Kathleen on The Couch - Yippee! by Kathleen Cameron

Thanks to RedBubble and Anneli for the article today… hope you enjoy reading the new BubbleWrap!

Kathleen is one of RedBubble’s most enthusiastic collaborators – she has been involved with a variety of joint artistic projects and has recently invited writers to add stories inspired by one of her works. This week she starts freelance work with RedBubble laying out this new version of BubbleWrap – the perfect time to have a chat with her on The Couch.

Q: You have an eclectic collection of work on RedBubble. How would you describe your various styles and which do you enjoy creating the most?
A: RedBubble is a hugely experimental process, seeing my ideas appeal to others is exciting and reassuring. I generally push ideas through rough sketches and doodles, graphic art allows me to reproduce them cleanly. My paintings, sketches and renderings are being re-interpreted to digital art. Recently photography has become a focus and I have found important inspirations that are bursting to manifest. I began taking digital photos for montages, one of my favourite things, I like to include as many artistic techniques as possible. Some pieces have paintings, sketches, photos, vector lines and whatever else in them. That’s the fun, putting it all into a poster. I love doing the vector creations just as much though.

Q: You have been a keen collaborator – producing work with RedBubble members Pinkstinks and Kookylane (any others?). How have these collaborations come about and why do you enjoy them?
A: Scott (Resisto) Robinson started me on that trip… He invested in the idea with Tweaker07 and later engaged me to to and fro with ‘saint’. That got me hooked. Then Kookylane and I got talking and the results were ‘dark roots’ and ‘space’. Pinkstinks (Bianca Beetson) is my best friend, that collaboration happened naturally and ‘new world order’ came about. Bianca is an Aboriginal artist, it was very special to share in her work. I have also just completed a vector collaboration with thickblackoutline and have been interacting with other RedBubble artists. I guess I just talk a lot and that’s what happens. The RedBubble Collaborations Hub forum is my way of bringing these projects together, from all the other collaborative bubblers too I hope. I would like to collaborate with more writers, pinkelephant and fleece wrote about my poster ‘she drowned in the river’. It’s the buzz of collective creative energy I enjoy I guess, I can find vision in an artistic direction I might not tread alone.

Q: Which of your works on RedBubble is your favourite? Tell us a story
behind it.
A: It’s hard to pick just one… I like the coloured ‘room’ series and the ‘shoe’ series but it’s likely ‘red right hand’. I’m not sure if that’s because it’s the most recent and popular of my posters, but it sums up something about my insides and what is natural to me. Even without the song lyrics as powerful inspiration, there are many simple truths within. It came together smoothly and our resident Curruwong posed as the ‘bird of doom’.

Q: From who, what and where do you find inspiration?
A: Everything really… that’s broad but I’ve an idea a minute sometimes. I’ll just make a list: Kahlo, Picasso, Dali; Greek mythology; Kim Shillington ; times gone by; my CDs; old stuff I own and love; Naomi Mawson ; collaborations ; nature; the mundane; the supernatural; retro pop culture; retro un-pop culture; the abstract and absurd; fantasy/magick; the universe… RedBubble collectively … visions … prophesies … that’s all – I think! And Bianca (pinkstinks), she told me about RedBubble and showed me to follow my heart! Kisses always go to her!