Dina Broadhurst is a well known Australian digital and collage artist based in Sydney. Her pieces are undeniably unique, bringing together an array of women, flowers and glitter and turning them into carefully staged compositions that pop and ooze cool.
Dina chats with us about who and what is involved in her creative process, her dreams for her work, and accepting strengths and weaknesses as a part of who we are and what makes us special.
Q1: Hi Dina, welcome to the Woman Of Series! Can you tell us what it is you create?
I am a digital and collage artist using photography and popular culture/fashion images as my starting point and repurposing and reimagining their message.
Q2: When did you start photography? What inspired you to go down this path?
I started photography and collaging when I was very young, initially envisioning after school I would end up in the world of advertising, studying Visual Communications at UTS with a major in film photography including dark room development. At this time I also learnt all the digital layout and editing programs such as Photoshop, which opened my eyes to a whole new digital world that was just beginning. I took a detour into the world of interior design, fuelling my obsession with contemporary art and design, researching all the auction houses and artists that I so admire such as Jeff Koons and Andy Warhol, all the while making art for myself, drawing, painting and collaging in my down time. It’s when I finally enrolled in a Fine Arts degree at UTS that I decided this was what I needed to do no matter what.
Q3: Talk us through your creative process. How do you reach your signature style?
My creative process involves memory, triggers, hunting and gathering pieces, cuttings, objects, colours and putting them all together to create a new visual meaning or statement. I think my signature style just developed over the years from cutting pasting layering and putting odd things together than create tension or imbalance or interest.
Q4: What is your favourite piece you’ve created? Why?
My favourite piece would have to be Plastic Fantastic as I love the colour combination of pink and green on an aesthetic level and Acne is a favourite brand of mine, but also the underlying messages in the work about consumption, desire, luxury, nature, what we value, what we take for granted, the throw away nature of society, the importance of sustainability, recycling.
Q5: What single tool or strategy have you found invaluable to your business so far?
My Canon 5D Mark IV and Adobe Photoshop
Q6: What (and who) is involved in the process of bringing your products to life? My incredible printer Fine Art Printing By Tom not only prints all my work but also does all my colour correcting and is such a mentor to my work and my vision. He knows what I want and he helps me achieve it every time without fail.
Q7: What is your big hope and dream for your work?
To make larger more 3 dimensional works
Q8: What are your top 3 superpowers?
Multi tasking x 1000, to be able to laugh at myself and to feel deeply passionate about things that I believe and do.
Q9: We’re all about women inspiring women. Who inspires you? I’m inspired by all women, I have so many great and very different females in my life, that like myself all have strengths and weaknesses, light and shade, but being able to see both sides and feel comfortable and connected to both is what makes someone real and special.
Q10: What advice would you impart on the next generation of women, and women in business?
Passion, determination, stand up for your beliefs, be comfortable with who you are, and don’t feel bad about the journey of discovering who you are and how long it takes. Just keep doing you.
We’d love to ask....In what ways are you supporting your favourite creators during these uncertain times?
Buying art from other artists will always be a huge passion of mine and continue always.
