INTERVIEW:

Bekii: Could you please just introduce yourself and your style of art.

 

Stephanie: My name is Stephanie Blaise Sultana. I’m a visual artist. I mainly do analogue photography and I mix with digital media as well.

 

Bekii: Awesome . How did you begin in the field of art?

 

Stephanie: I applied for art school in Canberra and I had actually applied to do a bachelor of science degree as well and then I got in after my art interview, so I threw that out the window and went to art school. It was really eye-opening. I came from an all-girl catholic school, so going to art school was like wow! It was just so much fun and I learnt so, so much.

 

Bekii: So you did do formal arts training?Stephanie: Yep. At the Australian National University (ANU) School of Art and I did a Bachelor of Visual Arts with (Honours).How long have you been in Melbourne for?I’ve been in Melbourne for about 8 months.

 

Bekii: What’s been your experience in breaking out into the art world so far?

 

Stephanie: There’s been heaps more opportunities available to everyone in Melbourne [compared] to what there was in Canberra. In Canberra it was, I felt a bit cliquey. It was who you knew not what you knew kind of thing. And because it was so small the opportunities compared to what they are in Melbourne [were also small]. Finding things is a lot easier to do in Melbourne.

 

Bekii: How else would you describe Melbourne in terms of the art scene?Stephanie: There’s so much and there’s so many different mediums and fields that artists work in. And even in commercial galleries the work that you see is so good. I haven’t spent a lot of time in Sydney or other places, but I would say they’d be similar to Melbourne. Canberra’s just sort of a weird place to be.

 

Bekii: So it’s fairly new to you?

 

Stephanie: Yeah it is, but I’ve been in about , I think , 5 exhibitions so far.

 

Bekii: Awesome and how did you get involved in those?

 

Stephanie: On Facebook groups! I joined all the art related Facebook groups. I think there’s one called ‘Emerging Artists in Melbourne’ and then a general art/creative Melbourne group. And then just seeing posts on there and callouts for exhibitions. I just volunteer. There’s also a lot of competitions particularly with the Brunswick St Gallery. They have annual shows and everything and they’re really cool.

 

Bekii: Do you need a job to supplement your art practice?Stephanie: Yes I just got a job! I’m working at a toy store. It’s pretty fun. I had a pretty stable job in Canberra and then I moved to Melbourne with my boyfriend and he was like “you don’t have to work” so I tried to do the art thing on my own. Have you heard of RAW before? I had a show with them. I had a few sales and I was like ah this is really good I can do this but I need RAW like, all the time. And doing markets, I feel like it’s really confronting. To have a proper market stall with everyone else who’s so professional and done it a million times. So it’s really good that I’m working now. I can save up money and have a solo show now and pay for fees and everything so it’s really good.

 

Bekii: How long do you spend on your art practice each week?

 

Stephanie: It differs. I go through phases, like sometimes I won’t, do anything sort of visually, like photographing or anything like that and I’ll read books or something. I don’t know…. Maybe 20 hours a week? That doesn’t seem like a lot but it is a lot.

 

Bekii: How important would you say that art is to you?Stephanie: It’s sort of the number one in my life. I remember when I was at art school , our lecturer said that “art always has to come first” and then your partner, and then family and friends. He was like if you’re serious about it you just have to prioritise it as your number one. Yeah and my boyfriend gets that. I remember the first exhibition I had in Melbourne it was so excited and he forgot that it was the opening night and he had gotten us tickets to Jason Derulo and I’m a huge Jason Derulo fan and I really wanted to go , but at the same time I was like this is my first opening night for this show in Melbourne so he sold the tickets and he was cool with that.

 

Bekii: Yeah so he’s really supportive.

 

Stephanie: Yeah. Yeah he is.

 

Bekii: Are all of your friends and family also supportive of your art?

 

Stephanie: Mostly! Some of my work can be a bit confronting for people, like some of the stuff I’ve done in the past. I’ve done some nude self-portraits before, it was talking about feminine identity and an exploration of that and I used myself as the model and growing up catholic….they were sort of like …do something else.. but from that it’s all branched out into different things and doing more sort of abstract pictures.

 

Bekii: How do you bring an audience to your work apart from the galleries you are involved with? How do you use social media?

 

Stephanie: I haven’t done a lot of posts lately but when I was in uni I used to do a lot of blogging on stephanieblaise.com and I’d do a little spiel about what I’m working on and my ideas and thoughts. I haven’t done so much of that recently because my ideas haven’t really been refined recently I’m still exploring what I’m doing. So posting on that, people follow through that. Then doing a share on Facebook and Instagram and it just drives so much traffic to it. It’s so good. I don’t have Twitter, I only have Instagram @stephanieblaise and my personal Facebook page. I used to have another one but then it’s too many things to keep up! Just having those two streams of my followers on Instagram and my friends and family and friends of friends on Facebook is great. Every time I post my stats just shoot up on my website so it’s really good.

 

Bekii: How important do you think art is to society? And to people outside the art circles?

 

Stephanie: That’s a good question. I think there’s a place for it. I think there are other things that are more important to society than art, but I think it’s important because it makes people think about issues that they may not think about before. Yeah particularly interactive art , and performance art where it’s right in their face and confronts them with an issue I think that’s the most effective way because otherwise stuff in galleries, if you’re going to the gallery then you know what you’re going to get and you think it’s important, whereas a street artist is there for everyone to see addressing whatever issues or ideas that they have.

 

Bekii: Could you tell me a bit more about your style of art and what you do with art?

 

Stephanie: Yep. So I have recently been doing transfer prints. I photograph on my analogue camera on colour film , I get it developed , and then I scan the negatives at home and then I print them off on a wax paper and I transfer it onto a floor tile. Because they are inkjet, the ink doesn’t set on the tile and you can morph it and from that I rephotograph that and do the same process but onto a watercolour paper and you just get these beautiful prints and they just look like fossils I think they’re really gorgeous.

 

So that’s what I’m doing at the moment and I really want to do some large ones maybe a metre or so to see if they give a different view. It seems like a crazy process but I really like doing them. I had done wood transfers before I was looking at different ways to do that and thinking of different surfaces I could use. For my honours I had about 80 tiles that I did this transfer on. And now I’ve been doing smaller prints and the paper ones are a lot more effective , they kind of look like paintings which is nice.

 

Bekii: What advice would you give to someone who is finishing high school and thinking of going into art?Stephanie: Go to art school! I am a big believer in that, anyone can draw. I don’t know if it’s the same at every art school, but at my art school we had our major, so I did photography and then there was like a core section where you do all the basics like clay and painting and drawing and stuff. And I so believe that anyone can draw, and even if you’re not super realistic you have a different style . Anyone can do it and it’s such a great experience to find out who you are and what ideas you’re interested in in life. Yeah it’s just so much fun.

 

Bekii: And what would you say to people finishing their art school degree?

 

Stephanie: Don’t leave! I really miss it so much. I’ve only been out of art school for a year and a half or maybe more than that, I’m still sort of working out what I’m supposed to do. In my final year they [taught us] a lot about what to do when you leave art school and balancing work with life and there was a lot of art teachers who said they finished art school when they were young, then they went into a government, public service job for years then got back to art school, art teaching and being an artist so I guess it’s about finding what you want to do at the time and doing it.

 

Bekii: What art career aspirations do you have for the next 5 or 10 years?

 

Stephanie: I would love to be self-supported with my art. I don’t think that will happen but even just working casually it’s good because it gives you some structure to your life. Just being happy. I get so much enjoyment out of it, like when I’m working and I can tell when something’s good because everything clicks and adds up and makes sense and I get so excited about it . Yeah I just want that to happen all the time.

 

Interviewed and writtten by Bekii Bialocki (2016)