Author Archives: t18046319

Took the entire 6 weeks back from mid-semester break to build these four Wardian Cases, they are not perfect, could use a few touch ups, but overall I’m really happy with them and extremely thankful for the help and experience of Clayton at the workshop.

Pūrākau tells us how Hineahuone was formed by Tane with the whenua of his mother Papatūānuku. This gift of the mother giving part of herself to make and then nurture new life is why I have chosen each imprint to represent the four generations of wāhine in my whānau. I have kindly been gifted 3Continue reading “Collecting earth”

My dad’s parents are from Aberdeen, Scotland. My dad was born and never left Upper Hutt. My mum is from Nuhaka. Our family house had lots of little trinkets but did it have many taonga. Recently I realised it did, they were things I never really considered, they were just things that had always beenContinue reading “Whānau taonga”

After Izzy introduced me to kōkōwai and I caught the pigment bug and I discovered Kauae Raro, a NZ collective who explore natural pigment. And long story short, the amazing Sarah Hudson, who is in Kauae Raro, invited other indigenous artists during the first NZ lockdown to take part in a project resulting in aContinue reading “Kauae raro”

Much more visible progress today in the workshop, still didn’t get all of them with lids as I’d hoped but I’m happy enough that I can not feel so anxious about not finishing.

Building is a numbers game, one mil out is too much, so there’s been lots of mis-cuts, lots of cuts the wrong way, lots of money gone on petrol instead of groceries, lots of times I wanted to chuck in the idea as the Wardian cases were just a cover not the actual artwork. KidsContinue reading “One millimeter out”

Being a māmā while studying and working ain’t bloody easy. I love my course mahi, I just wish I had the money to still pay our bills so they I didn’t have to rush round tired and stretched. But it is what it is hopefully all the hard work in every area of my lifeContinue reading “School holidays”

When I was going through the exploration phase of conventional painting and I stumbled onto imprinting into kōkōwai, I was applying the pigment to A3 art paper so I didn’t think initially about going larger. For this series I am happy with my decision to stick to small mounds for the small whānau taonga IContinue reading “Artists displaying mounds”

Aside from my own practice, I am an educator at the Dowse Art Museum. Constantly trying to think of new child friendly workshops can be a mind juggle when every other day I am immersed in deep conceptual kaupapa for my course. So when I can I try to link in methods I am usingContinue reading “Kids and pigment”

I am going for an older look matching with the handles I was able to keep for my cupboard doors, so chose a dark walnut stain, and I’m pretty happy with the result.

I came in to the workshop without my defeatist attitude, and knew it was going to be a better day when Clayton told me that Bob was letting me use some Pine he wasn’t using, thanks Bob! We cut the first Wardian case, and assembled the frame to see what we needed to change. MyContinue reading “Thanks Bob”

After my last two mis-starts to build the Wardian cases myself I took a little shopping trip to see if anything I could buy already made could potentially fit the job. But, in the end nothing up to standard and my stubborn streak to not give up gave me the push back into building themContinue reading “To build or not to build”

So I wasted a day already prepping wood I couldn’t actually use, but seems it wasn’t the only day that was going to be wasted. Today was not so much wasted I suppose as it was a realisation of how long it takes to cut glass. I purchased recycled glass so it first required aContinue reading “Cutting glass”

My husband is in the army and has to frequently be away for extended periods of time, recently on long stints apart I have turned to a little DIY around our home. The latest reno was removing most of on kitchen cupboard doors, so when I decided to make wood and glass Wardian cases IContinue reading “Cutting doors”

I have decided to use the kōkōwai mound imprints as my final works to exhibit this semester. I want the actual mounds themselves, not just photographs, to be in the exhibition space. I will imprint within the space with whānau taonga. I want them open and uncovered at the opening as I see them asContinue reading “Wardian Cases”

Thanks to Israel Tangaroa-Birch I have been using the left over kōkōwai he gifted us last semester, it comes from the side of a volcano called Maunganui Bluff on the West coast by Waipoua forest. Other students received some from his marae up north Ngai Tawake. Today I took my tamariki to search for someContinue reading “Pigment hunters”

Testing a few more plaster casts using items around my mums house

The base of these paintings (shown below) were made when I was playing with paint in water. Those initial paintings where I relinquished control and let the water and the paint decide what would be reveled were basic and ugly to be honest, but I re-lived moments looking through them. Moments I had buried deep,Continue reading “Revealing the trauma”

Saffronn Te Ratana Ngāi Tuhoe Drips paint onto cardboard and paint brushes, carves into set acrylic paint. Creates environments like forests. Thoughtful of her responsibility as an ancestor. Explores acrylic paints whakapapa, as kokowai pigment whakapapa to the whenua. John Pule Niuean Creates forests, oceans and other environments. Seems to let the paint blobs createContinue reading “More indigenous inspiration”

Continuing my exploration of imprinting considering what imprints I will leave behind. What taonga of mine would be left that I was known by? Are the imprints as precious as the taonga itself? The ephemeral nature of the imprinted kokowai talks to the fragility I was expressing last semester with my works.

I added kokowai and Burnt sienna acrylic to this plaster. The acrylic seemed to break off from the plaster revealing the dark red.

Australian South Sea Islander Fourth-generation Australian South Sea Islander, Jasmine Togo-Brisby, great-great-grandparents were taken from Vanuatu as children and put to work on an Australian sugarcane plantation. These works and more examine the historical practice of ‘blackbirding’, a romanticised colloquialism for the Pacific slave trade. Jasmines practice includes painting, early photographic techniques like wetplate photography,Continue reading “Jasmine Togo-Brisby”

So many Māori artists these days, no matter if brought up in Te Ao Māori or learning about this part of their heritage, create work that is engaged with mana whenua, mana tiriti, mana tangata, mana wahine and tino rangatiratanga. So many works can connect to all those forementioned topics, this is because they areContinue reading “Mana whenua”

Searching for mōteatea from my iwi and exploring the meanings behind them should have been something I did a long time ago, but better late than never. I visited the library, researched online and looked through past iwi wānanga booklets. Many of the waiata I knew that we often sung back home nowadays was contemporary,Continue reading “Mōteatea”

I was interested in the works of Sonya Kelliher-Combs, mainly the use of objects close to her culture to paint with, they seemed to leave an imprint. Last semester I experimented with kokowai in my photography, but I wanted to also explore painting with it. So, I decided to combine the two concepts and cameContinue reading “Imprinting”

We chose 4 painting techniques we enjoyed the process or the results of and are developing on them.

Looking for indigenous painters who apply paint unconventionally to the canvas I discovered Samantha Hobson and Sonya Kelliher-Combs. Samantha Hobson Aborigine Samantha is a painter who uses pigment and a conditioner like Floetrol to make the paint run. She applies the runny paint with squirt bottles and hands. Paints about land, her people and old stories.Continue reading “Indigenous inspiration”

Mahi kāinga i te rā was to allow a waiata to inspire what we paint. Blue skies of Montana by Ronnie Milsap was my waiata. Ronnie is native to North Carolina in America, he was born blind which his whānau believed was because of a sin, so his mother left him to his grandparents inContinue reading “Blue skies of Montana”

Really interesting kōrero i te ata nei about the BLM movement before and since George Floyd’s death. The overall whakaaro spoke to the whakataukī ‘He aha te mea nui o te Ao, He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata’. Angela Davis spoke of our need to act collectively with urgency saying how “only a global movementContinue reading “Black lives matter”

Started to explore other unconventional methods of applying paint at home with the tamariki. It was pretty messy and fun but probably got paint in a few places I shouldn’t have so if I paint with the kids definitely need ample amounts of space. I liked the para kore practice I used in class soContinue reading “Peita peita i te kāinga”

Today we begun exploring unconventional methods of applying paint. Adding Floetrol to thin the paint without losing colour intensity like you would from adding water. We then filled a glass, put canvas on top and tipped over then released the paint from the cup lifting it up. I enjoyed the look of the paint thatContinue reading “Unconventional painting”

Ngatai Taepa, Te Atiawa and Te Arawa, visited tauira at Pūtahi to share the new waiata we will be singing to tautoko the opening of the new whare at the Wellington Campus sometime in the future. Beautifully composed by Kura Moeahu, Te Ātiawa, the waiata shares the historic Māori landmarks of Te Whanganui-a-Tara. I haveContinue reading “Waewae taku haere”

Developed a simple website today to hold my mahi this semester instead of a visual diary on paper. I’ve kept it quite plain, partly because I like a simplified look and partly because the free version doesn’t easily allow lots of the customisation that I was use to with my previous website. I will stillContinue reading “Pae tukutuku -website”

Ia wiki ia wiki we will have a whakataukī to focus on for the week. I am on my reo Māori journey so am stoked that we will be incorporating more of our reo in our every day lives. I also love discovering the intended whakaaro behind whakatakī and reimaging some of the narratives intoContinue reading “Whakataukī”

First day back at Toioho ki Apiti was nice and easy. Was awesome seeing our family in the flesh again after Covid-19 kept us apart for so long. Shared kai and waiata practice were great ways to feel back at home. The kaupapa this semester is Mana whenua again, so I’m hoping to extend onContinue reading “Let’s go”