Emma Mudgway

BFA

I was never a particularly arty child.

I stumbled upon art at high school, almost by accident, because it seemed like more fun than maths. I always enjoyed the processes of making art, but it wasn’t until one of my art teachers took us to a show at the Auckland Art Gallery which teetered on the edge of suitability for high school students, that I really started to understand the potential for art to address all aspects of life.  It could be about aesthetics, but it could also be about absolutely anything else you wanted it to be. It could be about the gritty stuff in life, the things that make you uncomfortable and challenge you. The show was called Public/Private and it blew my 16 year old mind. It was the start of the adventure and I’ve never turned back.

I graduated from The Otago Polytechnic School of Fine Arts in 2009 with a painting major. I enjoyed the benefits of studying at an Art School offering a variety of courses and subjects in which to explore creativity, much like the programmes offered here at TLC. 

I am interested in, and have explored through my own practice, a wide array of disciplines within the field of visual arts - painting, photography, illustration, ceramics, sculpture, installation, printmaking and drawing. At present my own practice focuses on drawing and painting, a discipline that I find endlessly challenging and all the more rewarding because of it.