Community
8 November, 2024
Bookaar artist prepares to launch exhibit
A BOOKAAR artist and poet is showcasing her “authentic” self through her works and poems for this month’s exhibition at the Camperdown Courthouse.
Joan Mahoney’s exhibition features a selection of multimedia works with accompanying poems, all connected through the underlying theme of nature and the Corangamite area.
Ms Mahoney said all her works come “from within”, allowing her to express her love for plants and animals alongside the shire’s volcanic plains.
“Things like the big cockatoo - it’s meant to be a combination of the volcano erupting and volcanic bombs spinning in the air,” she said.
“They were actually painted over the knots in the wood, so that’s why they came to be.
“The cockatoo in that painting is red, when in actual fact the poem says how the cockatoo turns black like lava – we have the black cockatoos in this area, and black cockatoos have a yellow tail and not a red tail.
“That’s why my poem is a bit of a play on words.
“Most of my art is left to the imagination of the people who are looking at it.”
As a multimedia artist, Ms Mahoney enjoys the freedom to experiment with different techniques and materials.
“The Horses and the Hounds is a blind art – that’s been done with my eyes closed, then a bit of colour added,” Ms Mahoney said.
“There’s a poem with that one, and that’s a moment in history we’re never ever going to see again, and it was fabulous at the time.
“I’m trying to make my art a celebration of where we live.
“A lot of the artwork has got a poem with it, and I want people to look at it and think about it and look at the poem as well.
“They may or may not agree with how I interpret life and what I see, but most of my art is a reflection of what I’m seeing around us.”
Ms Mahoney said her art aimed for “connection, not perfection”, and encouraged residents to visit the exhibition at the Camperdown Courthouse, located at 179 Manifold Street.
“Mainly just to look at my art and think about the message I’m trying to convey through my art, and basically just enjoy art because what one person loves another person’s not going to love,” she said.
“It all depends on the individual entirely.
“I’d love to encourage anybody who enjoys art to have a go at it.
“So often you hear people say, “oh I can’t paint”, but in actual fact everyone can draw or paint - it’s just a matter of having a go.
“People think things have to be perfect, but they don’t have to be perfect at all because life’s not perfect.”
Read More: Camperdown