in Queensland or Southeast Queensland.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_02: It over four days they have uh about 15,000 people that come through.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_02: Last year I think they sold 3.3 million dollars worth of artwork, and um there'll be over 150 artists showcasing painting, photography, sculpture.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so it's a it's a cool weekend, if nothing else.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: You've got nothing to do for Mother's Day, take mum along, she'll love it.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: There's also a bar and a cafeteria, and you know, you can really spend a few hours there.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot, we went, Mum and I went a few years ago, just the two of us, and walked around with the presset go and had a really fantastic time.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not just paintings, too.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: I know there's a bit of sculptures, yeah, yeah, different art as well.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_02: And because we already had Maker, so we wanted to go and meet some of the people that we hadn't met.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: We I'd bought paintings from people that I hadn't never met in face to face.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so yeah, I'm hoping people do that with me too, that they'll just come up and introduce themselves.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: And if Rain's there with me, um a lot of people already know us from Maker.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's a really fantastic fair because they they cap the most expensive thing at like 10 grand or something.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and you know, honestly, most of it is nowhere near 10 grand.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: I think um Jacqueline Juston, who's a Port Douglas artist, she said the other day that her most expensive work's about$3,000 and they're huge, you know.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you can really get a um a one-on-one look at art in the flesh without having to try it on buy it online um and take it home that day.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think they ship and stuff all over Australia and stuff.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: So anyway, if you're in the area, please come and see us.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Not only will my beautiful mum and Steph and Dave from Sea Gallery be there, but we've got a few other Port Douglas, we've got Chrissy McLaughlin, we've got Perrin Clark.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: I also shout out to Perrin Clark at Port Douglas, Port Douglas Picture Framing.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um Rachel.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they um they are at my beck and call a lot, particularly in the last few weeks, where I've done 30 odd originals, um, and then I kind of work out what sizes I need, and I ring Perrin and I go, I need a canvas this big, and I want this sort of frame on it, and then and now these are done, and I need them photographed, and yeah, and you need to get the files to rain so that she can get them on the website.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, they the three of them just work their heart out for the community, and Perrin is also exhibiting his photography um at the fair, so he's got a schedule to keep to himself, and I keep dumping my stuff on him.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: So big shout out to Port Douglas Picture Framers.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: We like to use local wherever we can.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_02: So there's been lots of my mates or just people um that are customers of Maker that have been following along with my love hate journey of getting ready for this art fair.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I don't want to just pack everything into the van and shoot off to Brizzy and and then have everyone say, Oh, how'd you go?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't get to see any of your work.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_02: So because I'm ready, amazing, um, we are going to try and deck out Maker in the next couple of days and have it ready for everyone to pop in and have a look at.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we'll try and be ready by Friday.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: You this podcast probably won't go out until maybe Thursday, and then um hopefully it reaches you in time for you to know to pop into store on Friday or Saturday.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_02: We might have some bubbles on Saturday morning.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Port Douglas is going to be um a sea of football heads on Saturday.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: Dustin Martin is coming to play a game with our local Crocs team.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: Dustin, if you'd like to pop in as well, come have a look, come buy some painting.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have any tigers painted, but that's right.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, yeah, so if you're someone that might be heading to the footy, um give yourself an hour before and come to make her and have a look around at when we've got you can't buy anything, I have to take it to the art fit, but you can have a look in the flesh and see what you like.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um because there'll be prints of the stuff.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, once the show is over, then I will have prints available on our website and obviously in store as well.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: So if you've got your eye on anything, um there's so many beautiful different sizes and shapes and colour schemes and you know painting subjects and stuff.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm really I just want to say also that I'm so proud of you because you just kind of like jumped on the side.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: When you wanted to kill me in between.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I can't paint, so I can't say anything.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'll just support you all the way.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I've had quite a few eye rolls in the last um just imposter syndrome.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: I get a little bit frustrated with, but apart from that, I'm just like, no, you're good.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I just want to say that I'm so proud of you because it's not something that you know we've been, you know, a year or so in the making going, hey, yeah, we're gonna go to this fair.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_01: It was seriously like, hey, would you like to join us in January?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you've just bloody got in there and got it done, so good on you.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I'm yeah, I'm really excited to see all your stuff in Brisbane too.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: So just yeah, and I a few weeks ago on Instagram, I put out all these canvases in my lounge room, and I sort of had a shout out to everyone that was following me and said, Help, because I feel like I've got um multiple personality disorder because I had some paintings of this and some paintings of this, and it was hard to kind of collectively go, where am I at?
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um but the good thing about being locked in your studio day after day and having a a date, you know, a time frame that you had to get things finished was that I really had to delve deep into why am I painting this and where does all this connect together?
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I think um what is evident is that in an abstracted kind of way, I'm painting all those memories of the costume parties and the live music and the the gatherings and the all our lives we've been social people, and nothing means more to us than getting our besties around us and having drinks um or just being with like-minded people.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess my paintings reflect that.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: So whether it's a a close-up of a tablescape in in a cool restaurant, or whether it's an aerial view of us, you know, on the deck under the umbrellas in the sun, eating and drinking, um it's everything it comes back to gathering and um really like evoke evoke that sense of yeah, community and and love, connection, I think.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: Connection and having fun and you know, I guess almost like how Port Douglas makes us feel as well, you know, like sunshine and doing the things that you love, and yeah, absolutely.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and for this series I needed to still be cohesive with um Steph and Day from the Sea Gallery.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um maybe my future stuff will will take a turn.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um but yeah, as I was finishing each piece and and bringing them in line with one another, I really realised that there's a broad connection there to not just the paintings but also to the people in them, whether they have people painted in them or whether they look like people haven't left the scene.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's always that hint of there were people here.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: And and the lingering feeling is still here.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, sometimes they're just a table with drinks and it looks like they haven't cleaned up, but it's about the feeling that was there.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just trying to take out the obvious sometimes of the people, so you're not focused on the people but focused on the feeling that um that scenario evokes within someone.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh well, I'm so excited, and we do have so much coming up in the next few weeks, so I we'll try and get you on in the next few months to talk about all the things that have happened.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, there's plenty of other cool artists that um we need to talk to too.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, absolutely.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: So but we better go and open the shop now.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but thank you so much for tuning in, and obviously, Mum, thank you for joining me once again.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we love you very much.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, if you want to come and see her work, pop in on Friday or Saturday.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and obviously, if you're in Brisbane next weekend, 7th to the 10th of May, send us a message, we'll send you a ticket.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and yeah, come and have a look at all the amazing.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, you can still get tickets at the door, but there's really no need to pay because they do send out so many um complimentary tickets.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_02: They want people there and they want your money to go to the artists, not necessarily on the door fee.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, there's no obligation if you happen to get a code off me.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to rock up.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um, just make it possible.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: Alright, guys, have a wonderful week, and I'll be in your ears very soon.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: See ya.