Phoebe Paradise knows it takes a village to create meaningful art. The illustrator, fashion designer and occasional punk rocker confesses that sometimes there is no work-life balance.
She’s no stranger to dedication and will be the first to admit how far she pushes herself in large-scale projects.
We caught up with Phoebe to chat about the raw reality of being a creative, from mental blocks to support systems and (most importantly) maintaining authenticity in the age of electronics.
Born and raised in Meanjin (Brisbane), Phoebe’s vibrant artistry strings together fragments of punk, tropical fever and suburbia. Alongside other local artists, she works to serve the community and facilitate spaces.
As Phoebe puts it, “people need to be building shit.”
The creative multi-hyphenate hopes that Brisbane will eventually shake off its “cultural cringe” behaviour and start to embrace contemporary artmaking. From commissioned work to public projects for Hervey Bay and Caboolture Regional Art Galleries, Phoebe admits, “I haven’t really entered the contemporary art scene in a traditional way. I kind of reverse engineered an arts career after having a fashion business.”
“I haven’t really entered the contemporary art scene in a traditional way. I kind of reverse engineered an arts career after having a fashion business.”
Phoebe’s artistic practice has come a long way over the past several years, but taking credit or knowing when she’s proven herself doesn’t always come easy. Despite her rising success. DIY underpins her work and ethos, taking on a robust approach and zeal for genuinity that is unapologetic to aesthetics.
Phoebe expresses “we’re all just kind of running headfirst. I just trust myself to be able to work it out. Or maybe have the humility to ask for help when there’ s things I don’t know how to do.” Jumping from one large project to another has its tolls mentally and physically. “I’m so lucky”, she says when reminiscing on the stronghold of her friends, family and colleagues during these times, “I am forever indebted to them.”
However, for Phoebe, these support networks are not completely realised online by her followers. Platforms like Instagram make impossible solo tasks seem possible. It’s important to stay transparent with audiences, and get talking about the reality of artistic practices offline. Phoebe challenges the myth of an ‘isolated artist’ by collaborating with teams of strategists, friends and creatives to help reach the finish line.
She jokes about the positives of turning your “friendship circle into a volunteer meat grinder”…a revolutionary hack for tackling the scary, impossible stuff. Phoebe’s recent projects of Botanica to Sunburnt in the Suburbs, invites a community of people with a range of skill sets and knowledge.
Team work makes the dream work!
“you’re either playing the game or you’re not.”
When it comes to navigating the unpredictability and trepidations of today’s modern creative landscape (online and IRL), Phoebe says “you’re either playing the game or you’re not.” A common universality for artists is finding themselves stuck in the machine of content creation, for more views, likes and exposure.
Importantly, Phoebe confesses to “feeding the algorithm” out of necessity and adds, “you’ve just got to decide what amount of it would be harmful to your soul and your practice.” She’s been toeing the line of creating art that she knows will do well versus art that speaks to her heart for quite some time. Letting things happen organically, one day at a time, is the best remedy for finding balance.
To make the leap from small-time artist to exhibition extraordinaire…you first have to believe in yourself. Botanica 2023, a public art installation, held in the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens, “was a really big departure from my usual work,” Phoebe remarks. It presented Queenslander living on a miniature scale, amidst the housing crisis and climate change. Her transformation of suburbia showcased a flair of modern gothic imagination that’s on the rise in art scenes.
Phoebe recalls, it was the first time a big institution invested in her work and trusted in the end result. From always communicating through illustrations, she now had proof of concept; a physical manifestation of her mind’s wanderings and lofty ideas. This was not achieved without resilience through five am to five pm days and the weight of self-doubt, when end results were far from reach.
Upon reflection, Phoebe exclaims, “I hope to sell them to an eccentric billionaire”…and we hope so too! For the sake of her relative’s garage that currently houses the 10.5 metre tall houses.
“I’ve been of the mindset that I’m really greedy. I just want to do everything and it’s something that I’ve applied to my arts practice as much as I can over the last few years.”
Overworking and underestimating your limits is a large part of being human. Newsflash…its completely normal! There’s always a bittersweet factor in creating large scale art…the anticipated depressive slump after it’s all over. For Phoebe, this started during the unveiling of her solo show at the Pine Rivers Art Gallery. She recalls “by the time it opened, I was like a husk…floating four feet above my body, just watching myself walk around and say hi to people.”
When the good jobs, wows and claps fall into a hush, Phoebe notes “there’ s only one direction you can go after that”…and it’s unfortunately down. It’s a slippery slope, that without the right support network and friends could be detrimental. She says “even though you’re kind of back to normal again, it’s so different to where you were a week or two weeks ago, that it feels like you’re under the ocean. But really you’re just back to normal.” Phoebe pictures life before this as “acting on borrowed time.” She presses the importance of “carving out moments for the sanity stuff.” Through her trials and tribulations, Phoebe is learning to respect the balance, in lesser extremities to Elisabeth Sparkle.
On the topic of all things we’d rather sweep under the carpet; the question of ‘what’s next?’ is always the elephant in the room. To the everyday freelancer and aspiring creative: yes, you will get through this rut of doubt, and no, you won’t stay in the loop of impending doom forever. Start relishing in the unknown and embracing newness. Phoebe imparts “I’ve been of the mindset that I’m really greedy. I just want to do everything and it’s something that I’ve applied to my arts practice as much as I can over the last few years.”
Creativity isn’t meant for limitation, and acknowledging this is anything but a burden.
