Interview and studio visit with Jess Racklyeft

Jess Racklyeft is a freelance illustrator who works from her home studio in North Fitzroy, Melbourne. It’s a two-story building across her courtyard garden that wears many hats. The ground floor serves as a music studio for her husband while the upper floor is Jess’s studio, a granny flat for visiting parents and in-laws and Winston the dog’s day bed.

Filled with books, papers, artwork and craft-market inventory, Jess’s studio is undeniably, gloriously chaotic. Jess is a whirlwind of activity who clearly adores her job—but she didn’t set out to be an illustrator. As she describes it, ‘I always wanted to work for myself, and I always drew, but I hadn’t been brave enough to put them together.’

A vocation lost and found

When Jess was twelve years old and attending a family friends’ wedding, the photographer asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up. Jess told him that she wanted to illustrate books. It just so happened that this photographer had written a picture book manuscript, which he sent to her afterwards. Jess remembers drawing pictures for it. ‘I did the whole book, but I never sent it back to him. I was too shy,’ she recalled. After that, she forgot about wanting to illustrate books.

‘I had really arty friends at Uni,’ Jess explained, ‘so I didn’t think of myself as arty [by comparison].’ She did a degree in communications in Perth, travelled overseas, then moved to Melbourne and took a job in customer service at Lonely Planet. From there, she was invited to work in a sales role in children’s publishing. That job was a turning point. She attended industry book fairs in Frankfurt and Bologna, saw what it might look like to work as an illustrator and got valuable insight into the business side of selling books.

She used her maternity leave as a window to try working as a self-employed illustrator. ‘I went into a frenzy. Every nap, every spare minute, I was going at it,’ she said. Jess got her big break when a publisher at Omnibus, to whom she’d been submitting her folio on a yearly basis (‘because she sent me an encouraging letter’), offered her a book. That first contract gave Jess the belief she could make a go of it as an illustrator and she’s been doing it ever since.

There’s an urgency to the way Jess works that seems to spring from gratitude and delight at finally doing what she loves. Interestingly, for someone who was once too afraid to show her work, a hallmark of her practice has become posting and sharing illustrations online.

Now working on her ninth picture book, due out in 2018 and tentatively titled Dreaming A to Z, Jess also runs an Etsy store, sells originals on Instagram and has her charming illustrations turned into pins, wall decals, cards and gift wrap. Yes, Jess crams a lot into those two days a week her kids are at childcare. How does she juggle it all?

Jess's artwork next to the printed book.

Jess at work in her studio.

The list

After dropping off her kids, Jess grabs a coffee on her way home and is at her desk by 9 a.m. She starts every workday by making a list. It’s a democratic, back-of-the-envelope affair: a combination of illustration work, business admin and household chores. Jess numbers the items, putting the jobs she least wants to do first. She starts at number one and moves through the list, spending twenty minutes on each item. Anything that can’t be finished in twenty minutes gets revisited later in the day (for another twenty minutes) or goes back onto the list tomorrow.

Jess has been using this system to structure her days for the last couple years. ‘By the end of the day, I know I’ve touched each thing I need to do at least once,’ she said.

Process

Jess has experimented with a bunch of mediums and techniques but watercolour is her favourite. Her approach has evolved from doing illustrations entirely in watercolour to using a combination of watercolour and digital. She often paints the background separately from the foreground elements, then puts them together in Photoshop. This gives her the flexibility to move elements around, lighten or darken them, and have more than one go at people’s faces, which she does digitally. ‘The eyes make such a difference to a picture,’ she explained. ‘With watercolour, you only get one go. If you get it wrong, you’ve killed the picture.’ On her current book—the first one she’s writing as well as illustrating—Jess has digitised her kids’ artwork and is using it to create background textures. ‘Hopefully they won’t sue me when they grow up!’ she said.

Jess considers practicing your craft daily to be the most valuable thing an illustrator can do. Like the small birds she loves to paint, Jess skips lightly over her busy schedule, in constant motion. ‘I chip away at a tiny bit of everything each day,’ she said.

For more about Jess visit jessesmess.com or follow her on Instagram (@jessesmess).

 Jo Watson is a Melbourne-based screenwriter and artist. Visit her on Instagram (@diary_of_a_picture_book_maker).

Studio visit and artist interview: Sam Michelle

In three years, Sam Michelle has gone from being a salaried employee in banking to a professional artist on the cusp of achieving her ‘forever goal.’

For Sam, following her childhood dream has been as simple (and as difficult) as one humongous risk, habitual goal setting, a truck-load of hard work and a handful of faith. Let’s unpack that, shall we?

Risk

After a co-worker had a heart attack from stress, Sam knew it was time for a change. She’d chosen banking for security and stability but now she wanted a career that would make her happy and that she could flex around her kids. Oh, and it also needed to work financially. That was the part she was unsure about.

Sam thanks her husband for giving her the push she needed. ‘He encouraged me to just go for it and let all that stuff take care of itself,’ she says. Not that she left any of that ‘stuff’ to chance. Sam’s approach to the business side of her art practice is meticulous. ‘Working at a bank taught me how to communicate with clients and value service,’ she says. She answers emails promptly, communicates openly and often with customers who commission her work, and mines Google analytics for intelligence on which paintings attract the most interest, feeding that information back into her practice.

The rigour has paid off. In July of this year, Sam was able to take on a studio space to create some much-needed separation between work and home. She shares a converted factory shell in Mornington with four other painters. It’s an incredibly supportive environment. ‘Most days we have lunch together and we’re always exchanging tips and ideas,’ Sam says. She loves her forty-minute commute through cow pastures.

Another trick she uses to keep a healthy work-life balance is scheduling weekly dates with her young sons. ‘No matter how busy I get, they know Monday afternoon is all about hanging out at their choice of café. It’s lovely, quality time.’

On being self-taught

Sam’s art training happened in high school, with a brilliant teacher who gave her confidence in her ability. After that, her progress was self-directed, on weekends or after work. ‘I’d say, “I need to get better at painting light or doing skin tone” and practice until I’d learnt it,’ she says.

Sam credits social media with helping her work find its niche. Through Instagram, she connected with some small galleries and interior décor stores, which took a few paintings to test how they went. After they sold reasonably quickly, the relationships grew from there. Sam’s lush use of colour and her bold brushstrokes have struck a chord. Her paintings routinely sell before they make it to the gallery wall and after every exhibition, there’s a flurry of commission work. Pedigree is still important in the art world but it’s hard to argue with demand. ‘I thought I wouldn’t be able to get into commercial galleries because I didn’t go to Uni. Now, I don’t worry about that so much,’ she says.

The forever goal

Setting goals is an integral part of Sam’s art practice and business. The Maker’s Yearbook is her go-to planner for articulating goals, setting targets, keeping track of progress and remembering past accomplishments. ‘I view this book as my boss,’ she explains. And if you’re worried about being your own boss, delegate! Whether it’s earning enough to hire a cleaner, providing for her kids, or being able to purchase a piece of art she’s fallen in love with, having a ‘carrot’ definitely helps when it comes to doing the work.

Sam’s forever goal is being a professional artist, creating work for commercial galleries—a goal that has advanced from fantasy to reality, a remarkable accomplishment at thirty-five. 

Faith

It’s not all number crunching and pragmatism. When Sam talks about her evolution as an artist, there’s an undercurrent of intuition, an element of human connection pinning it all together. Her transition from acrylics to oils, for instance, happened when she visited her grandfather, also an artist. Sam was a sixteen-year-old high-school student and she told him she loved painting. His eyesight was going and he gave her all his oil paints. She created two big paintings with them and, in terms of materials, has never looked back.

Similarly, when Sam does a commission, she’s acutely aware of the connection between the painting and the buyer. ‘A commissioned painting is like a tattoo. There’s always a story behind it,’ she says. Sam handles these jobs with the utmost respect. She welcomes feedback and involvement from her buyers, making them comfortable with the process and ensuring they get a painting they love.

Whether painting on commission or for herself, Sam imbues her subjects with personality. She gesticulates with her arms to show me different leaf poses and explains how certain angles make for ‘happy’ paintings while others are dull or sad. When painting plant stems, she thinks of legs, elegantly crossed. In Sam Michelle’s art, the personal is pleasurable and meaningful.

Even as she’s showing me around her studio, Sam spends as much time championing the work of other artists as she does describing her own. It’s that human-connection factor. She draws inspiration from friendship, connection and other people’s success—a deep well of inspiration, indeed.

Sam’s current show, the Cloth Collection, is at Gallerysmith until November 11. If you’re in Melbourne, do head down to enjoy these beautiful paintings in the flesh. For more information about Sam Michelle, visit her website, sammichellepaintings.com.

Jo Watson is a Melbourne-based screenwriter and artist. Visit her on Instagram (@diary_of_a_picture_book_maker).

Interview with Deb Hudson, illustrator

Deb Hudson welcomed me into her home for a cup of tea at her rustic kitchen table, which doubles as an art table. Her pencils, organized in tins by colour, are spread out at one end of the table. The room is flooded with natural light. Sometimes, it’s a case of too much of a good thing and Deb has to draw under a brimmed hat, tilted askew to shade the midday sun. Her border collie chases sun shadows about the room and her canary chirrups in the background. Today, her seven-year old son, home from school sick, adds to the menagerie. Deb’s bright, intricate illustrations and daily posting have attracted thirteen thousand followers on Instagram. But as she explains, it took her a while to find her groove.

No, I want to do art In high school, everyone said, “Don’t do art. You’ll never make any money.” So I studied teaching. Then I travelled. I lived in Japan. I taught English at an all-girls school and at an English conversation school. When I was approaching thirty, I was living in the Solomon Islands. I was doing office work. I wasn’t using my teaching degree, and I’d never even really liked teaching. The part I liked most was organising craft activities! I’m not sure—maybe it’s because I thought I hadn’t done anything with my life—but I realized, no, I want to do art.

A degree interrupted I enrolled in fine art at Queensland College of Art. I knew right away I wanted to specialize in illustration. Two years into the three-year degree, I deferred to go overseas again. I had children and, when I wanted to go back to university to finish my degree, I was told I would have to start from the beginning. I didn’t want to do that.

eBay inspo What got me started again was seeing people sell their artwork on eBay. My sister said, “You could do that.” I created a series of three paintings: a bee, a butterfly, and a beetle. I called it The Three Bs. I put them up on eBay. I had tracings of the designs and a stack of blank canvasses. When a set would sell, I’d go out to my workroom and paint them. It was a lot of work: executing, packing, and shipping the paintings. But it was exciting to see my work sell. Then I had my third child and the artwork sort of petered out.

A reboot, by way of adversity I have rheumatoid arthritis. There was a period where I was unwell, and I was really unfit. I couldn’t close my fist for six months. When I got better, I was so happy to be able to hold a pencil that I couldn’t stop drawing. I like drawing birds because they’re a symbol of freedom. Also, you can decorate them however you like. I used to use Gerald, my canary, as a model. Now I’m inspired by folk art.

The pencil person I’ve always used coloured pencils. At university, I was called the “pencil person.” I like them because they’re clean, colourful, and easy to transport.

Last Christmas, I did a series of cards in red and blue. That was good because I only had two tins of colours to pull out and pack up! Sometimes the drawing gets waxy and the white pencil won’t lay down. I spray it with fixative and that helps give it some tooth so the white will stick. People often ask what materials I use: Prismacolour (premier) pencils and plain old Kraft paper.

Online tribe I first saw the 100 Day Project [#100dayproject] three years ago, and decided to try it. Now I’m addicted; I have to do a drawing every day. I also do [Lilla Rogers’s] Make Art That Sells Assignment Bootcamp, which is a five-month online program. I’ve made great friends through those online communities. I use Redbubble to sell my work on a variety of merchandise. I don’t do heaps of marketing. People don’t like it when you use Instagram for advertising. When the Redbubble site features me on their home page, I see an increase in activity. I recently created artwork for the swing tags on a friend’s clothing line. Next, I’d like to execute on the advice I was given by an agent: to design a new collection of greeting cards and refresh my website. With three kids, the challenge is finding the time. But I love it.

For more about Deb Hudson, visit her website or find her on Instragram (@debi_hudson).

Jo Watson is a Melbourne-based screenwriter and artist. Visit her on Instagram (@diary_of_a_picture_book_maker).

Interview with Dawn Tan, illustrator and teacher

One of the greatest gifts that illustrator, teacher, and soapmaker Dawn Tan gives her students is the permission to make mistakes. Having taught art since she was seventeen, as well as working as an illustrator, Dawn embraces the art process as changeable. “If you make a mistake, just go for it,” she said. “Change it up a bit. See how you can do something new out of that mistake that you’ve made.”

Dawn’s “Making Space” Dawn welcomes me into her Yarraville home in Melbourne’s inner west. We can feel it is going to be a warm day, but for the moment we are both thankful for the coolness of her kitchen and dining room.

Dawn’s studio space has a gentle filtered light. The Victorian terrace she shares with her husband, Darren, is filled with art by friends and by artists she admires—such as good friend Madeline Stamer—as well as objects collected on the couple’s travels. A recent trip to the U.S. and India has prompted new designs featuring images and patterns inspired by the American desert and India’s magical colours and spices.

The long wooden table in her dining room is where Dawn creates her illustrations. On the day I visit, the table is neatly arranged with resources for a work in progress. The watercolour painting she shows me is of her client’s grandparent’s home, which Dawn carefully paints with fine detail as a precious memory for her client.

HousePortrait

A Creative Life Along with working as a freelance illustrator and having her work published by such clients as Frankie and Hooray magazines, Dawn teaches workshops for adults in her home, and for children as a school art teacher.

In the last six months, Dawn has also discovered a love of making handmade soaps—enticing in both looks and aroma. The packaging for her soaps bears Dawn’s signature watercolour drawings, and the scents include apple cider, Joshua tree cactus, and chai milk tea. “I started making soaps not only because I wanted soap for myself, but because I was going through quite a rough patch when I was teaching and working in my previous school,” she explained. “I found that I needed a way to relax and not think about anything else, to do something different for a change.”

In high school, Dawn had great support from teachers who recognised her natural artistic ability and encouraged her to pursue an artistic career. Her friends and family have also encouraged her to keep going with her art, in part by ordering prints and custom house portraits, buying soaps, and sharing her posts on social media. “A lot of my colleagues were amazing, super troopers, cheering me on,” said Dawn.

DawnTaninLivingRoom

The Little Art Yurt In June 2017, Dawn will fulfill her dream of opening her very own art school: The Little Art Yurt. “I’ve always known that I wanted to teach,” she said.

As Dawn awaits delivery of a large round tent, which will fill the entire outdoor space in her courtyard, she prepares for the school—planning, designing brochures, and adding students’ names to the ever-growing waitlist. She already has the most elegantly made aprons ready and waiting for the first class, hung on a plywood rack made by her father-in-law. The Hedley & Bennett aprons are examples of Dawn’s attention to detail: she is sensitive not only to the ways children engage with art, but also to how they feel physically while creating art. The aprons let children move freely without being hampered by stiff, bulky art smocks.

Dawn possesses a true joy of teaching, describing it as something that feeds her creativity. “I find that, especially working with children, they have this sort of crazy, fun energy about them. It makes you learn how to let go and just relax,” she said. “I see it as an exchange of knowledge. I see kids as teachers as well.”

Dawn comes from a family of teachers. “Being able to share what I love—which is art—helps me be inspired. I enjoy having conversations with people, sharing experiences, food, laughs. All these things help me create better as a maker.”

Being an Artist At the end of each day, Dawn makes a deliberate effort to pack all of her work away onto her shelves, a method she has recently adopted. “I used to leave everything out lying on the table,” she said. “I used to have a separate table in a little corner, but then we bought this bigger table and I realised that having this big kitchen table forces me to put everything away. It actually helps me think better and work better because every day is a new fresh start.”

Dawn’s watercolour illustrations are distinctive, with their use of fineliner and watercolour. Layers of watercolour in elegant tones capture doughnuts, cakes, food, plants, houses, and packaged goods. Dawn decided a while ago that drawing people was not for her, preferring to draw inanimate objects. Her style brings the subjects she paints to life, as if we are experiencing them through her eyes. “One word that’s kept coming up over the years is ‘raw’: how my work is so raw, almost like reading through someone’s journal. I like that,” she said.

Dawn is open and honest in the way she shares her life and work online. “When you have a very personal voice—when you’re just you and when you don’t hide, when you don’t make it all look nice and fancy—I find that people actually appreciate it more,” she said. “I always wanted to be the sort of artist where there’s no hiding, so, yeah, I think I’ve achieved that.”

HeartQuote

Dawn’s Tip Dawn encourages women who want to start their own creative business, or who struggle to juggle their business with other demands, to believe in themselves. “Don’t doubt yourself,” she said. “I’ve learned over the years that if you’re going to sit there and hesitate and doubt yourself and think, ‘What if? What if?’ then it’s never going to happen. Just do it. If you fail, you fail. Dream big; go do it. If you don’t try, you’ll never know.”

To find out more about Dawn and her work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram (@handmadelove).

Photos and podcast audio production by Jenni Mazaraki

Jenni Mazaraki is an artist, designer, writer, and podcaster who helps women tell their stories. She is particularly interested in the ways women make time and space for creativity. You can see more of Jenni’s work at localstoryspace.com, on Instagram (@localstoryspace), or on Facebook.

Studio visit: Anna Walker, picture book author and illustrator

Anna Walker is one of Australia’s most established and beloved picture book creators. She has published twenty-fivebooks in a career spanning twenty years. Her newest book, Florette, has just landed in bookstores and is a beautiful meditation on how to become comfortable with change.

I met Anna in her studio, a converted shirt factory she shares with a printmaker, an interior designer, a tea importer, and a book designer. You know you’re talking to a visual thinker when she says, “I wish I could respond to your questions with a painting instead of with words.” But as you read on, I think you’ll agree that Anna’s words more than suffice!

Starting out

Anna had the good fortune of knowing what she wanted, right from the get go. “I remember looking at the illustrations in a book of fairy tales and thinking, ‘Those are so beautiful; that’s what I want to do when I grow up,’” she said. How did she turn that early inclination into a rewarding career? It was hard, she explains, and there were obstacles, but she would “try to find ways of overcoming them.” Anna is petite but possesses a stubborn determination, to which she largely credits her success.

After studying graphic design at Swinburne University (where “there were no illustration courses,” she said), Anna set up shop straight out of school. Her parents ran their own business, so working for herself felt more like a natural step than a leap of faith. Besides, she says, “I had nothing to lose.” At first, it was all design work. Whenever there wasn’t enough work, she would invent briefs for herself and treat them as real commissions. After a few years, all of her work was illustration-based. Gradually, picture-book illustration became the foundation of her business.

The importance of presentation

For illustrators still building their businesses, Anna stresses the importance of presentation and attention to detail. Small details—like a visual link between your website and your business card—matter. She also suggests finding ways to put your work in front of potential clients, both online and in hard copy. This might mean incorporating an illustrated element into your email signature, or sending out postcards, bespoke holiday cards, or, occasionally, original artworks. “People don’t get that kind of thing very often,” she said, “and they appreciate it.”

Giving work space and time

Anna and her character Mae in Florette have something in common. They like to be immersed in an environment that is beautiful and familiar. While Anna’s studio retains the exposed brick and pipework of its industrial heritage, she has transformed it into a bright, welcoming space. It feels like a loft, though it is actually a basement.

Her desk looks out through an arched window at street level. She enjoys watching the passing foot traffic, including a Greek neighbor who always bends down to wave hello and children who look through her window.

“I’ve always shared a studio,” she said. “I go a bit crazy working by myself at home.” Having others around provides moral support and an exchange of ideas, both vital to a happy work life. And from a business perspective, having to meet an overhead (rent) pushes you to find work.

Just as important as environment is time. Anna devotes a year to each book, a pace that allows her to let the work develop fully, take on select commissions to subsidize her picture-book work, and be present for her three teenage children.

Personal style

Anna uses a variety of techniques in her work, including collage, woodblock printing, etching, watercolour, and ink. She’ll sometimes redo an illustration twelve times before she feels it’s right. Regardless of the method, her illustrations always seem to strike the perfect harmony between detail and simplicity.

Anna suggests not worrying too much about developing a personal style.  “It was years before people started saying, ‘I recognize your work,’” she said. “You can’t have a style until you’ve got a volume of work behind you. Just do the work.”

The power of knitting

Like many creatives, Anna references self-doubt as one of her biggest challenges. She tempers those unhelpful thoughts by running three times a week, sharing a studio, keeping in touch with other illustrators, and…knitting. Anna knows she’s bringing too much work anxiety home when her husband says, “Now, where’s your knitting?”

I asked Anna what she does with her ideas-in-waiting: ideas she’s had but hasn’t had the chance to use. Her response was golden. She thinks of ideas as little scraps of fabric. A book is like a sewing project: you assemble the bits you need, make a start, and keep going until it’s finished. “You don’t need to feel badly [about the ideas that] haven’t been used yet,” she said. “They’re just waiting there, ready to make the next thing.”

Meeting business challenges

For many illustrators, the biggest challenge is making a living. “Getting your folio out there and meeting with publishers is important,” she said. “When things are quiet, you worry about when the next job will come in. But that’s when it comes back to sending out postcards, freshening up your website, reminding people you’re here. If your focus is book illustration, joining the Australian Society of Authors is a must.”

Certain things, like cold calling and quoting, never get easier. Anna doesn’t have to do the former as much these days, but her motto when something’s difficult is: do it anyway. She suggests viewing cold calling, networking, or whatever “thing” you find difficult as just one part of your business.

If you’re not sure how much to charge for a job, Anna suggests talking to other illustrators. Take into consideration how the artwork is going to be used. Is it for one product, or multiple products? Will it be used locally, or globally? Also consider the duration of the usage license. Is it for one month? One year? In perpetuity?  “I don’t part with copyright for anybody,” she said. There’s a way to give the client what they need and protect yourself. As she explains, “An exclusive license has just as much weight as copyright.” Don’t be afraid to request amendments to your contract.

What’s next?

“I’m working on a book with Janie [Godwin, a long-time collaborator],” Anna explained, “and I’m also working on my own story about a walrus.” Anna often starts a project by crafting her character in toy form. She showed me a loosely stitched walrus plushy. “So far, that’s what I’ve got,” she laughed. Recently, the final step on her projects has become creating a book trailer using stop-motion animation.

“I’ve always believed in the picture book as an art form,” she said. “It’s important to me that every aspect is crafted to be the best it can be.”

For more about Anna Walker, visit annawalker.com.au.

Jo Watson is a Melbourne-based screenwriter and artist. Visit her on Instagram (@diaryofapicturebookmaker).

Photos by Jo Watson

Making space: Freya Bennett, co-director, Ramona magazine for girls

This interview features our very first CWC Making Spaces podcast - have a listen and let us know what you think!

Freya Bennett loves the smell of rainforests. So she’s captured the smell in terrariums, which live all around her house.

It is warm and sunny on the day I visit Freya, the co-director of Ramona magazine, at her new home in Melbourne’s north. As she gives me a tour of the house, her curious cat, Phoenix, follows us from room to room. The space is open, with polished wooden floors and crisp white walls. Freya’s favourite print, of Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting Nighthawks, sits on the floor waiting to be hung when she has a spare moment.

Freya’s piano sits in the corner of the room and has been in her family for generations. It is a place where Freya can play music and relax without an end goal. As a musician, Freya has performed locally as well as produced music in collaboration with other artists. In 2013, she released The Marvellous Reject Girl, and the album’s single was played on Triple J Unearthed.

When Freya speaks, she is calm with a strong sense of self, a role model to women and girls. As a speaker at last year’s Breakthrough conference, she spoke openly about growing up in a culture that commonly objectifies women and girls, and her desire to challenge it.

Ramona magazine

Freya runs Ramona from her home. Along with her co-director, Sophie Pellegrini, she has created a platform that celebrates diversity, where girls can see a range of perspectives. Assisting Freya and Sophie is a team of interns, Creative Writing Editor Stephanie Markidis, and Music Editor Rose Sejean. “The magazine is quite girly,” said Freya. “It reflects Sophie and I. You don’t have to not be girly to be super feminist and strong.”

Ramona is a safe space for girls to challenge what they see, to question and express their inner worlds and dialogues through art and writing. The print and online magazine has a gentle aesthetic but doesn’t shy away from difficult topics, as Freya is keen to bring to light issues that may be considered taboo. More than 500 writers from around the world contribute articles about, among other things, body image, periods, breakups, mental health, self-care, sexual assault, and miscarriage. Ramona encourages girls to develop healthy relationships with themselves, their bodies, and others.

Ramona eschews sections on beauty and fashion, focusing instead on interviews with inspiring girls and women. Its focus is to create a forum where girls can see lives that are real, relatable, and achievable.

Discovering a different perspective

Freya’s mum sounds like the kind of cool, progressive mum you see in movies. When Freya was young, her mum introduced her to New Moon magazine, opening her eyes to content with an empowering feminist perspective. Freya became aware early of the negative messaging she received because of her gender. “I had boys constantly telling me I couldn’t do things because I was a girl,” she said. New Moon encouraged her by showing her the lives of strong, intelligent girls.

When Freya was twelve and outgrew New Moon, all she found available to her were mainstream magazines focusing on looks and fashion. She noticed how the lack of diversity in the magazines excluded her and anyone who wasn’t a tall white girl. “I realised that it’s such a broken system,” she said. “It’s teaching us to hate ourselves and hate our bodies.”

Starting Ramona magazine

Two and a half years ago, Freya and Sophie started Ramona as an alternative to mainstream media for girls. “I started seeing sexual objectification all over the place,” she said. “And once you start noticing it, it’s just everywhere.”

Turning her feelings into action was key to Freya’s motivation. She hoped that by expressing her thoughts, she could help others feel less alone. “It came from a place of ‘I need to do something, because otherwise I’m going to feel so stressed and sick and angry,’” she said.

A space to create a magazine

Upstairs, the house is filled with light. The study is home to two wooden desks. A large poster of Tara Presnell’s front cover illustration from the latest issue of Ramona hangs in pride of place on the wall. Freya’s paints and brushes are out on her desk with a work in progress waiting to be finished. Hanging above the desk is a painting of a sweet girl, by illustrator Jordyn McGeachin, who contributed work to volume two of the magazine.

Against one wall sits a low bookshelf filled with books, photos, and artwork. Framed typography by Erandhi Mendis rests on the top shelf above a colourful floral box in which Freya keeps her treasured old copies of New Moon.

Though she mostly works on her own, Freya sometimes has a friend work alongside her, which she finds helps motivate her. At other times, she takes her laptop and works in the local café. Given that her work is largely online, her job is portable.

The future of Ramona

In December 2016, Ramona celebrated its second print edition with an artist market and performances from musicians Charm of Finches, Georgia Fields, and Sandy Hsu.

Freya is hopeful for the future of the magazine, with plans to branch out into more projects, including mentoring to girls.

Contributors are encouraged to submit their work, even if they are unsure whether it’s ready for publication. “We love hearing from people and everyone is welcome,” said Freya, “We often work with you, so if you’ve got an article that you’re not sure about, we can help you with it.”

Freya and Sophie currently invest their own money into the publication, but hope the magazine will grow and earn enough revenue to support itself.

For Freya, the magazine reminds her that she is brave. “I feel like I’ve got this force of five hundred girls and women behind me,” she said. “It feels really nice.”

Jenni Mazaraki is an artist, designer, and writer who helps women tell their stories. She is particularly interested in the ways that women make time and space for creativity.

Photos and podcast audio production by Jenni Mazaraki

Industry insights: Women behind the scenes

By Annette Wagner

I love the visual pleasure and the escapism of a good film, TV or Netflix program. In my mind, people who produce film or TV work long, insane hours, at random locations, but it’s OK because they have amazing catering trucks! All those logistics behind the scenes are a mystery to me: putting productions together so I can watch at the cinema or from the luxury of my cosy couch.

Recently after speaking with Stephanie Lim, an emerging Melbourne screen producer, I gained some insights into the Australian film and TV industry. I learned that getting the concept to screen was a challenge, and one that I hadn’t even considered, well before the long filming hours, random locations and catering on wheels (budget pending).

Stephanie fell in love with film when she was eight. She remembers how transporting and transformative film seemed at that young age. The defining influence for her to pursue a life behind the scenes was when her family was living in Birdsville (QLD) and she and her brother use to help set up the makeshift cinema in front of the hospital where the whole town came together to watch a film, usually Storm Boy. There, in the middle of nowhere, they were collectively having this experience that spoke to them individually.

She pursued her passion by doing a short photography course then a media course in South Australia. Originally wanting to be a cinematographer, she began lighting and camera assisting mostly, and some other roles to get an idea of her own place in the industry.  She did work experience with gaffers and then got a job in the lighting department in a South Australian television station. When life dynamics changed, Stephanie moved into production management, then producing.

Knowing the right people is critical in most industries and Stephanie agrees- it's really important in the film industry. Probably more important than ever. "When I started in 1996 it was like a secret society as it was pre-internet, pre-email, and pre-mobile phones so there weren’t as many resources around to connect you with others. Now, social media plays a big part in creating and sustaining professional networks and communicating with peers, as well as a way of identifying potential audience bases. Essentially your networks become both your best employment opportunity and your best chance to engage with your audience.”

Getting started and being able to keep going in film Stephanie explains "…is difficult because you need the funds to hire the people you need for the project to be realised, but you need some of those people before you can go through the financing process."

On low-budget/no-budget productions essential production crew will generally consist of the producer, director, cinematographer, production designer, first assistant director, sound, and lighting. Preferably you’d also have continuity, art direction, costume design, location manager, unit manager, hair and make-up, second assistant director, and any other crew members necessary to meet the needs of the production, within budgetary parameters.

It was clearly a case of either fully committing to a career in film, or a destiny of binge-watching episodes from the comfort of her couch, and I agree with Stephanie- there is so much content being created, it's often quite difficult to keep up with. For Stephanie, committing was the only option, as she realised the only time she really loved her job and industry was when she was working in film.

Many female award acceptance speeches highlight the inequality in film, and in the bigger picture (excuse the pun) getting funding is a fraction of the challenge. As a female in the Australian film industry Stephanie thinks one of the main issues is getting across that women make up 50% of the audience,  therefore they should be represented on and off-screen. Behind the scenes, women should have access to the same opportunities that men do, and with the same pay scale, but they don’t.

In Australia, the gender imbalance is acknowledged by government funding initiatives and professional development opportunities being created exclusively for women. It recently became public that not one single female camera operator or sound recordist has been identified working in the reality and unscripted genres within Australian TV.

Stephanie explains she was lucky to have been taught film lighting by a really decent male gaffer when she first started in the late 90’s, however noted television was then a very misogynist, sexist, intimidating and discriminating workplace for women. Today, she can see that it is harder to get mentorships and move into key creative positions, commenting that women tend to work harder, longer hours, and with less acknowledgement. The Gender Matters initiative indicated that the gender imbalance is predominantly in film where women account for 32 percent of producers, 23 per cent of writers and only 16 per cent of directors.

Aside from those depressing facts for females in film, Stephanie is currently producing a comedy mockumentary-style TV series with screenwriter Sophie Bean and Co-producer Maria Alibrando. The team are waiting for news to see if their project will be shortlisted for an initiative that will help them develop it into an eight-part series, and pitch to the ABC. Fingers crossed!

Staying optimistic and motivated, Stephanie loves researching for whatever projects and opportunities that are around. Inspired by people and what’s going on in the world, the best advice she says she has ever been given was to ‘take one day at a time, and, you can only do what you can do’.

For anyone passionate and brave enough to pursue their screen dream, or give the industry gender imbalance a good nudge, Stephanie suggests one of the best resources is Open Channel. “…One of the best screen organisations supporting early and mid-level career practitioners. They have really filled the gap in supporting emerging filmmakers and are an invaluable resource. Their conferences are inspiring and well-researched, and they are accessible to everyone.”

Having a little insight into getting work funded and produced, and an overview of the industry here in Australia is both inspiring and depressing to be honest. But for those amazing women currently working in the industry to bring stories alive, I will pay greater attention to the females listed in the credits, and will, now more than ever, appreciate the passion in every picture.

My next question is, what am I going to watch next?!

For more on the gender divide in the Australian film and TV industry, see here, here and here.

Annette Wagner is a designer, marketer, creative consultant, artist and writer. She is also on the board of the Creative Women’s Circle. Obsessively passionate about the arts and the creative process, she is determined to not talk art-speak and instead focus on supporting and sharing concepts and insights most creative types crave to know.