Good things come out of our hometown of Perth, its true, and Jodee Knowles is no exception. With a slew of shows behind her, public art, commissions and exposure both here in Oz and across the seas, her recent relocation across to the east coast is opening up further avenues to pursue her creative endeavours.

With a new collection of pieces up for show at Friends of Leon gallery, comprising several of her recognisable and endearing painted-come-drawn works, Jodee is geared up for yet another successful outing. Fortuitously, we managed to touch base with her the other week about her about her upcoming show, Independent Of Time, as well as the hauntingly beautiful work she has produced for it …

Background question first, which has probably been asked many times elsewhere – were you the girl who would always scribbled in class, or did art come at later stage? Tell us a little of your formative art years and how you got into it all?

I was the space case in class most of the time, always drifting off, my mind thinking of a million other things than school. I studied fine art at TAFE for three years in Perth, and then went to university studying arts management at ECU. I found being “taught” art is hard, so I didn’t enjoy it too much. I started exhibiting in group shows around Australia and then was asked to be in a show by Stormie Mills in L.A, where I did my first large wall mural and began taking my career very seriously.

I deferred from Uni just after that and have not been back since!


You have previously worked in communications and media – has this helped you to keep savvy about the ins and outs of the art world, and what do you keep coming back to from that skill set that you apply to your now full time artist career?

I worked at an amazing company that pushed me to the next level – I learnt how to manage media, put together large events and work with some major names in the industry. It really helped me understand what I had to do ,not just as an artist, but as a business woman managing my own career. There are SO many talented people in this world, but only few are recognised due to their understanding of networking, and constantly pushing their own name.

You once said that it is often “extreme experiences” that drive the depictions of your characters – does this influx of emotive resonance and chaos of experience still hold sway over your work or are you looking towards other themes these days also?

My works always hold a strong idea or concept, I always have a composition in mind for my next piece, and then it changes and shifts as I create it, due to my mental state at the time. It never really ends up looking how I imagined – but the essence of concept is still evident.

Independent Of Time is your upcoming show in Sydney – can you explain a little about the title of the show, and how it will relate to the work? Do you often find that time is something that you battle with, or do you embrace the ephemeral nature of it, and its often random manipulations of an artists life?

Independent of Time is based on the human condition, and our struggle with time. To be separate to time, only for a moment is very powerful, like a lucid dream. Using agelessness and immortality as a reference point, I’m attempting to show my characters to be represented as ageless, nameless and family-less. They are constantly over coming the fear of time, and how quickly it moves. I think of time, all the time, until I cant breath. It seems so trivial when you are young – you feel you have so much time, then as you grow older you begin to always see it and think about it and death is a constant threat. Then, finally, you get old (which I haven’t felt yet) and you are exhausted from thinking of it, bored even and time moves slowly once more and the fear moves away.

Do you believe that your style developed even in the last year or so since your previous show at Friends Of Leon, or are you delving further and refining existing aspects of your work for it?

I think there has been a massive progression with my style over the year, its more refined, the emotional state is  much more tense and the colours are much more vivid and direct. People who see my work and can not see the changes aren’t looking at it – I would much rather those people not be at my showings, as the progression and process of my works is the most important aspect, more so than the works themselves. I am progressing on a personal level and a creative level – its emotionally challenging to continue like this, but I don’t know any other way.

Talking the works themselves, and for the curious artists amongst us, can you give us a run down and typical anatomy of mediums and techniques that you apply to your work?

Although I use paint, I call myself a drawer. Unlike a painter ,who starts with a sketch/drawing and finishes with a painting, I do it the opposite way. I start with a painting, and finish with a drawing, and I work on matte board, as paper usually warps. I use gouache, acrylic and watercolour as the base, then I build it with copic markers, common BIC pens, posca paint pens, fine liners etc.

Will you be doing another large window piece for this next FOL show? You have been involved in a bit of mural work the last two or three years, can you tell us how this differs from working in the studio, and what it adds to your creative development also?

I’ll do some work on the window, however, it will not be a person – more of a flow from the concept of the show. Mural work is much different – they’re generally not original works, but are studio works projected. Though some of them are almost 100 times bigger than an art work, they are much easier and take less time. I use different mediums as well, so it changes the texture of the over all artwork.

I love doing them though, it’s so effective.

Can you tell us a bit more about your past international forays and shows – you’ve had a couple, are there any more in the pipeline and any recently that you’ve been involved in?

I’ve exhibited in LA, NYC and Japan, all group shows. This year I’m heading back to LA straight after Independent of Time, to work on a solo show at a private gallery. I’ll be there for a month, so I’ll work on a few selected pieces, and then show them. June see’s me in Paris, Berlin and London, so I’ll be networking over there and developing some contacts to exhibit – hopefully that all goes well!

After your solo show, what do you have looming on the horizon, and what do you want to engage in for the rest of 2011 – you’ve also recently moved east – are you excited about this next phase?

I have just moved to Sydney about 4 months ago, loving it, great city so hopefully i met some great people too. I intend on showing once in Sydney, once in Perth and once in Melbourne every year – by 2013, I plan to be living in NYC …

Jodees show Independent of Time opens next week, also check out Jodees tumblr and the Friends of Leon website for more info.