Interweaving love stories into art

CURRENTLY showing in Ballarat’s Art Space on Lydiard Street, local artist Jade Walsh has collated a series of mixed medium pieces for her exhibition titled, Romantic Threads.

Running until 3 April, Walsh’s colourful large-scale paintings aim to tell stories of infatuation, love and heartbreak through a variety of forms and mediums.

“The title refers to the stories behind each piece which is often to do with romance, dating or heartbreak, all of which I usually talk about,” Walsh said.

“I got a Ballarat Foundation grant to do some bigger work, so they supported me with the cost of going big but it was a bit of a challenge.

“They are for sale, sold a few which helps, people who know my work have enjoyed seeing my work bigger rather than seeing my normal smaller sized pieces.”

Showing pieces both new and old, Walsh said she utilised a range of techniques including text, paintings, screen prints, drawing and mixed mediums to pull the show together.

“It’s a collection of autobiographical stuff, but there’s also my friend’s stories and conversations in there too, for instance, the piece incorporating the sewn in text are snippets from conversations I’ve actually had,” Walsh said.

“Sometimes, I’m worried that my art is too girly, too honest and too personal but I’m going to push that further and encourage power to women, power to us.

“As women, we should be able to be confident in our work, that’s why I do art, is to connect, if someone can have a laugh or feel connected, I want them to feel good.”

In addition to her bold canvases and bright mixed medium pieces, Walsh said she also wanted to incorporate an interactive component to allow audiences to share their own stories of love.

“I love hearing other people’s stories and I read a book called Public Love which opened me up to some really frank, direct stories with people’s experiences with love,” she said.

“I love a bit of interactive participation and I also make zines, so I’m going to make a zine out of the stories which people write down and submit.”

“I had a couple of people who were here for like an hour writing stories down, I love it, it’s been interesting.”