Creative Connections with Mandy Jakich
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© 2025 Creative Connections with Mandy Jakich
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Conversations with visual artists and arts practitioners from Aotearoa New Zealand
187 Episodes
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Natalie is an emerging multi-disciplinary artist born in Yorkshire, England, with a current focus on figurative oil paintings. Nat moved to New Zealand in 2016 in her early twenties.and is currently based in Auckland. In this episode Natalie shares how creating likeness in a portrait has become a challenge too tempting not to take on as she's got older, becoming thirsty for something that felt more difficult and less forgiving. As a Mum of 2 boys, her sons have become treasured subjects that ...
Andrew Barns-Graham is an established Auckland-based artist known for his hard-edged contemporary portraits with a pop realist style. He renders smooth, gradient-infused figures set against minimal, atmospheric landscapes. In this episode we talk about the pivotal moment that led to Andrew devoting himself to his art practice after a career in advertising. Andrew tells us about a traumatic near death experience and how that has influenced his art practice, his outlook and the way he liv...
Kyra Alkamil is a 19 year old emerging artist from Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, in her first year studying fine art at Elam School of Fine Art in Auckland. Kyra paints in oils and is interested in storytelling, the human figure, nostalgia, domestic scenes and surrealism. In this episode we talk about the ways Kyra discovered and developed her love of art and her skills in visual art as a homeschooled teenager, how life drawing has contributed to her figurative practice, her shift from acrylics t...
Katrina Cosgrove is a painter born in England who immigrated to NZ in 2005. She is now based in Bronte, a small settlement at the top of the South Island of Aotearoa NZ in the Tasman District, near Mapua. Katrina's nature inspired artworks delve into the themes of self discovery, transformation, freedom, and the profound connection between nature and the human spirit. With a background marked by resilience and a powerful personal journey, Katrina’s art reflects her transition from the c...
Shelley Ryde is a well known, highly respected Aotearoa art educator and artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland NZ. Shelley has led the visual art department and taught art at Diocesan School for Girls in Auckland, finishing this position in 2024 after 42 years of devotion, hard work, commitment and a lot of love. Many young art students and NZ practising artists have been taught and inspired by Shelley, including a number of guests on this podcast who speak so highly of her a...
Kirsty Nixon is a contemporary New Zealand artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. Her vibrant, light-filled paintings celebrate the untamed beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand — from the windswept beaches of the North Island to the soaring mountain ranges of the South. Drawing inspiration from the land, sea, and native birdlife that surround her, Kirsty’s work invites a quiet moment of reflection — a breath of peace amidst the noise of modern life. With an instinctive eye for colour and compos...
Sarah Ritchie is a New Zealand fibre artist living in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Sarah specialises in creating framed works in natural fibres such as New Zealand wool, bamboo and cotton, showcasing her passion for texture, colour, and non-toxic creativity - drawing inspiration from the breathtaking beauty of Aotearoa New Zealand. In this episode Sarah unpacks her fibre art process for us: from her preferred fibres to use and the tools she uses to her technique , use of colour and the ideas be...
Ceara Lile is a fibre-based mixed media artist who grew up in West Auckland. She creates abstract textile collages layered with meaning, memory, and emotion as well as eco inkless hand printed fabrics. She now lives in Keri Keri in the Far North of Aotearoa NZ with her partner Mario. From an early age, Ceara has been captivated by textiles, drawn to their textures and versatility. Her work takes the form of abstract, collage-based fibre sketches, where these materials serve as both her medium...
Jane Shriffer is an abstract painter living and working in Wānaka in the south island of Aotearoa NZ. Jane paints intuitively, layering colour and texture, making her marks with a palette knife. In this episode we have a fantastic chat about Jane's experience studying painting at Dunedin School of Art as an enthusiastic 18 year old only to leave university with her degree and not return to painting for 10 years. She shares how she got back into painting through immersing herself in lthe local...
Katie Blundell is a contemporary New Zealand artist, living and working from her studio in Clevedon, south east of Auckland. Focusing on the human experience, her work is both personal and universal. Katie approaches her practice through different media depending on what ideas she is wanting to express, primarily focusing on on printmaking, painting, drawing, photography and sculpture. In this episode we talk about: her beautiful gallery/studio space in Clevedon where she teaches, creat...
Lynette Fisher is a contemporary painter living in Te Puna near Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty. Lynette's art practice also encompasses printmaking, drawing and assemblage. Her work investigates themes of adoption, identity, obligation and ownership. While an underlying sense of nostalgia usually permeates her work, Lynette purposefully disrupts it to bring layered and disordered meaning to often commonplace and overlooked themes. Lynette is such a fun person to talk to and I think you'll enjo...
Muse Gallery, founded by Kaye McGarva in 2017, is situated in Havelock North, in the Bay of Plenty, Aoteaora NZ. In this episode I talk to Kaye McGarva, a professional artist herself and the owner/director of Muse Gallery. This bis a conversation I'm sure many artists will be intrigued to hear. Kaye shares how and why she started Muse Gallery 9 years ago and the challenges of starting a gallery with no former experience in this area and how she grew the gallery from the ground up. We ex...
Caitlin Johnston is a multi media artist living near the Hibiscus Coast north of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. As a Kiwi, much of Caitlin's work shows the deep connection that we have with the ocean and the land in Aotearoa. The way it makes us feel, and how we are connected to it. The sounds of the waves, the emotions we feel, the endless beauty of coastline and the nature of New Zealand inspires her work. Caitlin uses upcycled surf boards and various other found materials as her canvas, then in...
Fiona Kerr Gedson is a fibre artist who has used feathers as her primary medium for more than 25 years. She works from her home near Ōpōtiki, in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa NZ. Fiona’s meticulously crafted, intricately designed feather pieces have a calming and meditative presence. Her work reflects and honours the things most important to her – her family, her spirituality, shared experiences, life stages and a sense of kotahitanga (unity). Her most recent collection, Pil...
Lucy Eglington is a painter originally from the UK who immigrated to Aotearoa in 2003. She works from her home studio in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland. Working primarily in oils, Lucy’s paintings explore human states of mind: dreams, successes, losses, grief and love and the narratives we tell ourselves. She often uses animals to represent ideas and feelings and to add individual narratives to each work. With a successful track record of sell-out shows and recognition in prestigious art awa...
Alexandra Tylee is a painter living in Poukawa in the Hawkes Bay. From her early twenties until her early forties Alexandra setup and ran 2 successful businesses, Fuel espresso in Wellington and Pipi Cafe in Havelock North. She has also written 3 cookbooks and an award winning children’s fiction book called If I Was A Banana. Alexandra started painting around 5 years ago. Selling Pipi cafe in 2023 allowed her to devote herself more to her painting practice and since then she has had two sell ...
Anna Stichbury is a contemporary New Zealand artist from Wellington whose practice spans painting and installation, distinguished by her bold use of colour, layered textures, and dynamic mark-making. It was a pleasure to meet and talk to Anna, an artist I have admired for a long time, and hear all about her fascinating art practice. We discuss how Anna studied design in Wellington after high school, what she gained from this course and a significant moment that lead to her first gallery...
Sur Collective is an artist collective founded in 2021 out of a need to create a sense of place and redefine the space Latina artists use as migrant women in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Sur-Collective are 5 wahine from Colombia and Chile who work with different art disciplines such as sculpture, drawing, painting, textiles, ceramics, photography and embroidery. Today I'm speaking with one of the collective artists Cat Guevara, a ceramic artist who migrated to Aotearoa from Colombia 8 years a...
This episode is different to our usual format. Mandy is in the Kumeu Arts gallery at the podcast group show CONNECTION with 4 previous podcast guest artists who have work in the show. Contemporary Fine Artist Dita Angeles https://www.ditaangeles.com/ Abstract photographer Chris Melville http://www.chrismelville.co.nz/ Painter Yvonne Abrcrombie https://www.instagram.com/yvonneabercrombie Contemporary painter Coral Noel Yang https://coralnoelyangart.com/ Each guest was asked what they've ...
Hello and welcome to season 9 of Creative Connections. I’m so excited to be back with weekly episodes and a fantastic varied line up of artists booked in from now until mid December 2025. This episode is a bit different. I was interviewed by artist Julie Battisti for The Creative Kind Podcast a few months ago and I thought you might be interested in listening to our conversation. We’re talking community. Which is very topical at the moment alongside the current Connection group show at ...
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