Artist Spotlight
Sydney artist inspired by director Guillermo del Toro
The Lumière’s Art-at-Night event will take place today from 7-11:59 p.m. in downtown Sydney.
For more information on the festival, visit www.lumierecb.com.
The following is about one of the artists taking part in the annual festival.
GEE STEWART Hometown? Sydney
Age? 17
What is your artistic medium?
I dabble in everything (except ceramics) but mostly focus in embroidery, illustration and zine-making. What first inspired you to work in this medium? For embroidery, one night I just picked
up felt, thread, a needle and taught myself. I’ve always been “illustrating” but I really started once I got into comics growing up, and perfect enough, zine-making is a great way to show off those illustrations. Is there an artist in particular that has inspired you?
The director Guillermo del Toro has inspired my work immensely. I love his style of directing and the way he designs characters and entire worlds for maybe one or two movies. His movies have branched across so many genres, similar to the art I make. He’s seen one of my paintings from his movie, “Crimson Peak,” on Twitter before, so fingers
crossed I can work with him someday Do you have a favourite piece of work that you’ve created?
My Captain Marvel/David Bowie embroidery. It took 18 hours, over 1,000 stitches and a bit of red dye to colour match. I attached it to a shirt so I can wear it proudly. What makes it stand out in your memory?
I spent hours on it. My fingertips were red for a few days, since halfway through my second skein of red thread, I noticed the colours didn’t match. I had to take all the stitches out, dye the thread a richer red and re-stitch it. What prompted you to participate in Lumiere? This is my second year at Lumière. Last year I had my exhibit Sad Girls which I kind of did through my school’s art club (though I did 98 per cent of the project myself). In that year I created a zine called Guillozine (like guillotine with a Z), and part of the mission statement is to create opportunities for local artists — so it just seemed right to create a zine that features artists from our little island. What do you hope people will take away from your Lumière project?
The living proof that you can do big things when you’re still young (and that anyone can make a zine). I pride Guillozine (and really anything I do) on being 101 per cent teen-made. I’ve faced many setbacks as a teenage entrepreneur and artist, and I want to help make it easier for fellow teens to do what I’m doing.