I Want To Be an Artist

Australian artist and academic Jayne Dyer has always known she was a creative soul. After years of honing her skills and completing a Master of Arts at RMIT University in Melbourne, Jayne began exhibiting her pieces in galleries around the world. Her works are inspired by and incorporate everything from books to butterflies. To date, her giant room-sized installations have been exhibited in over 100 museums and galleries across the world, including Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, Melbourne, Seoul and Berlin. Before jetting to Melbourne for her next big project, Jayne engaged students at the International Academy of Beijing, discussing inspiration, the creative process, and even climate change.

Olivia Choi, 10, Korea
Why did you start your job?
I think it’s really good to be in a job that you love and are excited to go to every day, somewhere where you feel that anything is possible. I hope all of you choose jobs that you feel are passionate and excited about. That’s why I do my job; it’s the most freeing thing I can do.

Jack Kang, 11, Korea
What are your favorite things to draw or make?
I like to make artwork that has writing and language in it. Mostly, I like to work with books and make stories with books.

Sammie Wang, 10, USA
How long does it take to finish making a sculpture?
[Shows the class an image of books spiraling up to the ceiling.] The museum took one year to collect 3,000 books. Then I went with ten assistants to Taipei for a month. It took us that time to actually put all the books together so they would hang. Sometimes a sculpture might take one day, but most projects (especially big ones) take a long time to plan.

Katie Wong, 10, Canada
What is the easiest and the hardest part about being an artist?
The easiest part is that I can always be thinking about ideas, making up new works. I can’t think about anything hard about being an artist, actually.

Olivia Choi, 10, Korea
Is it hard to design a sculpture?
Do you know when you are doing a drawing or working on a math problem, and you have to come up with a plan first, and then a good idea, and then think about how you can solve it or make it? It’s the same for making a sculpture, or a painting, or a drawing. Artists first need an idea that they are interested in. And then they think about how they can talk about that as an artwork.

Kebin Jeon, 9, Korea
Is there a time when you don’t like your art?
Only when I am making something and I don’t think it’s working. I don’t not like it, but I find that I have to think really hard to make it work. Sometimes we do something, like drawing, and we think it’s not as good as it could be. So then we rub it out and start again. And sometimes we have to struggle a little bit. I think struggling is good. It makes us think harder.

Katie Wong, 10, Canada
What are your favorite colors for making a sculpture?
My favorite colors in my artwork, whether it’s drawing, painting or sculpture are black, white and red. I always find them to be very powerful colors.

Ed Won, 11, Korea
What is your best sculpture? I think it’s the one I’m always about to make. The new work is my best sculpture, because it is the most exciting. My best sculpture is always what is about to happen.

Ji Beom Kim, 9, Korea
What are you going to make next?
I did a work in Taiwan two years ago. [Shows the class an image of black, paper butterflies.] These butterflies are coming from inside the gallery, out the window, and up the wall outside. For me, this work is about nature. All these black butterflies are clinging to the building, but they are trying to fly away. So, it tells us about something that is not very positive about the way our climate is changing. These little butterflies are like many animals and many plant forms – they are in danger.

For my next project, I will go to Melbourne. We have made hundreds of very special metal butterflies and they will be put on a building, flying across a wall. This work started two years ago with these little paper ones. Now, I’m making steel ones that will be permanent in the building.