We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rebekah Hall. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rebekah below.

Rebekah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

In school I was a “plodder” I got good grades only by working hard, I was hopeless at sports as I was too self-conscious, even at a young age, but anything creative I loved whether that be sewing, woodwork, baking or drawing. When choosing my subjects later as a teenager I was denied access to the Art Course as this clashed with French…I made that French teachers life hell, refusing to partake in anything & drawing my answers, finally after a year he refused to teach me & I was allowed to take Art. My grade was lower than I would have liked as I didn’t have enough work in my Portfolio!

My parents didn’t support my wish to go to Art School it wasn’t seen as a “proper job” so after a few false starts I made a 30 year career as a Mental Health Nurse, working in the Community. My creative career always took second place, I didn’t value it so no one else was going to, with juggling a demanding Nursing career, 3 children and a crack at self sufficiency there was little time for serious art making. I “played” when i had the time.

A move to New Zealand in 2005 saw me enroll on a couple of Art Courses, alongside my “proper Job” this gave me a taste for what I had been missing. Eventually part time nursing gave way to full time creating & a Diploma In Ceramic Arts, with a few gardening jobs thrown in the mix to keep me in Art Supplies. Unfortunately, my husband suffered a severe head & spinal Injury as a result of a fall all Art was put on hold whilst “we” recovered. A move to another town on another Island saw me reconnect with my art just 2 years ago now.

I would have loved to have started my art career sooner, but it wasn’t my time, its my time now. I value the freedom that creating later in life gives you, I don’t have to make work to pay a mortgage & the kids have now left home. I am freer to create what I want, although no-one wants shelves full of work & I do treat it as a business I make sure the sums add up.

Rebekah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

When I visit galleries, I am drawn to Ceramics, whether that is domestic ware or sculpture I want to touch, feel the surfaces and weight of the object or see what is behind, if there is a behind view. I want to understand just how a piece has been made and what inspiration the artist is trying to reference, if any, most of all I want a piece to be well made. I love it when my own work ignites this interest in the viewer. My own work is a reflection of the land that I now call home. Emotionally I have spent a number of years searching for a sense of place & this beautiful place has now infiltrated both myself and my art, almost despite my efforts.
My art pieces are made slowly, with rarely a back & front, but always with a respect for this land and its precious resource. They reference the colours of the waters and land here or the death, decay & skeletons left behind in nature and even manmade objects: patina, rusting, weathering over time.
My art is rarely representational, but each piece has a story to tell, sometimes its hidden in the name I call a piece, sometimes it’s a colour or combination of colours…sometimes it’s the shadows that the piece creates that become the star of the show with movement created by nature as light comes and goes over the work.
This is an area I am continuing to investigate: the play of light, positive & negative, movement or still depending on natural forces.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My work is a reflection of how I see the world around me: its easy when you live in a beautiful part of the world to be drawn to the big Vistas, but I want my art to encourage people to see the little things, the things that go unnoticed or are trodden upon but are incredibly beautiful. The destruction of this world lies heavy on my heart, I have turned my attention and focused my distress into what I call Positive Activism…when you become aware of incredible beauty it becomes harder to take it for granted and by doing so destroy it…my art is a vehicle for people to connect with me in a shared story of place.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn the pursuit of perfection, initially from childhood that I carried like a heavy weight into adulthood, only recently did I appreciate how creatively stifling this can be. Many “works of art” have been destroyed over the years in pursuit of this unobtainable goal.
This does not mean that I accept work that is badly made, on the contrary, but rather perfection is not my aim, the telling of the story, the connection with place and people & a subtle beauty to my work are now my focus. Perfection is a hard task master but the freedom that comes from letting go can lead in all sorts of directions that I’m only just discovering.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thekauritreestudio.com
• Instagram: @thekauritreestudio.com