Aoraki art student aims to WOW Wellington’s judges

Aoraki art student aims to WOW Wellington’s judges

It might have had something to do with having to ride a bike to school that was assembled from a conglomeration of five, or the fact that she was fired from a waitressing job after just a day and a half for spending too much time making tables attractive, but destiny and upbringing has definitely steered the artistic brilliance of Christeena Macdonald-Paea.

The Aoraki Polytechnic art student and now sometimes tutor lives and breathes art in all its forms, a trait she attributes to her recently departed dad Dennis whose life philosophy, born of an upbringing of financial hardship, was “why buy something if you can make it”.

But there’s another reason Christeena, a Timaru mother of five, likes to “make stuff” – because she can, she has the will, she has the bits and bobs and she has a high profile outlet for her artistic gymnastics this year – the wide, wacky, and wonderful World of Wearable Art Awards in Wellington later this year.

With the full support of Aoraki Polytechnic’s art faculty and with input from the institution’s fashion experts, Christeena will be submitting a first-time entry into the country’s glitziest and most creative fashion show, held annually in September in Wellington to an audience of more than 35,000. At stake is a share of more than $100,000 in prizemoney.

First shown in 1987 the World of Wearable Art Awards originally began as promotion for a rural art gallery in Nelson, and it’s this artistic expression that attracts Christeena.

“I just love the idea of creating something beautiful from something plain and boring. Even though I don’t collect bottle tops, I am a bit of a hoarder so there’s plenty of raw material available,” she said.

Wearable art first met Christeena in a 2005 Wastebusters Ashburton competition. Her lack of a prize in that event was more than compensated for two years later when she won the Hokonui Fashion Awards supreme award with an entry made from Glomesh wallets.

“It was so fun being able to create an outfit from these wallets, which were a fashion statement from the 1980s.”

But the World of Wearable Art Awards is no shoe-in. Entry is a two-pronged process. First, Christeena must create her entry, then photograph it on a model and submit the image to an entry panel. If they like it, she’s in; if they don’t, countless hours of tedious creativity have been wasted.

Her Dad Dennis would have been philosophic about her bid for WOW fame, she said.

“He was the inspiration for my art. A man ahead of his time.

“He once predicted that jeans would be manufactured to look as if they had been well-worn. That was years before stone-washed jeans became fashionable.

“But he was also a practical man who believed in creating things for a practical purpose,” Christeena said.

“He was always fixing things. He once made me a bike that was an assembly of five other bikes.

“It was embarrassing. He made huge, wide mud flaps to stop water from spraying up. They flapped quite a bit causing the mudguards to rattle. The light on the front jangled and the saddlebags flapped against the spokes. You could hear me before you could see me coming down the road.

“I rode it once to please him.

“Now, looking back, if I could have made something like that I would have been delighted.”

Christeena’s art covers a wide spectrum, although lately focussing more on the 3-D medium. She has found success as a commission painter using oils and acrylics and has just been invited to submit paintings for the walls of judges’ chambers in Timaru’s new courthouse.

Although secrecy surrounds her entry into World of Wearable Art Awards, she has hinted at a musical theme with her outfit, to be modelled by Camilla Trainor of Timaru, featuring objects made from vinyl records.

Her entry must be completed by June 16 – “and I’ll be stitching right up to the last minute”.

ENDS

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