Claire Foxton and Mikey Freedom talk about bringing mural art to Shellharbour

Not too long ago we chatted to street artist Alex Lehours about his mural work. Specifically his Deadpool piece outdoors in the city streets of Sydney. How then can mural artists transplant to a more regional setting, but with more freedom to explore space?

Artists Claire Foxton and Mikey Freedom have been given the canvas of Holm Place in Shellharbour to explore a new mural for the also-new dining precinct that has been developed there. We were able to chat to both artists prior to the commencement of making the mural, which will begin at Holm Place tomorrow.

Mikey Freedom

What do you find interesting about creating mural art?

Claire: Mural art sits between design and art for me. There’s got to be balance between approaching it like a job and creating a piece of art that comes from within. On one hand there’s generally a brief or set of considerations, stakeholders, outcomes etc. and on the other, there’s me, my thoughts and my artistic identity. So I find that balance interesting and I enjoy navigating that process.

Mikey: There’s always that enjoyment between conceptualising, painting and completing a mural. The whole process is enjoyable of course (this goes without saying!) however, it’s afterwards, when you see people interacting and responding to what is basically a new space, that is most enjoyable for me. I like the idea of making inviting spaces through painting murals.

You both include loads of colour & brightness within your pieces. What draws you to use such colours?

Claire: I’m like a moth to a flame when it comes to colour. It excites me. I’ve recently started using Ultramarine blue a lot in my paintings and I didn’t realise until I looked back on some photos from a recent trip to Chefchaouen in Morocco, a town painted completely in Ultramarine blue, that my infatuation comes from that experience. So I think travel and my surroundings definitely play a big part in shaping my use of colour.

I would consider myself and Mikey to be pretty energetic and positive people too, so perhaps our love of colour is in-part a reflection of our personalities.

Mikey: Colour is about light and light casts out darkness. Light can mean many things physically and symbolically, so to me colour has a myriad affect on people, so hopefully my use of colour it’s a positive one. That’s one aim. While my art is highly personal at times, I would like the impact of some of what I do to challenge the way public space is used and promoted, what better way to achieve such other by using colour?

Claire Foxton

Despite the similar colours, you both have distinct, different styles. In your opinion, how much does your style fit in with your collaborator?

Claire: I think the fact that our styles are so different is what makes the collaboration work. It’s that contrast that creates harmony and ultimately leads to a more interesting piece. If there were too many similarities in our styles I think the impact of the collaboration and the potential for something completely unique to come from it, would be lost.

Mikey: It’s something that we have both had to, gladly, work upon. Whereas our mutual love for art and what each other does simply enabled us to collaborate, it’s not something we have overly laboured or struggled with fortunately. No egos here, just a desire to create a harmonised mural that represents each of us as much as the individual artist.

What are the challenges in producing a large-scale piece like this?

Claire: I think my biggest challenge is overcoming that little voice that suggests I might not be capable at first. Of course the fact that what we’re doing is so public and so open to criticism also fuels that fire. The idea of letting someone down, especially myself, can be paralysing. Usually once the actual doing part starts, I’m fine, and I can let the adrenalin take over. The other more obvious challenge is in accurately scaling the design up to size. My contribution to this mural is a large scale portrait of a local girl, and with any portrait, there’s a lot of pressure on getting the proportions right from the beginning.

If the eye is on the wrong tilt or the nose is slightly too small from the get-go, the whole thing will look off. There’s really no room for error so the only option is to nail it. The best thing about this pressure is that it’s directly proportionate to the amount of satisfaction and elation I feel if I succeed. So it can be both terrifying and exciting at the same time.

Mikey: The first challenge is conceptualising the mural that works environmentally, meaning that it regards it’s physical context, from that point on it’s a matter of working out a system of reference to maintain scale and proportion. Some of the reproducing is achieved by a variety of means, however a reliance of eye hand coordination is never discarded ultimately.

What have you observed in the community of Shellharbour that you would hope to reflect in this piece?

Claire: I grew up in the area and spent a lot of my time in Shellharbour as a kid. I also worked for the most part of my teens inside the shopping centre, so I have a close affinity to the area as a lot of memories were built here. It’s important to me that the painting reflects the laid back, coastal aspect of the city and the lifestyle it promotes.

The people here are fun-loving and relaxed – their weekends are spent with family and friends and it’s quite close-knit. You can’t really go to the shops without running into a few people you know. So the painting had to be a bright and friendly welcome to anyone entering the space – to accurately represent the culture here, but also to give people a taste of what to expect if they’re visiting from out of town.

Mikey: Shellharbour has been experiencing growth in a variety of ways over recent decades, all while maintaining or attempting to stay mindful of it’s coastal position. This mural seeks to stay true to this reality, to connect Stockland and its surrounding business district to the environment that naturally surrounds it. Art in this instance acts as a bridge in people’s thinking, the mural acting as a colourful reminder of that, hopefully it will cause people to slow down for a while, enjoy the space, just like the natural environment beckons us to do the same.

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Claire Foxton and Mikey Freedom‘s mural piece in Holm Place, Shellharbour NSW will be painted live from August 26th-29th. Public are free to come by and obserbve the creation.

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