Nambour’s Larissa Salton, 52, is open, easy-going and joyous when she speaks about the decision she made in 2008 to live her dream.
That was the year when on her way to Beerwah as a support worker she was involved in a terrible car accident.
Ms Salton survived, but it took a 12-month recovery period and five operations before she could truly live her life again.
Once she had reclaimed her wellbeing, she dedicated herself to living an authentic life.
For Ms Salton, this meant making her creative dreams, particularly photography, come true, regardless of the timing.
“If ideas bubble up in middle of the night I have a pen and paper ready beside my bed, so I can wake up and write them down,” she says.
In the car, she has another set of stationery to do the same job.
“If I see the sun shining on something, and the light seems just perfect, then I pull up and take down the time and address to get back out there and take a photograph.”
Born in Victoria, Ms Salton moved to Queensland with her family at 12-years old. Her art studio is next to her home in Nambour. She loves the surrounding hills, the environment, the people.
It’s here from her studio that she conducts photographic workshops featuring her wearable art.
The idea to combine her photography and wearable art was one made from necessity.
“My photography business was badly affected by COVID,” she says.
“So, I came up with the idea of including photography with my wearable art.”
The photos evidence the creative spirit underpinning and tying together the combination.
The choice of totally recycled materials used in each production echo her environmental consciousness.
At times she emphasises this sentiment with the selection and making of her photographic scenarios.
For instance, the photograph of a young woman (Ms Salton’s daughter) dressed in what appears to be a shredded plastic costume (created by her mother) lies lifeless and bedraggled on the shore as the tide reaches out and circles her.
The scene, both surreal and ethereal, highlights the plight of our ocean and marine life as it is overcome by pollution.
True to her environmental values when it comes to purchasing art materials, Ms Salton steers clear of commercial outlets and seeks to find and recycle.
“A friend might call me and there are nuts dropped from trees on the ground – and I’m over there to pick it up.”
Others, after a relationship break-up, are keen to pass on the wedding dress.
“I pull them apart and give them a whole new start in life,” she says.
So where were the fires of her irrepressible imagination first lit?
“When I was child,” she says
“My mother wouldn’t let us watch TV, instead she gave us her big craft box and told us to go and create something and bring it back and show her.”
She has won numerous local and international awards for photography and Wearable Art, including First Place and People’s choice 2019 and 2021 at the Cooroy Body Art Festival as well as a Claytons UTZ Art Award 2020 Finalist.
For info on Ms Salton’s photography and wearable art workshops go to www.larissasalton.com.au or Facebook Page Hinterland Avantgarde Creatives.
