Natalie Estay Valenzuela is a first-generation Chilean multidisciplinary artist working across education and community arts platforms, based in Naarm, VIC and Boorloo, WA. Her art employs sustainable making practices in the creation of handmade fashion and accessories, as well as mindfully designed artworks, bold digital prints and colourful collages.
In this Colour Box Studio interview, Natalie shares about growing up in Perth, studying and the journey towards finding a meaningful creative practice that explores themes of sustainability, social justice and her own cultural heritage. She explains how experiences living and working overseas, particularly travelling through the Americas, brought about new perspectives influencing her work; and she discusses the upcoming ‘Ancestral Magik’ exhibition at Blak Dot Gallery with the Yo Soy Collective, a group showcasing Latin American artists in Melbourne.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do.
I am a first-generation Chilean multimedia artist, education support and community worker currently based between Naarm Melbourne and Boorloo Perth. My dichotomous identity and art practice both intertwine in preserving cultural memory and inspires me to explore this through mark making, shape, colour, and contrasts. My art outcome is an eclectic collection of textiles, design, digital design, photography, and paperwork that have a handmade element and are constructed with a mindful approach. I work with an intention for low wastage where I can so I will try to use recycled or repurpose fabrics in my textile work or use paper scraps when working on collages or mark making.
I’m also part of Yo Soy Collective, a collective for Latin American creatives based in Narrm. During the Melbourne pandemic lockdown, I studied to be an Education Support Officer and currently completing an arts project with Broadmeadow Special Developmental School’s art faculty funded by the Creative Learning Partnerships program, Creative Victoria.
How did you start your creative practice and why?
I grew up with my Chilean paternal grandparents, my grandfather was a draftsman and most of his family had a strong artistic background. He had his own studio space and I remember him teaching my sister and I how to hold our pencil correctly, work with the correct lighting and how to draw, he also encouraged us to constantly learn and read from various outlets (mostly his large collection of National Geographics) I think this is where I first started my creative practice as I never stopped.
I studied Fashion & Textile Design at Central TAFE in Perth and after I graduated, I decided to travel the Americas. For the next 3 and a half years, I lived and worked in Santiago de Chile. I learnt and experienced a lot during these years living in Chile and gave me an opportunity to get to know my mother’s side of the family (my mother immigrated by herself to Australia in her late 20s). I would work in Santiago and when I had enough money saved, I would travel as much as I could to countries like the United States, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and around Chile. I was exposed to a diverse collection of Latin American creatives that always worked with a purpose with a common ground connecting back to social justice and resistance, this blew my mind and continue to inspire me today.
I wasn’t that good at the construction of Fashion, but my strength and passion were more in the textile design aspect, my experience overseas made me realise I was good at seeing things through patterns, textures, shapes, colour, and contrasts and expressing these through my mark making, amateur photography, textiles, etc. At the time I didn’t know how to go about this, work wise, so I came back and lived in Sydney where I studied Fashion business and then back to Perth after a failed attempt to work in the Fashion Industry when a friend mentioned that there was a Textile Design BA course at RMIT in Melbourne. I applied, I got in and had been living and working in Melbourne until I decided to spend some time with my family in Perth after 2 years being in lockdown.
My lived experiences inspired me to continue with my creative practice with a purpose, my studies helped me hone and express this in a way that could be understood, and the pandemic gave me that final big push to be able to independently put myself out there to the public.
Where did you grow up and has it influenced what you create?
I grew up in Perth, south of the river, closer to Fremantle. My dad was 16 when he arrived in Sydney (due to my grandfather’s working visa opportunities to Chileans in the early 70s) and was in his early 20s when him and his family moved to Perth and is also the place where my parents met. I grew up in a hard-working Chilean household within a beautiful beach city setting, I saw my parents slowly achieving their goals despite financial struggles, my mother’s language barriers and other obstacles. My paternal grandparents spoke limited English and most often I acted a translator for my grandmother. My grandfather always encouraged us to draw, practice art, make food and even create objects out of wood as he also had a shed where my dad and him would practice their carpentry.
It wasn’t until I was 13 that my parents started becoming involved with the local Chilean community club where my sister and I participated in traditional Chilean folk dancing and soccer. It was a beautiful community where we had a space to celebrate our identity despite being so far away.
The colours and textures of my local beach growing up, eating fish & chips with vinegar, the colourful traditional Chilean costumes, the two different languages spoken, and Chilean food eaten at home, the shapes, and patterns of my grandparents’ home, are small samples of how my childhood influenced my art practice, the dichotomous experience as children of immigrants.
Tell us about your past creative projects and creations. What has been your most treasured creation or highlight so far?
This is a tough question to answer as there have been various creations and projects that I treasure.
During my studies and travels, I gave some time in volunteering and learning from others in the textile and fashion setting. I interned/volunteered within several creative spaces in places like New York, Mexico City, Colombia, and Peru. From some of these experiences my advocacy and knowledge for Indigenous textiles came about.
The pandemic and 2-year lockdown in Melbourne really hit me with some perspective and my most treasured project and creations was by acknowledging myself as an independent multimedia artist and creating work for the public to see and purchase through my website. Being a part of and supported by Yo Soy Collective also helped many opportunities for my work to be published with great spaces such as ‘New voices on Food’ edited by Lee Tran Lam, Kindling & Sage magazine, Australian Multilingual Project, design work for Yo Soy events and most recently wine label design for Alice L’Estrange .
Tell us about your current project.
Now, I’m finishing an art piece for my first public exhibition as a part of Yo Soy Collective at Blak Dot Gallery starting 27th October. ‘Ancestral Magik‘ is an exhibition showcasing contemporary narratives from the Latin American diaspora. Featuring artists based in Naarm who are connected to Latin American, it unpacks the cultural, social, political, and spiritual facets that encompass the Latin American identity.
I’m also working as a guest artist at Broadmeadows Special Developmental school with Learning Specialist and Visual Arts teacher, Edwina Mintern. Our 8-week project is aimed to engage and teach the students my art practice as a Textile Designer. Our theme is on Food Diversity, and we are working with shapes that we can find in food to then be able to screen print a design onto fabric. It has been so rewarding.
Who or what was inspires your practice?
There are many many things, places and people that inspire my practice, but my main inspiration is my family, the communities I have been grateful to be a part of and my lived experiences.
I’m in constant awe of my surroundings that revolve around architecture, nature, food, and colours – especially when I travel. I worked in the hospitality industry while studying, travelling, and working as an artist for roughly 15 years so there are a lot of food and drink inspired pieces in my practice too. I’m a big fan of markets, any street, food, and art markets but going to local art and design markets, discovering local artists and designers gets me excited.
Where do you feel most creative and why?
I feel most creative when I’m surrounded by other creatives. I feel fortunate to have been able to meet, collaborate and surround myself with creatives from different industries from all over the world. I feel it’s the conversations being made, heard, and shared that ignite my creativity and passion.
What do you hope audiences/viewers take from your work?
I try to be as mindful and transparent as possible whilst maintaining my practice and passion for the arts, design, sustainability, community, and social justice. My work explores and communicates this, so I hope it engages, questions, and ignites inspiration on these things and that it encourages to practice mindfulness in both the mental and physical aspects of our environment.
What future projects are you looking forward to?
My first exhibition.
Whose work are you digging at the moment?
I’m digging so many awesome creatives now, but I think Nadia Hernandez, I have always dug her work and how she beautifully expresses her identity, this being significant because I believe she was the first Australian based artist of Latin American heritage that I saw working on so many wonderful projects, collaborations, and exhibitions.
Xilotrópico, a graphic/woodcut print artist, I believe based between Chile and Colombia, their work is beautifully detailed and based on Latin American politics, social justice, community, and culture.
Where can we find and follow you online?
Instagram @natalieestayvalenzuela and currently revamping my website.