BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARD

AN INTERVIEW WITH ARTIST KIM NELSON

By Michelle Matic

Kim Nelson is a contemporary artist living and working in the foothills of the Australian alpine region not far from the nation's capital, Canberra. While most art administration students dream of becoming a well known curator or director, Kim Nelson left that life to become an artist. For ten years he held a position as a manager and curator for the National Trust, he also filled in as a senior curator with the ACT Museums and Galleries in 1994. However, in 1996 Kim Nelson left this successful career to become a fulltime artist.

"I didn't plan on being a curator. In Sydney I worked in Graphic Design/Advertising by day and played at nights in contemporary music. I had my own band and wrote the songs but bands are made up of the delicate balance of egomaniacs and inevitably someone will leave just when you're prepared to hit the 'big time'. We played up to three times a week, sometimes twice in a night, and practiced twice a week. When it all fell apart in 1984 I decided to get out of Sydney for a short break. I took a Graphic Design job in Canberra and ended up living at the National Trust property Cooma Cottage for 4 years before it opened. I didn't get back to Sydney!"

In 1988 the National Trust property Cooma Cottage was opened to the public and Nelson was asked to stay on. He accepted the position, thinking it would be a good chance to get out of advertising and start his personal interest in painting whilst caretaking the property. However, in 1989, with the pending closure of some National Trust properties due to Bicentennial overexpenditure, Nelson submitted a proposal to head office suggesting that if he could make the property successful, it could keep open and trading. Through a range of events and exhibitions he managed to make more than enough to keep the property viable and the National Trust elevated him to the title of a Manager/Curator. Nelson says his career as an artist went out the window through his obsession of making the property work. In late 1994 he was offered a temporary position with the ACT Museums and Galleries to fill in as a senior curator for twelve months, due to his success with the National Trust. "So you see, I became a curator by accident."

"I stumbled into curatorial work... it allowed a greater freedom in my creativity and opened me up to worlds I scarcely considered in Sydney. In Sydney my world was insular, tied up in advertising in the day and being a 'Rock Star' at night. I had no concept of other peoples' lives and what was important to them." Nelson did eventually manage to create artworks whilst working as a manager and curator at Cooma Cottage, but found it was quite difficult. To him, painting and curatorial work were literally two careers and he felt he was unable to give his art career the necessary attention. Even so, between 1990 and 1994 Nelson had four exhibitions which he believes that although successful, lacked focus and aims. "I was just desperately getting work together when I could and showing it with whoever would take me. You must also take into account that the art I wished to pursue fell between the cracks -there weren't the galleries out there prepared to show my work." Even when major galleries wanted to show Kim's work- none could really see a ready market for the full spectrum of his artworks and ideas.

Although other curatorial positions were being offered, there was a turning point in Nelson's life that forced his decision to pursue art fulltime, "My father, one day years ago, had absently said that he didn't believe that I really wanted to be an artist. Though I have a great relationship with my dad, that got my ire up." Nelson even remembers the father of a long time friend who used to talk to him about how he painted in his youth. "He was a good artist, but the constraints of having five children had forced him to be practical. He said ..."one day I'll get back to it"... because he loved it. He never did. Then in November 1995 a friend I admired died tragically in an accident in Antarctica - he fell from a mountain side that he use to climb every evening to watch the sunset. I loved his passion, he had achieved so much and though he had much still to give I believe his was a life well lived. His death affected me and it intoned the old saying that life is short and if there is something you want to do you should get on and do it."

Throughout 1996 to 1999 Kim Nelson represented and marketed himself utilising the skills he acquired in graphic design, advertising and curating. This empowered him with the confidence to run his own art exhibitions. "I have a sense for marketing and I understand the media. Though it was difficult, money and timewise, I felt it necessary in obtaining an advantage position; that is, I wanted to be able to approach a dealer of my choice with credentials - a career in progress so to speak."

It was during the lead up to Nelson's first Sydney exhibition, representing himself, that he realised he was potentially heading for a loss, however, he resiliantly utilised his contacts,and the exhibition forged ahead. The show was organised with the help of his brother Tony and some close friends. "Friends of mine are property developers. They made available a site they were developing in Camperdown. The site...was good, a wonderful space with huge semi circular windows. It had been a show room. They put in a basic hanging system and some lighting, though the windows produced a wonderful natural light. We got some other sponsorship in the form of printing and radio advertising. The radio company owned two separate stations so we had advertising with two different audience demographics." They needed some form of publicity for the exhibition, Nelson's brother Tony (a radio producer) had produced some radio advertising for the flamboyant stockbroker Rene Rivkin, so they asked him to open the exhibition. Providing that he liked the work, Rivkin agreed to open it. He did and he bought three works. Nelson had 250 people at the opening and it was stippled with personalities, some offering promises of future exhibitions. "For a week or two every body around knew who I was - I even got stopped once in the main part of Canberra for an autograph!" Nelson says "Your main hit is the opening night and in this case it worked." Nelson has basically used similar principles for his other exhibitions in Canberra and Yass with the added advantage of knowing the dynamics of the region, as well as basics such as learning how to present a media release that keeps their attention. "These are things I would have learnt through my promotional work in museum/galleries and tourism. And you tend to build up contacts."

Currently with representation from the Trevor Victor Harvey Gallery in Sydney, Nelson most recently seems to have been gravitating to the theme of the life cycle in his artworks, it was in fact a theme of his last show in Sydney. Nelson believes that it feels like the last four years have been a learning process with a backlog of twenty years of paintings, that have remained undone and are now being vented. "I feel like I've been sending myself to art school trying out all these things in my little studio. I think it is panning out now a bit". Nelson's most recent exhibition in Yass, April 2001 'Works on Paper', was like a foray into one subject area, not so diverse.

In terms of inspiration, Nelson believes that "sometimes, perhaps 50% of the time, ideas will just come to me but inevitably these must be fuelled by a whole range of experiences and influences. At other times I may just be flicking through a magazine and see a face or a sky that will initiate some form of creation. Occasionally the good old-fashioned inspiration will come through a dream or enter my head whilst mowing the lawn or travelling and these are the times when you really feel you are just a channel for something beyond yourself." Nelson has always been attracted to mythology and it's parallels to the human condition, he is also inspired by the many elements of different art fields, yet he finds a connection to symbolists, and artists who can call upon mythology in their work.

At present, Nelson paints predominately in oil purely out of necessity. " I cannot afford a range of materials and I don't have a lot of time up my sleeve but ultimately I would like to work in a range of mediums. I have just completed a course in traditional Lithography (working on a lithostone). I can sculpt in stone and wood and model in clay. I have worked in watercolour & gouache. I started out totally in acrylic and I have learnt the tradition of egg tempera. In graphic design I used an airbrush daily but have not picked this instrument up for fifteen years. In graphic work I have also used most things and more often than not I will use a brush & ink in the tradition of the illustrators."

"Even in advertising and curating I was still being creative. When it becomes repetitive and mundane, those are warning signals - not to quit but to re-examine what you're doing and why you're doing it." When considering success, Nelson says "I think I had some measure of success as a curator because I didn't yearn to be one! I loved the National Trust property I'd come to call home and I wanted to see it succeed. With Cooma Cottage, I had a mission." Nelson also feels that another by-product of being a curator is that now he has an empathy for galleries. Partly due to the way he raised money to run the property. Nelson curated 'money making' exhibitions, including an Arthur Boyd show. "I had to make it work, which placed me in the precisely the same situation as every commercial gallery in Australia."

He also feels that for someone who is so aware of the principles of marketing he is his own worst nightmare. "Though an image/style may be developing in my art, it is uncontrived." states Nelson. "I am constantly treading that fine line of what makes good sense marketing wise and being true to myself. I do believe though, that if you have faith in what you do, you will ultimately succeed and marketing is just a by-product. Success in this case is making a living doing something you love. It doesn't mean it's all smooth sailing but if you're being true to yourself, that is some measure of success."

Kim Nelson quoted from an interview with Michelle Matic, April & May 2001
Artwrite Authorisation: Associate Professor Joanna Mendelssohn
© University of New South Wales • College of Fine Arts