Mandy Patmore is a multi-media environmental artist living in Karekare, on Auckland’s west coast.
Primarily a painter, Mandy's current work focuses largely on deforestation and habitat loss in New Zealand, and the plight of many endangered native species, whilst exploring themes of colonisation and human impact on our landscape.
I find the work Mandy does in the community, with the environment and her own art practice super inspiring and this is a fantastic episode I know you'll gain many things from. We talk about the Piha domain footbridge project she completed in 2009 which won the NZ Recreation Association Award for most outstanding project and other projects she has done to highlight environmental issues.
Mandy tells us all about the Kōkano Youth Arts Collective which was developed from a pilot programme in 2013 as a response to recognising the needs of some of the most vulnerable young people in West Auckland; all of whom have struggled with mainstream education. She shares the challenges and highlights of working with at risk youth and what she has learnt.
We talk about how Mandy manages all the things in her life and how they all connect, her art practice, her love of using found surfaces and timber to paint on, why she wants to diversify within her art practice, who and what has influenced her practice. We discuss funding, self doubt and how she sometimes feels some form of shame around creating realistic works that may seem more about beautification than the message she is trying to convey.
As this episode goes live Mandy will be listening from her latest residency in Peru, which I'm following with fascination on her socials.
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