Elise Hawthorne
Esteemed Australian artist Wendy Sharpe was recently commissioned to paint a Women’s Empowerment mural as part of Sydney’s Inner West Council’s Perfect Match program. This magnificent mural now resides on the corner of Church Street and Federation Road, Newtown. Wendy took ten days to complete her remarkable artistic endeavour. As a local resident, she loves that a significant piece of her vast art collection is situated adjacent to a public space so close to where she lives.
The mural features Aunty Jenny Thomsen, Aboriginal elder and activist as well as an array of other stunning images including a thought-provoking quote by Audre Lorde, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
Wendy’s mural portrays women of all ages and ethnicities. She hopes that “women will see themselves in the images, triggering memories from their own lives, their own stories.”
The lucky wall to get a Wendy Sharpe make-over is owned by Ewan Samway and Matt Vagulans and their young sons. Ewan and Matt, two gay fathers, love the theme, Women’s Empowerment, as they raise their sons to respect women and all that they have achieved.
An elderly lady who happened to walk past midway through the painting process commented on how much she loved the image of a girl holding torches (on the front of the house). And that she felt safer walking at night just seeing another lighting the way – even if it was only an image on a wall. The image of female trapeze artists symbolise how women invariably help, support and at times catch (if you will) other women along their journey.
Wendy’s mural is the 100th in Inner West Council’s Perfect Match public art program, which is generously supported by Porters Paints. The Perfect Match approach brings artists, residents, businesses, property owners and community together to create fantastic new street artworks in public places collaboratively.
Bursting on to the Australian art scene in the mid-1980s, award-winning artist Wendy Sharpe has gone on to stamp her mark in the art world as an artist of high regard, her work held to critical acclaim. An artist who loves the female form, I can think of no one better to paint a Women’s Empowerment mural on the streets of Sydney than Wendy Sharpe.
Wendy’s awards, major commissions, prizes, residencies, and exhibitions are nearly too numerous to list. Her paintings housed in the collections of prestigious galleries; her works are highly collectable. It is important to note that she has won the prestigious Sir John Sulman Prize, the much-coveted Archibald Prize and the Portia Geach Memorial Award. Wendy confesses to being a restless spirit, who loves to travel, often and to exotic places for artistic inspiration. With her partner artist Bernard Ollis, they live and work in Sydney and Paris. They have an apartment in Montmartre, where they live for part of each year. Wendy fell in love with Paris and all that it has to offer an artistic spirit such as hers after receiving the Dyason and Marten Bequest travelling scholarship and residency at the Cite Internationalé des Arts studio complex in Paris in the mid-1980s.
For more information visit: www.wendysharpe.com and www.innerwest.nsw.gov.au/live/living-arts/arts-and-cultural-programs/perfect-match
Top photo: MoMo, artist assistant, artist Wendy Sharpe and homeowners Ewan and Matt
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