A writing and drawing workshop
facilitated by Amanda Smith and Holly Walker
Saturday 2 March
11am - 2pm
Studio 30
$35 - SOLD OUT
Drawing by Amanda Smith
In this workshop you will work with writer Holly Walker to create some short personal narratives telling stories of your life. In the second part of the workshop, you’ll work with visual artist Amanda Smith to reduce this story down to its basic parts, a ‘title’, from which to make abstract or simplified images. Places are limited so bookings essential. To book please email: artscentre@wcc.govt.nz
Please bring along something to write with, i.e pens, pencils, notebook or laptop. We’ll supply some basic materials to draw with.
Artists Biographies:
Amanda Smith
Amanda Smith (she/her) is a visual artist using domestic materials from her childhood to tell stories from her own life, and ask questions about the world in general.
Raised in 1960s/70s South Auckland, she refers to a time when the world moved slowly, when the meditation of making was a necessity. She enjoys contemplating the connection between personal experience and public reaction.
She has worked in psychiatric social work, floristry, business administration and as a ‘lady-in-waiting’ before moving to New York in 2015. There she embraced art full-time, completing a Master’s in Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts in Chelsea.
She has shown in group exhibitions in New York and te Whanganui a Tara. This is her first solo show.
Amanda currently works at Te Papa Tongarewa and lives in the central city where she can watch the world go by.
Holly Walker
Dr Holly Walker (she/her, Pākeha) is the author of The Whole Intimate Mess (2017) and the co-editor of Reconnecting Aotearoa: Loneliness and Connection in the Age of Social Distance (2023). Her essays and reviews have been widely published and she can regularly be heard reviewing books for Nine to Noon on RNZ. In 2022 she graduated with a PhD in Creative Writing from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Te Herenga Waka (VUW), with a creative nonfiction thesis about the experience of having a family member in prison. Holly also works as a public servant and lives in Te Awa Kairangi Lower Hutt with her partner and two daughters.
This is the life that was
17 February - 15 March
This is the life that was, attempts to make sense of life and the world of Amanda Smith; recognising private trauma and public chaos co-exist. Memory and time play a significant part in exploration, the unrealistic longing for times now gone and for times ahead.
