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There is also an added interactive facet to the Walkway Gallery exhibition. There are balls of wool on offer for people to make into something and rugs for people to unravel.
As for her works, Gina thrives on having conversations with visitors to her exhibitions.
“My works are abstract, they tell a story but it is about what do you see,” she said. “That’s what I love about art – people can find their own story in it.”
The Walkway Gallery exhibition runs until February 4.
Both exhibitions basically mark a decade since Gina embarked on her own art practice – taking what had long been a passion for all things creative and turning it into a career.
It was an August 2014 exhibition at the Riddoch Art Gallery in the Margaret Scott Gallery that marked Gina’s emergence as a
serious artist and a look back at her story to that point only makes you wonder how this artistic career didn’t start earlier.
Anyone who knew Gina when she was a teenager wouldn’t be surprised to see how this story of ger artistic pursuits has unfolded. It was her passion at high school and she was set to pursue a career in fine arts, being accepted to a university course in Melbourne.
But financially, tertiary education and moving so far from home just wasn’t an option and so the paintbrushes were all but packed away.
So, while the story of Gina, the painter, started almost four decades ago, it really only took flight in 2014 and no one was more thrilled that she has returned to her first love than Gina herself, setting aside two days a week in the studio.
Juggling a new marriage, her job as a partnership broker and taking care of her aging mother, she has still managed to put together that first solo exhibition for South Australian Living Artists (SALA) Week that August.
Art might have returned to her repertoire a decade ago but her career in general always had a creative component, with much of it spent in the media space.
“I always had that creative bent so I guess that’s why the media was a good fit in the end,” Gina said.
After an apprenticeship at the local radio station, she worked as a producer at Adelaide’s 5DN and then at NWS9 where she worked in the production department on everything from Here’s Humphrey to the Grand Prix. Gina also did freelance work, working alongside Gabrielle Kelly making documentaries for the BBC in the early 90s.
Gina also enjoyed stints at the ABC, again in production, working on shows like Couch Potato and again dabbling across the full spectrum including sport.
Then came the amazing opportunity to work with respected Australian film maker Rolf de Heer – Gina was a producer on his acclaimed movie Bad Boy Bubby.
With a wealth of experience under her belt, Gina decided to return home and so she made her home at Port MacDonnell.
“My initial thoughts were to get a job at Channel 8 but that didn’t pan out,” she said. “So I set up my own business and worked freelance for a few years.”
Then came the Mount Gambier City Council years, as she took on the role of community services manager.
“Being a new role it was a blank canvas,” Gina said. “I was interested in arts and young people and I was able to develop a lot of projects around those two things.”
Her desire to still be creative gave rise to some memorable projects, including the Memories in Suitcase – the migrant focussed sculpture that sits in the courtyard between the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre and the Mount Gambier Library, that was borne out of the stories of the wide variety of migrants in this region.
“It gave me the opportunity to work with Silvio Apponyi and that was amazing,” Gina said. She was also a driving force behind the Limestone Sculpture Symposium, even flexing those long buried artistic muscles by participating herself.
“Then there was the film festivals and all the youth week activities and things I really loved,” she said.
During this time, though, the reality was she rarely picked up a paintbrush – until she met her husband Mick Raisin.
“He introduced me to acrylic painting and I took over the studio at our house and he’s the one who rarely got to paint,” she said. “He loved painting, drawing and writing too and he got me started back up and I’ve left him behind.”
For Gina, art is a spin off of her long standing love affair with words.
“To be able to somehow express those words in and abstract way and hope people get it,” she said.
And her new freedom of expression was heightened by her discovery of palette knives.
“I saw them in an art supplies shop and thought I’d give them a go,” Gina said.
“I literally have paint all over everything in the studio, on the walls, on the curtains, and I’ve never been happier - nothing is sacred in the space once I’m in the zone.”
Colours are also her passion and have been since she was a child.
“I was always decorating my bedroom and loved to wear colour as a teenager and I was always dying my hair,” she said.
Art is also her happy place and she is in no doubt as to where this contentment has come from.
“What’s love got to do with it – absolutely everything because without it I wouldn’t be doing this,” she said. “It’s funny how someone can change your life.”
“...it has become a symbol of life...if you pull at a thread, things can unravel very quickly...” Gina Raisin
“...the process for both exhibitions was completely different for both of them and I painted them both quite separately...” Gina Raisin
“...my works are abstract, they tell a story but it is about what do you see...that’s what I love about art – people can find their own story in it...” Gina Raisin
PORTRAIT OF GINA RAISIN ON THIS PAGE COURTESY OF TIM ROSENTHAL.
ALL OTHER IMAGES COURTESY OF MARCUS JONES
Gina Raisin’s exhibitions
WALKWAY GALLERY
43 Woolshed Stree, Bordertown - Bindjali Country
Gallery Opening Hous
Monday to Friday - 9am-5pm Saturday - 9.30-11.30am Closed public holidays
KARATTA WINE ROOM & GALLERY
5 Victoria Street, Robe - Bunganditj Country
Gallery Opening Hours
Every day 11am-4pm
