Art studies at Immanuel Lutheran College paved the way for Odessa Mahony-de Vries’ career. This year she returns as Artist in Residence at the school’s annual Arts Festival.
After a visit to Immanuel Lutheran College’s annual Arts Festival, Odessa Mahony-de Vries was sure she could finally give her parents a definitive answer.
In her early high school years, Ms Mahony-de Vries’ parents gave her a choice of schools for her future education.
As a young woman who had been making art since she was nine, it seemed natural that she found the answer to her parents’ question as she wandered through artworks and sensed the rich atmosphere of creativity at the college’s Arts Festival.
Ms Mahony-de Vries went on to spend her years 10, 11 and 12 at Immanuel Lutheran College and is grateful to her art teacher Lucy Morris who, she says, helped her prepare the art portfolio which gained her entry to the prestigious RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology). She has since completed a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art).
This was a defining period for the young artist, and during this time she says she changed to a more abstract style. Besides experiencing city living, her adventures included travelling to India and Nepal and driving along the Great Ocean Road.
Since then, her style and living experiences have continued to develop and grow and she is expressing this evolution in her own unique visual language.
A recent artist residency where she locked herself in a jail cell for eight hours with a set of instructions for painting has also extended her art-making.
This was a lockdown of a different sort. During her stay in the cell, she says she drew on the emotions and experiences of her mind and body as she adhered to a strict set
of guidelines, finally emerging with an artwork that she says left her ‘exhausted’.
Nevertheless, she says her artwork captures how every part of her responded to the feelings of incarceration, discipline, order and lack of alternatives.
Additionally, there is another aspect to this experience.
“It was also performance art,” she says. “Everything was videoed.”
Personally, she says, “It was a way to shake up my own practice.”
These days, Ms Mahony-de Vries’ art-making process is a combination of mistakes, intuition, movement, layering, concealing and a collection of visual resolutions and techniques acquired over time.
Her recent shows include a solo exhibition titled Sweet & Sour at The United Artist Project and a duo exhibition with Amanda Bennetts titled Experience Colour at the Old Ambulance Station.
Later this year you can see her work in a solo show at the Cooroy Butter Factory Arts Centre (BFAC).
After heading home from Melbourne, Ms Mahony-de Vries is delighted at the support she has received on the Sunshine Coast.
“There is a lot happening here and I have found so much support and opportunities,” she says.
She is especially appreciative of the Sunshine Coast Council. Currently, she is working on a 20-metre-long canvas that will hang from the ceiling of the BFAC.
Immanuel Arts Festival
The Immanuel Arts Festival is a celebration of fine and contemporary art and is the largest of its kind on the Sunshine Coast.
It has showcased the artistic talents of our region for 40 years and draws more artist entries and visitors each year.
The festival proudly promotes visual, creative and performance art in the Sunshine Coast community and will be held from May 20 to 23 at Immanuel Lutheran College.
When: May 20 to 23, Friday and Saturday, 9am to 5pm, Sunday 9am to 2pm.
Where: Immanuel Lutheran College, 126-142 Wises Rod, Buderim.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Odessa Mahony-de Vries – Artist in Residence
Chris Blake – Artist in Focus
Libby Evans – Student Artist in Residence
Justin Bruhn – Artist in Residence
