Colour changes communities!

Growing up & living in South Auckland, extended family & large community groups have always been a normal way of live. Diverse cultures all with different backgrounds, customs, beliefs, systems, ways that others sometimes just don't understand. South Side is a flavour as much as it is an area of Auckland, yes there is the negative but we don't need to say much about that because its usually the only angle media use to highlight our part of town.

But attitudes aside this is & has always been home to me (Janine), Charles (the past 15 years) & the entire lives of our babies so far. Because of that we have made it a personal goal to beautify spaces, bring life into dark places & involve the people that live in the unique communities we have here. Art changes lives & it changes atmospheres, it is a tool in our hands allowing us to interact with people from all walks of life. Our ultimate goal is to see South Auckland become the art capital of New Zealand, a diverse & colourful existence that is celebrated throughout the world. With all dreams in life you need to start somewhere so we have begun stage 2 of the Otara Roller Door Project. The ultimate goal is to paint every roller door throughout the town centre alongside the locals, to make Otara the largest outdoor gallery in New Zealand & also to create ownership of the space in the hearts & minds of our local youth. We will be approaching council to see what they think so fingers, toes & eyes crossed they are keen to get on board too x

What are we up to?

Full time artists' - yep its a crazy idea I guess with 4 children but its also a dream come true. Doing what we love, when we want to, with those we choose & with communities we love! Its not for the faint hearted I guess, if your a personality type that likes consistency, patterns, repetition, systems we would drive you insane but somehow its working!

We are nearly at the final stage of our first full colour fine art print working with Glenn Taylor the guru at Artrite Screenprinting in Onehunga. We are working on a show with Miss Lolo furniture, a second show with the House of Natives (Mangere Bridge) early December & in between those we have 2 street art festivals to attend in Tauranga & Taupo. Its getting busy, our minds are racing but this is all part of the fun being creatives - imagination, design, conceptualising, dreaming & then stepping out to make some of those ideas happen. Keep an eye out over the next few months as we launch into some exciting arenas we've always wanted to explore but never had the time to do so. Its probably the most exciting yet crazy time of our lives in regards to the next step for our art but we are ready & fingers crossed so is the world x

It's time we went full time!

Photo credit: Brendon Kitto

4 months ago we decided we were over the fact that we were working to fulfil someone elses' dreams but not our own. Years of retail management & part time sales rep roles in between the art projects & community activations we loved, it was time to take the leap & make our dreams come true. With 4 children making the move from regular/reliable income to relying on your art to pay for a family of 6 living in Auckland is a step many people told us was crazy. It is, it is actually crazy but thats the point isn't it for creatives?

Creatives are constantly imagining, daydreaming, night dreaming, dream dreaming....this entire existence & world of creativity exists inside our brains & daily those concepts are screaming to get out but life, time, responsibilities, jobs, yep they take up time. Time was the key ingredient we needed, the ability to focus on what we loved & what we wanted to implement but that was at the expense of our regular Wednesday midnight payment that we knew paid the power, phone bill, gas for the week etc..... But here we are, ready to take on the next stage of our art lives yay.

(Now off to work so we can earn some cash to pay the bills so we actually have an internet connection & power to run our computer & update this blog....)