Could you please tell me about your backgrounds?Emily: I studied Architectural Design at the Queensland University of Technology with my final year at a French University. When I was a kid I knew I was an artist. I could play and experiment with drawing and making until I’d spread my ‘work’ throughout every room of the house, driving my parents crazy. Though when the time came to choose a ‘real’ career I couldn’t see past the notion that I needed to earn money and do something serious. I started to doubt myself. So I studied architecture.. which seemed to tick several boxes. It wasn’t until I traveled to the other side of the planet that the screaming kid inside finally won. I completed my undergrad in Architecture in a small French town called Grenoble and this is when I really began to draw again. Draw everything, everywhere, all the time. I gave myself permission to let go. I let myself make unrestrained messy drawings. Once I did this I started to recognise that the mess was beautiful. Drawing became sacred time. It was my own. I love that. I want to share that. I am an artist, and I will try my hardest not to forget that.

Jo: I studied art at the Queensland College of Art and majored in painting. After my honours year I went to live in London and was so inspired by the vibrancy and diversity of the creative community over there and got to see some wonderful art. At the time I was making installation work as well as painting and worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum’s education program and online museum and also worked as a freelance workshop artist and project coordinator in schools and youth centres. It was a formative time for me being in the UK and being exposed to a lot of different experiences. I was diagnosed with cancer while living over there and eventually came back to Australia for treatment and to be with my family. When I got back to Australia I was so inspired to paint and draw. It was a major part of my recovery and I’ve been painting and drawing my experience ever since. I am currently the artist in residence at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at University Queensland where they undertaken research into cancer and other illnesses. I have always been interested in representing the body and inthis project I am exploring the body at a sub-cellular level from the position of survivor.

What is Urban Art Binge?J: UAB is a collaborative project between artists Emily Fong and Joannah Underhill that aims to be both conduit and hothouse for creative development especially around drawing and painting as a way to document everyday life.

E: It’s a platform, or meeting place for making marks, sharing experience and building community engagement around creative practices.

How did you get started on this project?J: We actually didn’t know each other before starting out on this venture. We both went through the NEIS program to set up our businesses and were connected via mutual acquaintance there. Our first meeting was for a cuppa at Lady Marmalade in Stones Corner and over the course of a couple of hours, the project was born. We came up with the name at our second meeting and everything just rolled along beautifully and easily. We get on really well and have totally different skill sets so complement each other really well.

E: Put two artists together over a cuppa and BOOM! We were both at a place in time where collaboration was something that both our practices were yearning for. It’s very easy to get used to seclusion as an artist when you’re working away in your studio. So we’re putting ourselves out there. Together. The idea of documenting place is wonderful. What is the importance of this for you?J: Firstly as artists or creatives of any kind, I think it’s important to start with your own community. Documenting place is about documenting one’s unique relationship with that place in the service of sharing it with others and in the process offering a view and a vision of something that is seen everyday but may well be overlooked and not really SEEN. Documenting place is about stopping and really taking the time to look, to appreciate, to breathe in and re-create the world we live in and honour it through creative engagement with it.

E: Yes, the key here is time. We as people move very fastthese days, and so does the environment around us. Though there are many things that stand still long enough to ponder and to capture by mark making. Learning to draw is about first learning to see as well as look.

Will the visual map of Brisbane be shown to the public? In what kind of format?J: Yes! We have plans for an exhibition at Jugglers Art Space on the 7th December to showcase the work from the project. We are aiming to show the paintings and then a rolling slide-show of the drawings in a digital format and who knows, maybe coupled with some kind of performative sketching event on the opening night.

”“Drawing became sacred time.

An interview with directors Emily Fong and Johanna Underhill

Urban Art Binge

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Put two artists together over a cuppa and...

Boom!

Who can get involved in Urban Art Binge?J: At the moment UAB workshops are open to adults of all ages and all skill levels so anyone can get involved. We have guest artists to teach sessions from time to time as well.

Do you need to have a background in art?J: No. Our feeling is that drawing is a skill just like reading and writing, it’s a valuable tool for communication and expression and as such we want to see it available to as many people as possible. The mixed media painting is an extension of this idea and we have a really playful approach to teaching both drawing and painting. What kind of skills will participants learn or develop?J: We cover drawing skills in terms of drawing tools and techniques as well as composition, perspective and contrast. In painting we teach technical brush skills and colour theory as well as how to playfully engage with a range of materials such as inks, acrylics and mediums. Participants develop a diary of images from the site sketching sessions and learn to interpret these onto a canvas or to creatively pull an image from loose and experimental mixed media play. The workshops also focus attention on what blocks us creatively and encourages a ‘letting go’ for people to startto find their own voice and individualexpression and to celebrate that.

What kinds of materials do the participants use in the sessions?J: For the sketching sessions we use a range of materials from pencils to pens and watercolours. For painting we paint onto canvas and do experiments on paper using charcoal, condies crystals, inks and acrylics as well as some household, domestic materials such as salt and riceto create interesting effects. In what kinds of locations do you hold sessions?J: Our studio session are held at Jugglers Art Space in Fortitude Valley, where we have a large well-lit gallery space in which to paint on trestle tables and access to easels if people want to use them. Our site sketches change each week and are focused on the theme for that particular block, for example, this block’s theme is People and Places so we have been to the West End and Powerhouse markets for sketching and also spent the afternoon sketching at the 2ballerina’s dance school which was amazing fun! What is one suggestion you would have for someone wanting to get better at drawing?E: Buy a sketchbook and a soft pencil.. then give it a go. One very important trick for drawing is learning to see.. not just look. Try not to judge too harshly which we, especially as adults are all too ready to do.

J: Often we stop drawing at a certain age and when we go back to it as adults our skill level is still at the age when we stopped. As adults we are often frustrated or ashamed of this and being this way with ourselves hampers our progress. One of the best ways to improve drawing to make a commitment to do it each day, even if only for 5 mins and to promise not to judge the results. If you can look at drawing as a way to explore and understand what it is you are drawing and give up any expectations around what that ends up looking like on the page then your drawing will improve dramatically and quickly and be really enjoyable. Being present is key.

Some people are not ‘talented’ enough to draw - true or false?E: Big fat False! We learn to tell ourselves that we are not good enough from a very early age. Some people are just better at making a mess and being OK with that. J: Drawing is a learned skill just like anything. It takes practice. Our society also has preconceived ideas about what drawing is