Nancy Whittaker, Tarrangower Times
There is yet another little gallery called Cut it Out, which opened last Friday in Maldon, in the Post Office Residence in High Street. Artist and Curator Lisa Speed is complementing her This Little Piggy cooking skills with artwork in an exhibition titled ADH…ME!?, featuring the work of Jacki Irwin. Lisa is an avid art lover, maker and collector, and sometimes exchanger. Jacki is to quote Lisa, ‘a Tradie, who works as a gardener with the NDIS’.
Jacki loves to create with junk and is a big fan of the reduce, reuse, recycle movement. She says that ‘nothing with a free sign on the side of the road is safe’, and she will often be seen with the most random stuff in the back of her Ute. Jacki is a ‘Punk rock fitter turned gardener’.
Jacki said that this exhibition is titled ADH…ME!? for the reason that while not officially diagnosed, there is SO much information at hand in these social media days that what she has researched just makes sense. She said, “There are so many ‘Ah Ha’ moments”, when looking back at her life and the trouble she used to get into.
After completing an apprenticeship with the Navy, Jacki has travelled the world as a Marine Technician in the Royal Australian Navy. That was then. Now she is studying Horticulture while raising her two children, running a small gardening business for the elderly and making art. She is an avid environmentalist with a well-developed sense of humour who likes to repurpose random things, as in Give Way.
At the opening last Friday, a keen group of arts aficionados gathered to see her work, which is very colourful and at times quite funny, reflecting her quirky sense of humour.
Jacki’s recycled mixed media works sold like hot cakes at the opening, with red dots abounding almost from the moment of opening.
ADH…ME!? will take you on a short journey through the chaos and colour that is Jacki’s mind. Drop in next time you are going past the Post Office.
The Cut it Out Gallery is open on Monday – Friday from 2.30 – 6.30pm, and 12 noon to 4pm on weekends. Jacki’s exhibition is open from 8 – 28 September. It will be followed by an exhibition of Lisa Speed’s own artwork.
She says, “Art is life. Life is AN art. Everyday things can be seen in various ways and interpreted in so many versions.
For further information, contact Lisa on 0474 037 556.
This article appeared in the Tarrangower Times, 15 September 2023.
