Our latest Artist Profile features Emma Hearnes, recipient of one of the Clifroy Prizes in our 2019 Small Works Art Prize.
Originally from East Gippsland, Emma Hearnes is a multidisciplinary artist whose varied work explores notions such as reality, domesticity, connection and unconventional beauty. Despite working across a diversity of subject matter and themes, she aims to generate a sense of authenticity that carries through all her work and allows it to accurately reflect the complexity of the human condition.
Now based in Melbourne, she is completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the Victorian College of the Arts.
What medium(s) do you work with, and why have you chosen them?
I've recently expanded my practice in terms of the mediums I use. I used to confine my work to either oil/watercolour painting or graphite drawing, but I've now opened up to considering how my ideas would play out across a broader range of mediums. It then becomes a matter of which medium best serves the idea.
I've had lots of fun expanding into photography, sculpture and installation recently.
Can you elaborate a little more on your making process — how does your artwork get from initial concept to exhibition stage?
I tend to plan works in terms of a space I envisage them ending up in, so I am constantly sketching little exhibition designs. How works are displayed is equally important as what the actual work is for me, so often I will think about the general shape or placement of a work before I consider the specifics of subject matter and medium.
When I do come to determine the specifics of the artwork I, of course, do a lot of looking through other artists' work (online, in books and in galleries) to find inspiration. Ideas also always seem to find me in opshops, tip shops and hard rubbish piles. I love the obscurity in the items you can find and I enjoy repurposing items that are charged with a whole unknown history.
Who or what are the biggest influences to your work?
There are too many to name, but some of the artists that are inspiring me at the moment are:
Sarah Lucas, Jason Dodge, Jaime Pitarch, Daniel Segrove, Patrick Graham, Daniel Pitin and Alena Hil.
How do you keep your creative juices flowing? How do you push past creative block?
I find it helpful to have multiple projects on the go at once, as it allows me to give up on a work for a bit if it's not working for me and move onto something else. If all my focus is on one project I tend to end up feeling too pressured and overwhelmed to be creative.
I also think it's important to be creative just for fun, outside of works you are making for assessment or exhibitions etc. Writing or doodling or building a website or doing a colouring book or altering clothes from an op shop, just for the sake of having fun with creativity is essential for me and allows me to remember why I enjoy art in the first place.
How do you keep your creative juices flowing? How do you push past creative block?
I find it helpful to have multiple projects on the go at once, as it allows me to give up on a work for a bit if it's not working for me and move onto something else. If all my focus is on one project I tend to end up feeling too pressured and overwhelmed to be creative.
I also think it's important to be creative just for fun, outside of works you are making for assessment or exhibitions etc. Writing or doodling or building a website or doing a colouring book or altering clothes from an op shop, just for the sake of having fun with creativity is essential for me and allows me to remember why I enjoy art in the first place.
Can you tell us a little more about your creative working environment/studio?
I'm currently studying at the Victorian College of the Arts, so lots of my work gets completed there. My studio there is very much organised chaos. It is filled to the brim with bits and pieces I’ve found in op shops or hard rubbish piles. To an outsider it probably looks like the den of a hoarder, but I have plans for every obscure item there.
I also do a lot of work outside the studio. Probably just as much of the process happens on the tram or in bed or on the couch while watching movies. I've never been a person that designates work to a certain space.
What’s next for you after your time at Brunswick Street Gallery? What upcoming projects are you working on now?
I'm lucky enough to have a work in Brunswick Street Gallery's group show, Portrait, which opens on the 26th of July.
I'm also showing work at RAW Artist's STELLAR showcase at the Melbourne Pavilion on the 1st of August, and working on submissions for a few other group shows.
I'm only in my first year of the Bachelor of Fine Arts, so I have a lot of learning and exciting opportunities still to come.
What does your selection as one of the winners of this Small Works Art Prize mean to you, and to the future of your practice?
The opportunity to have a solo exhibition at Brunswick Street Gallery is an extremely exciting prospect for me. As a young artist who has just moved out of home to study, I would not have been able to have an opportunity like this without the generous contribution of the Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank Branch of Bendigo Bank. I am extremely humbled and grateful for this opportunity and very excited to put together an exhibition.
The recipient of a Clifroy Prize is awarded a contribution towards pursuing a solo exhibition at Brunswick Street Gallery in 2019-20.
Brunswick Street Gallery wishes to thank Clifton Hill/North Fitzroy Community Bank® Branch of Bendigo Bank for their generous support and thoughtful selection of this Prize.
