Design Anatomy

Inside Spectra: The Art of Transforming Space Through Colour with Rowena & Geoffrey

• Bree Banfield and Lauren Li • Season 2 • Episode 20

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Step into Spectra, our favourite kind of transformation story: a Melbourne hotel lobby that shifts from tasteful neutral to living artwork through colour, narrative, and fearless collaboration. We sit down with artists Rowena Martinich and Geoffrey Carran to unpack how a site-responsive palette drawn from bushland greens, clay tones, and marble textures became the foundation for abstract fields, hyper‑real native birds, and crystalline forms that feel born of the place—not pasted on.

We dive into the craft behind the magic. Rowena breaks down her layered process—poured paint, broom-wide gestures, wipe-backs, and selective cropping—while Geoffrey reveals how native birds perched on mineral geometries create a dialogue between softness and edge, ecology and time. Then we go underfoot: working with Godfrey Hirst Commercial in Geelong, the team turned carpet into an immersive medium using inkjet technology to deliver colour-rich, compliant flooring that guides how people move and feel. It’s a case study in why art should be briefed early, not sprinkled on at the end.

Beyond the lobby, we head out to regional Victoria where silos become story towers. Geoffrey shares the planning, wind-watching, and composition choices behind a 28-metre piece that nods to the Mallee emu‑wren and the science of anthocyanins—those stress pigments that turn plants incandescent—mirroring the resilience of local communities. We talk cultural tourism, placemaking, and why public art expands who gets to experience art in the first place. Along the way, you’ll hear honest shop talk about night-shift ceilings, partnerships that thrive on critique, and the courage it takes to choose colour at home and in hospitality.

If you care about interior design, public art, hotels, or simply how spaces can make people feel more alive, this one’s for you. Subscribe to Design Anatomy, share this episode with a colour-shy friend, and leave us a review with the one space you’re ready to transform next.

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Rowena Martinich & @rowenamartinich

Geoffrey Carran & @geoffreycarran

Bree is now offering a 90-minute online design consult to help you tackle key challenges like colour selection, furniture curation, layout, and styling. Get tailored one-on-one advice and a detailed follow-up report with actionable recommendations—all without a full-service commitment.

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Speaker 2:

Welcome to Design Anatomy, the Interior Design Podcast hosted by friends and fellow designers, me, Bree Banfield, and me, Lauren Li, with some exciting guest appearances along the way. We're here to break down everything from current trends to timeless style.

Speaker 1:

And today we are so honoured to be speaking with some artists that we adore, Rowena and geoffrey today.

Speaker 2:

They have such a huge celebrated history of public art, large-scale murals and spatial activation, and have transformed urban landscapes both locally and internationally.

Speaker 1:

They've worked with some of Australia's leading architects and interior designers to create bespoke immersive art experiences in both domestic and commercial environments. And recently, Bree and I were fortunate to post a panel discussion with Rowena and geoffrey about their new work, Spectra, which marked a significant evolution in their practice, extending their expressive, abstract aesthetic beyond the canvas and into the built environment. It was so stunning.

Speaker 2:

That was beautiful. And you may have been fortunate enough to see it during Melbourne Design Week. But beyond that work in hotels, both of them have also been commissioned to activate hospitals, food courts, silos, building facades, and even train stations, as well as collaborate with major brands such as Dulux, Mecca Cosmetica, and Nike. And their ability to seamlessly integrate art into diverse environments continues to challenge conventional notions of artistic application. And I guess how do we know Rowena and geoffrey? I've known them for way too long. Um I worked with you both on a Dulux collaboration. That would have been maybe over 10 years ago, really. Was it over 10 years ago? It sounds so.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Um, where we created some amazing artwork. Oh, they did. I just watched it happen. Um, based on one of the forecast trends in studio. And actually, I post some of those images from that because they're still amazing, like fabulous stuff. And I loved, always loved the fact that you guys were so great working together. And you know, I'm excited to talk about that a little bit more. And Lauren, I think you really only just met Rowen and geoffrey, but you knew of their work, right?

Speaker 1:

Exactly. Like obviously, known of their work for many years. So yeah, I think when I first met you guys, I was kind of embarrassed because I just uh I don't know, you guys are so lovely. And the art I I did, I cried a little bit. It was emotional. Oh but um so welcome. It's so nice to be talking to you on the Design Anatomy podcast.

Speaker 3:

Well, well, thanks for having us. We're doing here.

Speaker:

We're really happy to be here. So good.

Speaker 3:

And thanks for the intro. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

We like to talk people up. Um, I think one of the things that we would love to touch on and that we just we've spoken to you guys about before when we did the panel at um at Ridges for Um Spectra, which was fantastic and it was so great to hear you talk about your work. So I'm excited to do it all again. But I think it's always fascinating for us to hear about how you guys actually manage to work together because you do do a lot of collaborative projects, and I don't think everyone's capable of doing that when they're in a partnership, you know, a romantic partnership and a business partnership, it can be a bit tricky. So, like what tell just tell us a little bit about how you guys manage that, I suppose.

Speaker 3:

The process is an ongoing process of I don't know. I I think we we would just that initial spark hasn't disappeared, it just keeps evolving.

Speaker 4:

So nice.

Speaker 2:

I'm gonna make Lauren cry again.

Speaker 3:

And it's reignited every time we do another project because there's like limitless possibilities, and we work so well as a team together that it actually makes facilitating those projects easier.

Speaker 2:

Why why do you think you do like that? Why do you think it works so well?

Speaker 3:

Rose is quite entrepreneurial in her outlook. She loves initiating new ideas and seeing collaborations and pathways, and then I like supporting and facilitating that. And I and I get excited by that process too.

Speaker:

I think also just each other's practice. We we're inspired by each other's practice and where we can um support each other and and take it to the next level.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that helps. Because I I I love Rose work and I'm always in awe how she manages to do it because I've tried doing abstract and it's really it's not easy. I it's like I always have an uh a solid outcome in mind, and sometimes the creative path takes you down a different road, but with abstract, that road has got limitless paths to travel on. So um, and then applying that to a specific project, yeah, that just adds a different layer altogether.

Speaker:

I think also it works both being artists, because as an artist, you live a pretty solitary existence. You work in isolation in your studio and can go days without speaking to someone else if you're deep in that creative process. But we we almost critique each other along the way and we can make those business planning decisions together and strategize how we're gonna roll the year out together rather than just always working in a vacuum, which is a massive trap for creatives.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I can imagine too. So you get, I guess you're getting the best of both worlds where you both understand each other and are able to support each other so that you're not feeling it that isolation. So I guess it's a bonus for you both.

Speaker 3:

Well Yeah, you got that sounding board. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I guess like for for me as well, like I work with my husband in the business and I I don't know, you sort of just you just do it, you don't really think about it. So but people are just like, oh my god, I could never work with my husband or we drive each other crazy and stuff. It's like, oh, we we just like each other, we like hanging out, I don't know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, how it's supposed to be, I suppose, isn't it?

Speaker 3:

Um I think it can be. I mean, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you go. Well, I was just gonna say, like, with your practice as well, like your work is quite different. So um, I think it's that mutual appreciation of something. Oh well, I've tried that, like as you say, geoffrey, and I can't do that. So you're sort of like in awe of each other, maybe.

Speaker:

I don't know, Rowena. Does that go the other way for you? I can say the same thing for watching geoffrey do a silo piece. There's no way I could bend my brain to that either.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, the huge scale.

Speaker:

Well, I guess we each other support our strengths support each other um in different ways.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, rather than being competitive. Yeah, you know, working in trying to outdo each other.

Speaker:

Different spaces completely, like, but and we just get on really well, so it's it's nice to have someone to do it with. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I think that was so beautiful with the the Spectra installation. So yeah, it was an installation within a hotel lobby for your sort of seating areas at um a hotel in Melbourne, and just to see, I think that's what got me when we were first meeting. I was just like, oh my god, there was a piece that you showed me. It had Rowena's abstract um sort of work in the background almost with one of Jeffree's beautiful birds painted so like delicately over the top, and it's just the merging of those come together, and it just got me. I was like, Oh, that is the most beautiful thing.

Speaker 3:

That's a very beautiful visceral reaction.

Speaker 2:

It was, it was actually, it was really lovely, and we all kind of felt a little bit emotional, which probably sounds a bit weird talking about it now to other people. Like, really, you're crying like in you're in a hotel lobby and you're crying.

Speaker 3:

Wouldn't be the first time.

Speaker 2:

It'd usually be for a different reason.

Speaker 1:

You had to be there, you had to be there. Like, I think it was all of it. It was like the whole immersive experience of how you transformed that lobby space, which was very tasteful, very neutral, into something just so joyful and it was so immersive. So, I guess should we just unpack a little bit of what the elements were in that space?

Speaker:

So we came to do the Spectra exhibition as part of Melbourne Design Week. And in the process of that, I approached Ridges Hotel. We had a relationship with the manager there because I'd worked with him in the past in another hotel doing QT. And it looked like a great canvas to work with. It had recently been refurbished. There were beautiful furnishings in there. It was quite neutral, but there were still there were still coloured elements like a big clay wall and lots of beautiful marble and textured dark green wallpaper. And I saw it as a great challenge to integrate our work into that space. For those of you that know my work, it's it's normally really bright and poppy. And in this instance, I wanted to create something that was a bit more harmonious and subtle and pushed, I guess, my palettes to work in with this space using the dark greens and the browns and the clays, but then also maintaining the essence of my work and inserting bits of hot pink or you know, flashes of colour that bring activate my paintings and bring them to life. And then so with that as a starting point, we were looking at where we can take those artworks beyond being painted canvases and looking at the sites and walls that could be covered in wallpaper, floors that could be activated with rugs or or bespoke carpets, and then how both geoffrey and my work come together within those spaces. So um pairing the beautiful bird paintings within of almost like a vignette within the space, and then how that has a dialogue with other areas within the lobby.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, because it's one space, but it has four distinct areas, and being a lobby is an interesting sort of space the way people interact with it. There's so much energy in that space, but uh it still offers pause and amongst all that freneticness. Um people are coming in from the city, people have come from international travel, or people have been there for a while and they just need a space to sit and wait or have um or get food or coffee. It's a real mingling space, and that energy is is palpable um when you go in there, and you can see people responding to the different zones. Like some invite you just to go sit and be quiet, and then other zones are meeting, chatting, happy spaces.

Speaker:

Um then others are almost like a work zone or like a meeting booth or transient in one regard because it's a corridor through to the restaurant, but also a dwell time space because there are booths to sit in that corridor space.

Speaker 3:

And that's where Rose work really comes in. Her work's like crystallized energy, like the way she dances across the canvas. Um, and then it and then that that energy keeps giving.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And it it provides to a space. And so that's sort of what informed my paintings as well, somewhat, is like observing Rose work and thinking about how it works.

Speaker:

And then also I guess that comes back to us sharing the studio space and us creating those that body of work in synchronicity as well and drawing from the same colour palettes and responding to each other's work in real time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Yeah. Cause it is a little bit different. I guess if you were collaborating with an artist that you didn't share a studio with, it may not feel as connected, whereas it does feel very naturally like it evolved. And you're seeing for me all of the colours and how that worked so closely together. Yeah. It just, I think it's the best, your best work ever in a collaboration. It just was kind of seamless in a way.

Speaker:

Yeah, I feel like that as a collaboration, it's the best work we've done as well, especially the intertwined piece that we spoke about earlier with the herons overlaid and but also harking back. So the work, I feel like it it works well in that it's really site responsive and we are really mindful of the space that we're working into and bringing that to life on another level, but also harking back to where we're coming from, where we live down here on the coast and really drawing from our own environment, looking at the bushland and those colours. It's almost like we're walking through the tea tree forest down here with some of those works.

Speaker 3:

So that was a really strong response from both of us is the the colour palettes that were existing at the time um and how they were supposed to elicit that sense of Australian um geomorphism. Yeah, the colours of the bush, the the ochres of the clay, the green eucalyptones, that had all been specifically um designed for that space to create that sort of sense of calm, which which nature does. Um, so using that and then as a specific starting point, like Roach's how many 11 colours was it?

Speaker:

I think there were 12 base colours that I started with.

Speaker 3:

And so almost that's very it's a very design-centric approach to the art, is like, okay, I'm gonna start with these palettes because we know they'll work, and then you'll put your own personality into that through how the creative process unfolds. Yep. Um, and then I did the saying um so that my work would sit there. I used those exact same palettes um that were taken from the furnishings and and and the finishes, and then I incorporated that directly into my backgrounds, the frames and the choice of verte.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It's interesting because you know, if you look at your work side by side, so Rowena's I I loved how you described that geoffrey um energy crystallize, is that what you said? It's it's very energetic, it's very crystallized. Yeah, it's abstract. So that means I suppose if you describe it, maybe I'll let you describe it, Rowena. How would you um just for our listeners? We'll put a link in the show notes so you can just quickly have a look. But um for those that are driving in the car, how would you describe your work? What does it look like?

Speaker:

Uh it's very layered abstract expressionism. I like to build lots of colours, and part of my process is laying the canvas on the floor. So I would pour liquid paint onto the surface and then push large brushes, say broom-sized brushes, through to create like giant gestures. I also use a lot of spray and I wipe back colours as well. So there's a constant like push-pull of layers and looking through layers and windows within larger bodies of work. The original works are always quite big. And then I pull back and select the best parts really. I crop them in. Or by working at scale, I'm able to document and then reproduce, say, the wallpaper at a greater scale as well. So but uh there's a really strong focus on colour for me. So the challenge of like pushing my usual palette into this sort of quite neutral direction, but still having the essence of my work come through. That was some the a vision that I feel like we realized through this project. I I love your interpretation of neutral colours.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, there's all I would say maybe they're less neutral and more natural.

Speaker:

I mean, I guess all colours are natural, but like they're not neutral, they're natural.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they're not. Well, they're just different to my regular. Yeah, they're less biregular, they still have amazing energy.

Speaker 1:

And then, geoffrey, would you mind describing what your pieces look like for if you're listening, you can paint a picture perhaps?

Speaker 3:

So the Spectra series, I looked at native birds that had the same sort of colourings with or accents, and I paired those with native minerals and crystals. So there was a real hard-edged approach to counteract the softness of the birds. And so you had that fractaline, sharp, reflective nature of crystals. Um, and that and that spoke to me of the geological time frames and and all of that, all of that time that's been spent and turned into one beautiful little thing. It that's like a bird to me as well. And and so these birds are all vibrant in their own fashion, and then they're they're poised on top of these crystals. So it's not real to the scale's not correct, it's artistic lessons, but it works all the same and it creates a dichotomy where you've got two separate things working together, and that extends the narrative of just having a bird by itself or a crystal by itself. And it's just a celebration of of Australia's ecology and all its different forms because they're they're born of the same environment. One lives on top of it and one's growing in the earth. But I thought it'd be really fun to look at that and look at place, and and that's what ridges the space sort of spoke to me about as well, with the colours and location and people coming from all over the place and celebrating, being in Melbourne, and often it's not for a creative endeavour. So they're traveling here because they're going out to the theatre or they want to go to the galleries. So to me, it was an exciting space to work original art into.

Speaker 1:

Oh, definitely. And I mean, I think a lot of people they think, well, I'm gonna go and see some art today. I'm gonna go to the NGV. But what a beautiful surprise! Like when we were there, I noticed um some air hosts, air hostesses coming in and they were like, Oh, wow, look at this, and that they get to experience some original art in there every day because they in and out of the way. Unexpected, yeah, and it's it's a beautiful thing. And um, yeah, I think with your um, you know, your painting style, sorry if I don't want to get the terminologies wrong, I don't know, but it's quite hyper-realistic, and then you've got the contrast of Rowena. So when you look at them side by side, you sort of think, well, they're totally quite different, but coming together in that space, it was quite special. And then the way that it's laid onto the interiors, and I think one of my favorite parts as well was that entry portal. So it was like one of those um rotating glass doors that you feel like you could just lose your arm in or whatever. I don't know, those ones they turn around. But no, it was it was a bit more safe, I think. But it was like a glass curved entry. And Rowena, you had painted on a mural of your um, you know, your pieces on there. And it was that portal that you're like entering into some different experience. And it was such a beautiful way to kind of yeah, first get a sense of what's what's behind these doors.

Speaker:

I think that work also gave the front of the hotel a bit of a presence as well that wasn't really there. No, you could easily walk past the front of the hotel. In fact, I think I have many times. Yeah, sort of a bit like a gateway setting the scene, um, which often is how I do work with um designers in activating space, like trying to create a first impression for an environment that will unfolds as you experience it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, being part of Design Week, um, that it was like, yeah, you're crew, we're just creating that little jewel that's there for a little bit and then it's gone as well. So there was that, there was that temporality to it, which that's kind of fun to work with.

Speaker 1:

Um, tell us about the carpet. How did that carpet? I I think that describing it just wouldn't do it justice because it was incredible. The carpet designs that you came up with, Rowena, but also I have to say, their actual application was so cool, wasn't it?

Speaker:

Like it was very intense, the colours. The carpet was probably the most exciting part of this project for me. It was a new, it was something I've wanted to do for years, and it was just a matter of having the right opportunity to take it on as a project. And we we worked with Godfrey Hearst Commercial to make the carpets. geoffrey had worked with them previously doing a large mural for them at one of their factories. And so we had that relationship there, and we, I guess, proposed what we wanted to do, and they were all for it. They were so supportive in letting us, I guess, fulfill our creative dreams.

Speaker 3:

Which is exciting for them as well, because they've got they've got the technology and it's just sitting there often underutilized by printing out layers and layers and hundreds and hundreds of meters of greys and browns and neutrals.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Whereas it it can do any colour you can yeah.

Speaker:

It was it would have been so exciting. Yeah, in making the carpets that we made the designs specifically for this project, and just to see the work printout in that medium was so exciting, and to like just the ideas that would flow from that as far as where you could take it, like you could do an entire conference room as one bespoke work if you wanted to, you don't have to repeat. You can just very cool, yeah. It the possibilities were endless, and for me, doing like hotel work, like the different applications as far as one-off pieces for each room, yes, hallways. Very good. Yeah, yeah. It's really exciting, yeah. And also to see how a carpet could bring a space to life as well. I I hadn't ever thought about it as much.

Speaker 2:

Well, it's often just a backdrop, isn't it? Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it is. It's it's serving a purpose, right? Um but it it can also be bespoke and using God Godfrey Hurst's ink uh was it inkjet technology there. Um yeah, it it it keeps it, it's all to that Australian standard. So it's not like you're doing a huge investment. You've got to get carpet anyway, but it could be like this amazing carpet instead of it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's so true, right? It's it's it's there anyway.

Speaker 3:

Why not actually make it amazing instead of just what a boy uh every time I go into a space and and particularly when there's long runs of it, I'm always looking at it going, oh, this could just be so much better.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, in hallways and things, it would just and energize the space. Whereas I feel like so many times in in a hall, in a long hall in a hotel, or you know, even in a conference center where there's like lots of doors and things, that's your opportunity to actually break up the space and make it way more creative.

Speaker:

Yeah, and also just the fact that they're up the road from us in Geelong. Yeah, keeping it so local. Like local. The idea of local manufacturing, quick turnaround times, sampling, being there for the printing process and just really deeply being part of that side of things as well. That really inspires me as a creative to be able to be part of that rolling out of the manufacturing and uh and knowing that that can be just part of the process as an ongoing basis. Yeah.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Um, I would say, you know, a carpet or you know, the entry portal would be a large scale artwork for a lot of artists. However, I think geoffrey wins in large scale. Can you tell us a bit about your work in on those really large scale pieces? Um, geoffrey?

Speaker 3:

Yes, I can. I just I just completed a it was the artwork itself is 28 meters high. Um can't even.

Speaker 1:

That's just ridiculously big.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. But it's the same as I I I obviously there's physical output, it's a lot higher than having to just paint a painting in a studio, but it's uh for me, I it's the same thought process. I it's just at a different scale. Um, but there's a different skill set that we're talking about, and it's just like actually I had to make sure the ground was level, and you're dealing with the construction industry because there's construction going on, um, and there's all these other things. So it's like all these little bits and pieces of my past lives uh uh all come together to work on these bigger projects.

Speaker 1:

Oh, really? What are your past lives?

Speaker 3:

Oh well, I've I've I've worked in landscaping and construction before, but I've also doubt I've been dealing with the construction industry and being on active sites quite frequently. Um dealing with different trades and um working on a project management side of things as well, just to just and just knowing how to communicate and get things achieved. Because as an artist, you're always the the afterthought. And it's just like and it's just like uh you actually need often as not on a on a large scale, things need to be set in place and you need things to be facilitated for you. Um and it's so frustrating to turn up and all of a sudden there's someone else parked there, the ground's not level, um, the site's not prepared. So being able to actually go and do those things and and and get them done is really helps on large-scale commercial things. I mean, a lot of us will probably just outsource that and just go, nah, I'll come back. But I like to get things done.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah. So what kind of I I think you're underplaying it a bit because aside from all of those background tasks, you can actually still paint a 28-meter high painting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I I know because like I make sure the ground's level, that's the main thing.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah. Well, there's the safety, right?

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh.

Speaker:

I mean, no, I know, I know. Also, there is just it's an endurance event.

Speaker 3:

Oh, it was the wind was like it is today, is it was insane.

Speaker 2:

So yeah. So what what are you so were you like on a um scaff or rigging? Like how what's to describe to us how scary this is?

Speaker 3:

It's not scary, it's 28 meters up. It was it was a straight boom. Um, so it's effectively a crane with a basket on the end of it.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's all I think it's still a bit scary.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. It's a big machine, it's not going anywhere. But some of these wind gusts are up to the maximum. Um, so yeah, just having to get up super early because there was no wind. So I was literally there before sun up every day and um painting. Um, yeah, and and always monitoring the wind because it would as soon as it would swing around, you all of a sudden I couldn't work high anymore and I had to work at the so yeah, just managing how I was going to get it all finished within the time frame. Um, once I get rolling, it's sort of I I just keep thinking of they break it down into tasks. Like now I need to do this section and get these colours.

Speaker:

There was a lot of preparation though, as well. Like it's not like geoffrey was mixing his paint on site, everything was planned to the finest detail, yeah. So that when you're on site, it's just execution.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, because I yeah, I was right uh the latest one I was running solo, so I didn't have anyone doing any running around for me. So making sure I had everything sorted. Yeah. Had no offside of it.

Speaker 1:

So where was this latest one? What was the project? Where was it?

Speaker 3:

It's up in Rainbow, which is in the Maui, um, West West Worm Maui, north of Horsham. So it's about four and a half hours from here. And it is a double silo that they've put they've actually put a big structure on the outside of it with an elevator in it, and then they cut holes into the silo. So this is the first one you'll be able to walk inside, and then it the inside's being activated with an artwork as well.

Speaker 4:

Oh, that's cool.

Speaker 3:

And then I did the outside. Yeah. It was all ri it all had to be site-specific, so it was all related to um the garden, which was there, because Lou Shirling had been living there this whole time, and he put in a lot of gardening, and he was really proud of his landscape. And so it was a bit of a a story there, and we ran with that. And he wanted the garden to be extended up, and so that's exactly what I did. I I um documented um plants out of his garden and then put in uh put in a Mali Emi room because they used to live all through that space, but now they're there's uh hardly any of them left, and they're all up in the national park that's to the north of that area. So, but that's still where that's their traditional um environment. Um so I put one in there to highlight that. Uh and they're vibrant little cute birds. So they're once again, uh it's a foot in the door. Everyone loves birds. Yeah, right.

Speaker 1:

So is this part of um how do people experience that?

Speaker 3:

Are there like tours people go on or yeah, it is it'll be part of the extended silo art tour. So it's part of a map. And um, yeah, well, there's Facebook people are like they're pretty um fanatical about it, actually. They they make sure they take the caravan and go around it and it pulls in different loops of the silo art trail. Yeah, but it's big, it's large-scale tourism for Victoria as well. Yeah, pulls in heaps.

Speaker 2:

How many have you done? Are they all silos that sorry? Two questions at one point. Yeah, we're just excited. Answer Lauren's first.

Speaker 1:

How how many of the silos have you done?

Speaker 3:

Oh, I've only done two locations.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 3:

But I've done that one and one in Garoque. The one in Garoque was three silos, this was two um together. Yeah, and the the one I did in Garoque was in 2020, and that was that was large as well, actually.

Speaker:

Uh what started off bigger surface.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it was massive. It was like doing a whole football field.

Speaker 2:

Um, I was gonna ask, are all the silos like non-working silos? Are they actually silos that are used? Okay. Mostly they're decommissioned.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, decommissioned.

Speaker 2:

Decommissioned. Non-working, decommissioned.

Speaker 3:

Non-working. Yeah, same thing, right? Yes.

Speaker 2:

And and do you just like work in a big grid? Like, how do you even I think for me that's the part I can't get, I mean, obviously the endurance of it is incredible, but like just getting it so accurate. Is that is it just down to you know, working in literally a a grid?

Speaker 3:

Yes. When you're painting? On this one it was. I was worrying about all these different ways of doing it, and then I ended up just going, there's my there's a horizontal line from start finish down and then go from there and then start get get the width right.

Speaker 1:

And I like it how you just make it sound so easy.

Speaker:

Oh, yeah, yeah, you make it sound easy, but I know it's like you're just painting viewpoints of the silo of where this silo is going to be viewed from. And yeah, so it you can't just sort of paint part of it. You need to know where the f where people are looking at it from. And also with this on the structure, they're they're they're seeing it all the way up. So each sort of platform zone, yes, there's a focal point as well.

Speaker 3:

Yes. So that comes down to the composition and and I guess I make all these all these decisions that are constantly running and they're sort of running silently in the back of your brain, and you think about but yeah, this one was interesting because it was a double like silo as you move around, the per the perspective changes constantly. Of course, and that was fun.

Speaker:

It's also visible from outside of the town. Oh so as you're driving into the the town, you see the top of this silo poking out, and it's magic. The focal, the focal point of that as well.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and this one for me, once again, it was a colour study. I needed to make it as vibrant as possible using the subject matter I had at hand. So that's what informed it and the the scale. Um so this one, the plant was a Euphoria Tragona. This particular variety had gone through so many environmental extremes, it it was it had the cut the colours were intense in it. It had um all these purples and magentas and scarlets as well as lime greens. So from a colour fairy perspective, uh I thought it was sounds amazing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, sounds stunning.

Speaker 3:

And that goes back to the narrative of the piece because it's um it's it's called um anthocyanine. It's a it's a thing that plants produce when they're under stress um through environmental factors.

Speaker 1:

It's so interesting because what you well, what you were saying about your past lives coming together, even in in your artwork, like it's it's so many aspects. Um and when you're you know creating these pieces, are you thinking about what kind of emotional response you would like people to kind of be directed to? Or is that just you put that out there for people to I do? Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Well Yeah, I I put it out there for people to respond in their own way. I yeah, if it if the colours and the No, I do love narrative and I I I everyone will respond differently, but I do enjoy that because it creates conversation. Um yeah, and and and it's something to it's just so unusual to see something at that scale and then go, why did why is it painted there? Yes and and what and what does it yeah.

Speaker:

And I think there's a real really beautiful parallel between what happens with those plants under stress and the people that live in that area, like all of these farmers and what they endure to to survive on a yearly basis.

Speaker 3:

And yeah, that's what I was thinking too.

Speaker:

Yeah, and just you know, these it's all also a glimmer of hope with these emu wrens that you know their environment, their natural habitat no longer being there because being cleared for farming and then have measures that may be in place to bring them back.

Speaker 3:

They are bringing them back in the Murray sunset, um, the reintroducing them of their captive breeding um in South Australia. So that's a bit of a nod to that. Same with the crystals and the birds. I love I love metaphor and I love a metaphor. Yeah, good metaphor. And it doesn't have to be literal, right? It can be poetic or and people can take it as as they will. But yeah, certainly with um with with uh it's a plant, but yeah, it like if you look at the way I've painted it and why I chose that one and the colours, it does represent the township and the hardiness of the people because it's such an extreme place, it gets so hot in summer. And when I was here, it was like negative one, you know.

Speaker 1:

So it's very stormy. And what I love about those pieces, as you mentioned before, there's like fanatical people that want to tick off all the boxes of every single silo art piece. And I feel like and I don't know if I'm right or wrong, I really don't know, but are they part of like the typical sort of art world that we kind of imagine? Or are they people that are just wanting to have a bit of an adventure and just I feel like it's really cool because maybe it's attracting people that aren't in that galleries, contemporary art fair type of world, which I I just love that, and people in the town being able to be so proud of something in their town and experience that artwork every day. I I just feel like that's so meaningful. And does that sort of give you that extra sort of sense of fulfillment with your work?

Speaker 3:

It certainly reaches a different audience. Um it is an I think a lot of people appreciate art, but this takes it to a next level, and it's a different phenomenon of this cultural tourism. Um large artwork uh often borders along this borderline kitsch, often is not large scale sunset.

Speaker 1:

It can be there's so not though.

Speaker:

There's also it's a lot about placemaking and identity, reinforcing how a town presents itself and and its values, yeah. Because the local communities have a bit to do with what you know what goes on those silos as well. You know, it's not just carnivosh.

Speaker 3:

But the the briefs are very tight.

Speaker:

Oh, okay. Okay.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, it's not it's not open slatter creatively.

Speaker 2:

But then I feel like you're what you're really good at too, geoffrey, and and you make it, you do sound quite effortless in your description of how there's that story behind things. I feel like sometimes that can feel a bit forced, particularly if you have been given a really tight brief, and then you've got to kind of go, how do I make this work and have a narrative? But I think you're really good at talking about the narrative behind something very naturally, and then that's what makes the art feel like it belongs there, like it's it's just connected, it's connection already. And then when you explain it, it gives it that next level of connection. So I think that, you know, I love listening to you talk about that narrative because it doesn't sound contrived, it just sounds very genuine.

Speaker 1:

Um, and Rowena, um, I I think it's similar in the way that you've done, you know, commissions with a brand like Mecha Cosmetica. People are coming into the store and they're just totally immersed in all of this vibrant colour. It's so joyful. And they're not in an art gallery, they're buying the latest Charlotte Tilbury, I don't know, whatever. But um, but um, yeah, can you sort of speak on that, those kind of commissions and and people sort of being able to experience your art?

Speaker:

I've always felt that I wanted my art to be accessible. I wanted people to be able to experience it without the effort of going to a gallery space. So by placing it in the retail space on a public mural in a train station, that's where that comes to life. So um, and it it's for me, it's a much more exciting way to experience a work if you're fully immersed in it, if it's part of a window application or part of part of some branding of a packaging of what you what you've purchased. Um, it just where the meeting of minds come together, where that collaboration plays out, that for me, that's where it's exciting. And seeing where you can take art um to the next level.

Speaker 2:

And I feel like um, you know, we've talked about endurance um in terms of the large scale, but you've definitely also experienced some challenging spaces, um, you know, painting ceilings and all sorts of things. Like what's was it the kiosk that one that um I know was a huge challenge, like trying to paint the ceilings and and only doing it at night?

Speaker:

Yeah, that's so that was um that was the ceiling. Yeah, it was a traumatic experience. The ceiling of a shopping centre that I took on the city. Oh, that's why it was a shopping center. I was traumatically. Um and I got on site and it was like there were people everywhere. And I just said, we can't work here during the day, it's not safe. And with that, we the project turned into night shift, and we were working from 9 pm until we could no longer stand. So for about a week and a half, I think it was.

Speaker 3:

With a one-year-old.

Speaker:

With a one-year-old in tow. Yeah, that's right. Oh my god. Um, and just the physicality of painting a ceiling in the first place is quite challenging. But then to do an abstract painting and then to have to cut around every single light and a bit of a um it was just so much bigger than I ever could ever have imagined. Um, but I've just had learnt a valuable lesson in never to do it again.

Speaker 2:

To me, that also the outcome was amazing though, right?

Speaker 3:

That also speaks of project management though, and often as or not, developers involve art too late in the they think it's something you can slap on at the end of things. And it's so good when you find somebody that has this vision and they're like, it's gonna be integral to the way people experience this space. Um, let's plan for that correctly as opposed to going, you can you can do whatever you want at the end.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Um, because it is, um, art is the easiest way to create a real shift in the way people will experience space. Colour and and vibrancy and originality all lead to people feeling more secure and more engaged with their spaces.

Speaker:

And also lends uh authenticity to a project as well. We like we've really found that when it just adds that layer of polish to something. And we have found that when we are boarding early, they're the successful projects that are really thought through and uh cohesive with the the overall vision of a project.

Speaker 2:

Makes sense.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Do you have any like dream projects on your list? What would you love to do?

Speaker 3:

Oh, I'd love to do some all big walls. But um I still love the airplane. Oh, so that's just all the quantas airplanes. Just doing all the airplanes.

Speaker 2:

Yes. Oh gosh, I'd love to see amazing.

Speaker 3:

Imagine seeing a a a huge Airbus A380 and rose full wrap, full wrap with rose work on it and a really big bird as well.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's that's just some sort of migratory, migratory bird.

Speaker:

Yes, we'll be tagging them. I actually like the last project Spectra was really sort of embodied the typical project that I would love to do. Like it yeah, it was all-encompassing, immersive, brand reinforcing aligned um project that was quite ambitious in its scale, but it could go to the next level, like to be able to activate sort of different every aspect of a hotel from the restaurant through to the suites, and the room, the lobby spaces, the exterior, um, and all the different ways that you could do that. That for me, I find that really exciting.

Speaker 2:

Um yeah, I feel like that's and and that's a project where it would be amazing to be brought in when the interiors are being designed and then you become kind of that integral part of it. Yeah, I could see that being such an amazing space. Because I've really kind of already done that, you know, as a as a temporary installation with Spectra, which just looks like it belonged there. Like I was like, oh, just can we just keep it?

unknown:

I guess.

Speaker 3:

I mean, we've seen it how many? You've done like seven hotels now, haven't you? Something like that. So we've seen it in bits and pieces where they've gone, oh, we'll do we'll do one wall, but we'll do this one. Or we'll do a suite, but to actually have something that's more included, like full, what am I trying to say here? Full immersion.

Speaker:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, would be fantastic.

Speaker:

Touching into every space would be. And I think also as an because I I don't I don't really call myself a designer, so I don't proclaim to do the whole thing at all. But I think as an artist, we do have a different way of seeing things uh that is that in a different way to how a designer might play something.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker:

But it'd be amazing collaboration.

Speaker 4:

Yeah.

Speaker:

But I just love doing big things. Like I love working at scale and challenging my ability to paint at scale as well. Like a work that I did was probably a couple of years ago now, up in Sydney, um, at Axis Alexandria, which was a commercial facility that was built up there. It was about a five-story wall, and there were two of them in the stairwell. So they were actually interior murals, but that were visible from the exterior because that part of the building was open to the road. And that certainly was a challenge in painting at scale and logistics producing off site on the ground, knowing that it was going to be installed in a in a giant stairwell and adapting the way I worked to make that work.

Speaker 1:

And I think it's really interesting because I think, you know, as interior designers, maybe Brie and I are a bit maybe the exception, but we feel like we better choose some safe colours because especially in a hotel, we don't want um, we don't want people to freak out. I don't know, why do we choose these safe colours? We want everyone to like it. But I think what you did at Spectra, it just proved that oh, colour, it can give you such a joyful response and such a positive reaction. Why are we so scared of using colour? It's just so dumb. So I feel like that's shifting though, don't you? I feel like that is sharing. I feel like it is shifting.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it is shifting. But it but it's projects like that, like the Spectra installation and even just more art being, I guess, integrated into spaces and more colour and showing people, particularly in public spaces, I think has I guess it gives more confidence to like homeowners and people in their own home to kind of take that back and go, well, I kind of want my space. I that was like evoking a certain feeling and I want my space to do that.

Speaker:

Definitely.

Speaker 2:

And and so I think it's about a bit of courage and confidence. And the more we use it and show people how it can be done, the more people are sort of more confident to do it. So I do, yeah, I think you're right, right.

Speaker:

There's definitely a movement towards colour. In as far as domestic applications of colour in homes, when we we really treat our home a bit like a gallery. And yeah, when we take work off the wall, it just feels so drab. Just feels empty. Right. Like it's the work is what gives our space life.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the energy just drains out of it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Do you do private commissions? So if someone's like seeing your work at a hotel, can they approach you, both of you, to do private work?

Speaker 3:

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah, generally just through our websites. But that's what we're working on now. We're we're we're catching up on commissions. Um one of them is actually uh an additional work for a piece that I painted directly onto the wall. Uh that these people had a seven meter by seven meter stairwell um entrance piece. And so I did a mural on that. Um, and now as an additional piece, they would they want you to they wanted the focus to be drawn down into and down a hallway. So we're doing a big piece to activate that.

Speaker 1:

Seven meters wasn't enough. They didn't they didn't have enough.

Speaker:

They needed well, I think they thought if they sold the house they wouldn't have an artwork anymore, so they had something they could take with them.

Speaker 3:

Um that's ambitious, right? And that's really brave of them to do that.

Speaker 2:

So but I love it. I love it when people actually take, I don't know, go, this is my house. Yeah. And why shouldn't it be the way I want it to be instead of going default white walls because we're we're scared maybe we'll sell it one day. Oh, so boring. These people are even going, oh, maybe we will sell it one day, but and we but we still want that. And yep, let's do another artwork that we can take with us.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and and and that goes back to like the um having that trust in the artist. They've they chose me for a a reason and then they said, Go do what you want. Obviously, I provided them with some mock-ups, but um and and that's all part of the briefing process. But that's the most satisfying project, is when somebody actually just trusts you to do what you do. And yeah.

Speaker:

100%. And I think that's why partially why you got the most recent silo because they'd seen another silo you did and they knew you could deliver. Yeah, deliver and some.

Speaker 1:

So cool. Thank you guys for such a great chat. Um, I loved learning more about your process and the work that you've been up to since we met. Any other silos on the horizon or any other hotels or anything?

Speaker:

Yeah, literally. At the moment, no, we're just um we're we're in our tenth year in Tolkien or Janjuk. In the studio. In our Janjuk studio. So we are kind of opening our studio up to the public a bit. Oh, that would be amazing.

Speaker 3:

So that yeah, the next thing is we're having an open studio early December, and then we're designing a bunch of workshops that we can run for the public really over that time over the over the summer period.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that sounds super fun. All right, put our names down. Signing up. Yeah, that would be just the most wonderful experience. Oh, what a cool thing.

Speaker 3:

So once once we've got the dates for those locked in, we'll um we'll share those on social visit and uh websites, etc. Ah, that'll be so cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I'm gonna put that as my Christmas present to myself.

Speaker:

Come and hang with us. Oh, so fun.

Speaker 2:

Uh, I'm definitely I'm already in. I'm already in. Yeah, great. Get a bit of beach time.

Speaker 3:

That'll be amazing. Get a bit of creation.

Speaker 2:

Well, I've been meaning to come down and see you now. I even have more of a reason to so heaven.

Speaker 3:

Oh, we'd better repaint our walls.

Speaker:

Well, yeah, we better paint our walls a colour. No pressure.

Speaker 3:

Oh, it's easy.

Speaker:

I just did it's what colour? I mean, we just don't know what colour these are so many colours.

Speaker 3:

I do, but that's why I'm like that too.

Speaker 2:

But I think this is the thing though, you already know that you can paint it and then maybe you could paint it again. Like I just did uh so pick a colour and then you can change it next year, you know. Like that's the beauty of it.

Speaker 3:

I don't know, it takes a day, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean it is a lot of effort, but I feel like you guys have kind of got that down part.

Speaker 3:

So it's been there done there.

Speaker 1:

Paint a 28. Maybe painting a room instead of yeah, you'll be like, This is just too easy.

Speaker 2:

Where's the challenge? Oh no, no, yes, it's as long as it's not a windowsill.

Speaker 3:

Oh god, yeah.

Speaker:

Is there a story to that? What do you mean? I just can't stand painting windowsills.

Speaker 3:

They're just fiddly, right?

Speaker 2:

Uh yeah, there's lots of prep architraves and white wall. Yeah, they don't want to do that, especially if you have to sand it all. It's the prep that I hate. The painting it's fun. Prep is that sucks, but you have to do it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's right. That's that that's 80% of it.

Speaker 2:

It is. It is.

Speaker 1:

Oh, thanks, guys. It's always fun to see.

Speaker 3:

Well, stay in touch anyway.

Speaker 1:

We've got the utmost respect for the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. They're the OG custodians of this unceded land and its waters, where we set up shop, create, and call home and come to you from this podcast today. A big shout out to all of the amazing elders who have walked before us, those leading the way in the present, and the emerging leaders who will carry the torch into the future. We're just lucky to be on this journey together.