THIS WEEK’S Murwillumbah Art Trail 2018 featured artist is the insightful and thoughtful local Michele Bevis, who is excited to take part in MAT18.
Michele is an avid sculptor, printmaker and glass-bead maker who recently turned her focus to the Anthropocene, a proposed geological time period where humans have altered the climate and environment.
The Weekly recently caught up with Michele to find out more about her connection to the Tweed and growing passion in telling the story of humanity’s addiction to waste.
“Life is a wonderful experiment and my life is exactly that: a journey of change,” she said.
“About eight years ago I moved to “The Crater” (aka Wollumbin mountain) looking for myself.
“It is here that the layers, of whom I thought I was, started to shed.
“I began uncovering a more authentic way of being.”
Michele said that after shifting states, she changed career and at 18 years old she began to study art.
“I enrolled at Murwillumbah TAFE and continued studying a Bachelor of Visual Arts at Southern Cross University, Lismore,” she said.
“Art is making, with a story. Since arriving in this lush, sub-tropical rainforest, the energy of the country has seeped into me and I find myself increasingly responsive to my environment and wanting to tell my story.
“My exploration into self and art opened my eyes to the beauty and fragility of the Earth.
“I have since tuned my gaze to the Anthropocene, the newest geological era.
“The Anthropocene defines the significant environmental impact of human activity, which far outweighs Earth’s natural changes.”
As a sculptor, printmaker and glass-bead maker, Michele’s involvement in the Murwillumbah Art Trail over the years has been to tell the story of humanity’s waste addiction, with a focus on plastic in planetary plunder.
“If artists’ works are an interpretation of the world as they see it, then Mahatma Gandhi’s quote “Be the change that you wish to see in the world”, is the direction I want to be pointing,” she said.
“That’s the story I want to tell. And the viewer well, they interpret the work through their own experience and this makes art interactive: a discussion between the artist and the viewer.
“Last year, my plastic artwork was installed in two Murwillumbah cafés to reflect plastic invading the living spaces of fish in our oceans by invading our living spaces.
“I randomly plastic-bombed a tree. This year, my artworks have not yet been designated to a specific site.
“The MAT18 curator, Dev Lengjel, will be curating all the artists’ works. As mine is sculptural, it could be located in Budd Park as part of the Sculpture Exhibition on Saturday, May 26, or in a pop-up shop in the Murwillumbah CBD.
“It feels as if the art trail brings another layer to our beautiful region and I look forward to this event again this year.”