A Queensland artist who has been experimenting with the region's macadamia nuts will showcase his work as part of the CQ Shopfront Artisan in Residence initiative.
During the past eight months, Marc Harrision has spent time in Bundaberg creating beautiful artwork out of macadamia wood as part of his role in the program.
Established by local arts producer and Makers Shopfront's Shelley Pisani, the CQ Shopfront Artisan in Residence has been rolled out across Central Queensland over the past 18 months.
The aim of the program is to build up the business capacity of Central Queensland regional artists and encourage the development of commercially viable products to support their arts practice.
Marc will be in Bundaberg between 14-26 June to showcase his art and said he would like to set a challenge for the community to explore the humble macadamia nut a little further.
Through his macadamia project titled HUSQUE Marc has worked with cuttings of macadamia trees from project partner Macadamias Australia, but he says there were many other ways to use the native tree in everyday art.
“This includes the written word, distilling ink from the bark husk and leaves, using the fibres, drawn, painted, photographic and digital images – or even sculpture, or making a functional sculptural device like a nut cracker,” he said.
Marc said he was challenging local artists and makers to incorporate an aspect of the macadamia or macadamia industry into a piece produced from their own professional practice.
The challenge was something Shelley Pisani said would provide many benefits for those involved.
“Local artists and makers who take up the challenge will have their creations showcased at Macadamia’s Australia’s pop up retail space,” she said.
“The potential is for their prototypes created through this process to be chosen as a retail product in their new visitors centre that will be opening in coming months.”
If you are interested, you can sign up at this link to participate in the challenge.
Makers Shopfront Forum takes shape
Along with the CQ Shopfront Artisan in Residence, the Makers Shopfront Artist Forum will also take place at the end of June.
The forum is a two-day program created by artists for artists and will give participants the opportunity to learn a number of skills from licensing artwork through to building a website.
Makers’ Shopfront Shelley Pisani said industry experts would share their experiences to build entrepreneurship in visual arts through their personal skills and business know-how.
Makers Shopfront Forum will be held at CQUniversity on 26-27 June. For more information or to register click here.
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