36 Artist Profile
Christmas – A Community Art Project Interview with artist Sue Tate
What is the inspiration behind the designs for the Christmas Banners? Personally, I don't celebrate Christmas in a religious or traditional way and I despise the commercial aspects of Christmas waste. But, I love the Christmas celebration, the gathering of family and friends, the feasting, the giving and receiving of handmade presents, the music, the stories and reminisces of celebrations past. I liked the fact that the Colac Otway Shire (COS) had chosen to install a re-useable, permanent structure for the banners. I wanted to create something different from our traditional northern hemisphere totems of Christmas, images that reflected more of our local experience of the summer celebration. I wanted to create something that could be used for more than just the Christmas celebrations. I live on the Otway coast and all summer long my garden is visited by superb blue wrens, king parrots, yellow tailed black cockatoos and sulphur crested cockatoos. I chose these birds to appear on the three banners. If we are lucky, some years the gums flower too and the trees just hum with the sound of visiting bees. So, of course the red flowering gum just had to be included.
Can you please share some of the techniques and processes used? Usually I work in textiles. I also paint and draw but this is the first time I used technology to create an artwork. Each image began as a photograph. The photos were cropped, simplified and merged together to form the base images for the banners. Then I simplified the colour pallet of each image to give a continuity across the four banners, enhancing the red, green and gold; the colours of Christmas. I used GIMP to create the art work for the banners. Luckily there are plenty of videos available on how to use this open sourced software. Otway Life Almanac 2020
Simple stuff really, but it meant I could easily manipulate the images to meet slight modifications requested by COS. If these designs were painted I just would not have been able to meet their brief.
What role do you think art can play in modern day society? Where do I start! Much has been written about the benefits the arts bring to a community. A staggering 98% of our population associate with art in some form or other, 48% as active participants in the arts. For me, the creative process, being able to make something with your own hands, that is formed from your imagination and skill is truly rewarding. And that creative process is not restricted to creating visual art.Cooking, gardening, sewing, knitting, leatherwork, carpentry, metal work, singing, playing an musical instrument .... all enrich our lives, give us purpose and pleasure. When we create art we do so mainly in our own homes. No one, apart from family and close friends know what we do. Our creativity remains hidden.