Alice Alva: Multi-discipinary visual artist
Alice Alva is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Kirikiriroa – Hamilton, New Zealand. Her work is informed by an interest in patterns, ornamentation, architecture and craft-based processes.
In addition to her art and design work, Alice is also an art educator and a māmā to her daughter Daphne. She is an advocate for the visual arts in Aotearoa, New Zealand and is on the executive committee of ANZAAE – Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Art Educators.
This episode is our very first episode with our new podcast name CREATIVE CONNECTIONS. Same podcast different name and branding.
I so enjoyed meeting Alice and we had the best chat. We talk about materiality, what mediums in art might be taken more seriously than others, the challenges of attitudes to embroidery or textiles in the art world, the different ways textiles can be viewed and what Alice loves about craft based art.
Alice shares how she combined painting and design after studying both visual arts and design earlier in her career, and why she moved from computer based design to teaching high school art. We explore how she came to embroidery, how her embroidery practice has developed over the years, becoming an integral part of her creative practice. Alice talks about her sketchbook / workbook practice, her interest in ornamentation and how she has brought all the disciplines, styles and themes of her practice together. We discuss how the shift in scale working on murals excites (and exhausts!) her and provides balance to her practice.
We delve into how Alice's priorities and approaches have shifted since becoming a mother and the ways she shares her making process with her daughter Daphne, why and in what ways nature inspires her, how using text and the titles of her work helps her to communicate things that are important to her. And so much more! So let's just get into it! You're going to get so much from this conversation.
You can see Alice's beautiful work at her 2 galleries, The Mandarin Tree Gallery in Hamilton and Masterworks in Auckland.
What a fantastic insight into Alice Alva's practice, especially her love for patterns and craft-based processes. It's clear how much thought goes into her work, and it makes sense that she finds balance in her life too. Sometimes, for my own mental balance and to engage with patterns in a different way, I like to play a quick round of MeowdoKu Game Online.
Alice's interest in patterns and ornamentation, and her sketchbook practice, really caught my attention. It’s cool to see how she brings all these elements together. For brainstorming initial visual concepts or experimenting with new patterns, I sometimes dabble with a Zeva AI Image Generator to spark new ideas.
It's really interesting how Alice's shift to working on murals excites and exhausts her, balancing her practice. That kind of physical engagement with art is inspiring! I've found a knee brace support can be a practical addition for anyone involved in physically demanding creative work.
Alice's work sounds absolutely stunning, and I can just imagine the detail in her craft-based art and murals from the description. For artists sharing their visual work online or with galleries, getting image formats right is crucial. I've had to convert some tricky files before, and something like Heic to MP4 can be super helpful for ensuring compatibility across different platforms.
I loved hearing about Alice's journey, especially how she combined painting and design and developed her embroidery practice. It really highlights the power of bringing different disciplines and mediums together. It reminds me of how useful a tool like a Markdown Converter For Free can be when you're trying to integrate different document formats for a project.