Creative People

We love a good ‘glow up’ story from a team of legends – and there’s no one more legendary than the crew at Free To Feed!

Founded by husband and wife duo Loretta and Daniel Bolotin in 2015, the not-for-profit social enterprise exists to provide training and meaningful employment for people seeking asylum and refugees through the creation of shared food experiences. More broadly though, they’ve created an incredible community of hosts, trainees, volunteers and participants through their cooking school, training programs and catering ventures.

Now this community has a new place to call home – a grand new events space designed by Circle Studio Architects in Fitzroy North, Victoria,  where they can showcase the very best of what they have to offer!

Stylist Shonel Bryant is a force to be reckoned with. Ten years after losing her own dear mum to stomach cancer, she was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer, when her beautiful kids, Smith and Vogue, were just six and four years old. Despite all the fear and uncertainty this brought, Shonel is determined to be the success story . She shares her honest experiences through her platform Support Your Girls in the hopes of inspiring others and raising awareness about the importance of early detection.

From Shonel’s truly beautiful family home in Yandoit, Victoria, where she lives with her partner Luke and the kids, we had a candid conversation about her journey so far.

There’s no doubt about it: when it comes to protecting our planet, most of us are eager to do the right thing. But it can be hard to discern which products are actually sustainable and ethical, and those that are simply ‘green washing’.

In the home care department, Sydney-based brand Koala Eco are determined to be the positive choice for their customers. Using natural, non-toxic ingredients derived from Australian plants with natural antiseptic qualities, Koala Eco’s products are both effective and gentle, and as a massive bonus, they smell amazing!

Founders Jessica Bragdon and Paul Davidson believe passionately in their mission of helping to contribute to healthier homes, and a healthier planet. Here, they take us behind the scenes of Koala Eco to explain exactly how they’re doing it.

‘I consider myself a late career artist,’ says Carol Crawford. This mature blooming hasn’t…

For everyone out there that has ever underestimated the smarts and hustle it takes to make great internet content, we give you Sophia Athas. The UTS graduate spent her Law and Communications lectures editing videos on her laptop for her personal blog, Hatrik, before expanding it to a fully fledged business in her third year of uni. From there, she did years of unpaid work – building up a following and putting the money she made back into the business, before finally launching Hatrik House: a fully fledged creative agency.

At just 28 years of age, she’s been running the successful business for years – now employing seven full-timers to do all kinds of creative work for brands like Gucci, Chanel and Frank Body.

The self-taught entrepreneur, tastemaker and ultimate creative slashie talks about what it takes to push your side hustle into an über cool millennial marketing business, how to be a good boss, and how she keeps her finger on the pulse.

To make your way across to spectacular Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island, Queensland), you have to take a short ferry ride. A brief stroll away from the arrival port in Dunwich, you’ll find Delvene Cockatoo Collins’ bright, beautiful shop.

Delvene Cockatoo Collins is a Quandamooka woman and artist living in Minjerribah. From her little store she sells a range of screen printed homewares, ceramics, stationary, and garments that tell the stories of her family and culture. In her personal art practice, she uses materials and knowledge passed down over generations.

In a holiday place where many people come and go, Delvene’s art practice and store are a grounding presence. We were lucky to spend some time in her special place, to learn more about her work.

Lauren Lea Haynes is not your average student. With limestone sculpting, furniture design and…

In last year’s Archibald Prize, one painting dominated the media coverage. A woman draped in purple and positioned slightly off centre peers across the canvas, poised and almost regal with a twist of fuchsia feathers curling through her piled hair like flames. 

This ethereal, nearly mystical study of singer, songwriter and proud Papua New Guinean woman, Ngaiire, didn’t win the prestigious portrait prize, but the image of her still and pensive face endured. Funnily enough, Ngaiire didn’t win the season of Australian Idol she appeared on as a promising 20-year-old either. But that is neither here nor there. The experience stirred the foundations of a deep, artistic being that would evolve and grow over the next decade and a half. 

Now, Ngaiire’s dazzling character and future soul sound has emerged as a unique force on the Australian music scene; just as strong, fluid and self-assured as she appears in that 2020 portrait.

We dropped in on Ngaiire and her son Nadav (‘Dovey’), 3, at their house on Darkinjung Country to talk about the confluence of art and motherhood. Oh, and those seriously epic matching outfits!

Have you ever noticed that no matter how many fancy tea towels or bougie plates you acquire, the ones your kid (or you!) made at kindy, with their funny little drawings always manage to stick around? Bindi Howarth did – and she built a business around it! Crumb Kids is a Melbourne-based brand that turns kids’ artworks into practical pieces like tea towels, tote bags, pencil cases and cushion covers. And they’re so CUTE!

15 runners up in the TDF Kids Art Awards will have their works turned into pencil cases thanks to Bindi and Crumbs Kids!

Did you know that seaweed has truly extraordinary carbon sequestering qualities – absorbing around five times more carbon than most land-based plants? But that’s not where its superpowers end. Seaweed also presents incredible opportunities as a biofuel and renewable bioplastic, and it’s these qualities which have spurred Melbourne based artist and experimental designer Jessie French on a passionate quest to investigate seaweed, and its potential to contribute to a ‘post-petrochemical’ world.

After studying the diverse material properties of seaweed for around five years, in 2019, Jessie befriended the founder of Seaweed Appreciation Society International (SASi), comically named Lichen Kelp (!), and together the pair applied for an artist residency in Morocco, which produces most of the world’s agar from red algae. They won it, and in 2020, the pair set out to North Africa, to experiment with seaweed-based recipes for bioplastics.

The resin-like pieces Jessie now makes under her practice, Other Matter, are the result of these years of research. We recently visited Jessie in the fantastic new studio space in Melbourne’s CBD she shares with ceramicists Fluff Corp. and asked her a million and one questions about her fascinating explorations!