Get Creative

Ever so soon, and much to our good fortune, the kids responsible for Art Lab are putting on their first ever Creative Conference at the Perth Convention Centre. The conference does just what it says: it brings together and showcases creativity from all over the world. If you make it along to the event, you can expect to see a bunch of interesting and inspiring artists, filmmakers, indie publishers and a little something for the tech-heads.

Perth artist Anya Brock is among the talent that will be speaking. While she has recently relocated to Sydney she's back in town to speak at the conference and to briefly present some of her work in a studio exhibition in Freo before jetting back to make her mark on the east coast.

While the name might not be familiar to some of you, Brock's artwork has been showing up all over the place, from the striking female portraits on the cover of the Urban Walkabout flyers to giant technicoloured birds making their way across the window of an inner-city café. “I'm doing a 45-minute presentation, basically just telling my story of how I've come to where I am,” Brock explains. “It's kind of been a roundabout path.”

Brock originally trained in fashion, moving to London to work successfully in the industry with her own label for seven years, only to realise drawing and creating art was what she really wanted to do. “I have a problem with authority; I've never really been interested in other people teaching me how to do things, I never read instructions or anything like that, I just go straight into doing things,” she says. “Even when I was in fashion I kind of didn't really pay attention in all the pattern-making classes, so then when I did my own label, I just made up all the pattern-making techniques that were totally not industry standard and I avoided putting bits in everything, but because of that everyone was like, 'Wow, these are really great new shapes!' and I was like, 'I know, right.' I think that's the whole thing with my painting as well, is that I just experiment constantly and try new things and nobody tells me how to do it and therefore it kind of ends up being unique in my own way.” Her works are definitely her own unique creation, currently featuring elegant portraits of women, using delicate lines and tessellated colours that all seem to speak an individual story.

Anya Brock is just one of many telling their story at the Creative Conference. You can also expect to see well-known urban artists Sheryo and The Yok having a yarn, the kids behind new Perth indie mag Akute Magazine will be sharing their story; and LA filmmaker Brett Novak, artist Joel Rae, Mark Raats and Skot from Artifactory will talk about the world they've created for the tech-inclined to meet, share and work together.