More than merely a tool for bringing communities together, art spreads messages and sparks inspiration, exploring our motivations as individuals and bringing to the forefront issues that can only be solved as a collective.
So what happens when creativity, community and environmental awareness meet? Unique and meaningful works of art, of course!
Ipswich-based artist Rebecca Lewis understood from very early on the power of art to be a messenger, an inspirer and a platform for transforming mindsets.
Her own artistic transformation started early, during a childhood spent on an acreage in the bosom of a family with a highly attuned sense of their environmental footprint.
Although her parents would never have described themselves as ‘creatives,’ they were nonetheless continually finding creative ways to re-use materials and fabrics. Their imaginative perspectives on matter, function, and aesthetics have significantly impacted Rebecca’s own.
While creativity in her family was linked with a practical, economic, and ecological philosophy, Rebecca invariably took this practical inventiveness one step further. She perpetually had a pen or pencil in her hand, took up printing early on at afterschool clubs and then lino printing in high school. Textiles and printing would come to be the hallmarks of her artistic practice while her creativity would continue to go hand in hand with environmental awareness.
After having kids, it came naturally to Rebecca to combine working from home and being available for her children with furthering her creative practice. Like many artists, she needs to be exercising her creativity to find personal fulfilment (and not go stir-crazy).
Today, she reconstructs our discarded and unwanted objects in ways that enable us all to perceive the beauty and potential in them.
Working exclusively with second-hand fabrics, discarded craft supplies and found objects, Rebecca produces singular and quirky items, which you will find nowhere else. Browsing her Instagram page instagram.com/littlebrowndog, Rebecca’s childlike ability to see magic and beauty in everything is palpable. Joy and wonder emanate from each item her hands have crafted.
One of Rebecca’s priorities in working with second-hand supplies is letting the materials speak for themselves. Their stories, characters, and quirks inform the design of each work of art: they stay true to themselves even as they are transformed.
While most artists work in isolation, Ipswich art shops have opened up studios and performance areas, enabling artists to share workspaces and creative processes. Practising alongside each other and engaging in personal artistic growth as a collective has greatly strengthened an already lively creative community. Local artists frequently attend each other’s exhibitions and are deeply involved in each other’s progress and growth. As an artist in Ipswich, Rebecca has found her ‘tribe.’ (She shudders as she says this, having found no better word to describe her community but hating the new-age hipster vibe she is imbuing it with).
However, she really hit her artistic stride around 2014, when she ran one of the three teams taking part in a community grant project across Ipswich. For Rebecca, the Animating Spaces project was truly about showcasing the artistic talent Ipswich has to offer and getting artists involved with the local community. Gaining lifelong friends and a confidence boost, Rebecca grew in her practice, with stronger project management skills and more courage in working with the community and other artists. But this was only the beginning…
In 2017, Rebecca was part of the Queensland Regional Art Awards touring show; then in 2018, she took first place in their Digital Art category! While she found this hugely validating to her artistic ambitions and self-belief, even more valuable to her was being embraced in the wider Queensland artistic community. She found herself surrounded by like-minded people who aligned with her creative practice. To this day, the artists involved are actively supportive of each other and genuinely involved in each other’s progress.
Rebecca’s sustainable ethos has continuously informed her creativity and brought her into contact with like-minded artists from all over Queensland. Nevertheless, her immediate community is just as crucial to Rebecca’s practice. Community, the forging of bonds through creation and exploration of self, and the ability to spark discussions on pertinent and urgent themes are central to Rebecca’s artistic values.
In this spirit, workshops are an integral aspect of her creativity, and she loves creating environments where knowledge and understanding flow alongside creative development. Her workshops for kids and grownups build on motor skills and artistic confidence as well as being highly open, friendly and nurturing environments.
Although she’s an introvert, Rebecca also loves the face-to-face interactions which take place at markets. This aspect of the creative process is perhaps one of the most rewarding, and while ‘design and maker’ markets are always fun, her favourite is the Southside Arts Market, in Brisbane. Here, people set out knowing they’re going to purchase artwork, and there’s nothing a creator loves more than connecting with someone who connects with her creations. Rebecca is most moved when she witnesses a person genuinely relate with the one-off items she’s produced. Knowing she has impacted this person’s life in very personal ways is profoundly fulfilling.
This artist has big plans for the future – or does the future have big plans for Rebecca? Having attended a workshop on running exhibitions, she won the opportunity to host her own solo show, and her ambitions are running high! Be prepared to witness the fusion of sustainable art with secret histories.
Taking the family unit as her starting point, Rebecca wants to collect the ‘little’ histories that inform the daily lives of real people and real places. Giving them their place in the broader historical tapestries of state and nation, she’ll bring to the forefront the personal struggles that shape entire communities. Highlighting these ‘little’ histories will truly bring to light our power to impact society around us. Make sure to keep a look-out for her first solo venture in Ipswich!