Starting Career in Design

A Peek into an Artists Reflections  

Shyanne Clarke is an artist and designer with a great passion for art. Shyanne began her educational journey when she applied to TAFE to study design —initially she joined TAFE to gain further knowledge and skills to help her run her Textile Design business at the time.  During her studies she gained relevant skills, knowledge and experience which gave her the knowledge to improve her textile business, eventually create a studio, and aid in her marketing of her business. This was the ideal starting point for Shyanne’s career and education, something she points out as very important, merely a starting point, and not the end.  

Shyanne’s journey has led her to futures and opportunities she never imagined when she first began. She now teaches at Art School Co, one of Australia’s largest private art schools, with a curriculum focused on feeding creativity and teaching students the techniques and skills they require to make their creative dreams a reality. The school teaches the fine art fundamentals and advances the students’ knowledge and careers, the work Shyanne does in this school is inspirational. Her work has not only impacted the lives of students but has furthered her knowledge in the field — new concepts, skills, and practices.    

Recently, she has delivered a summit at TAFE QLD to graduating students, encouraging them, and giving them advice/tips for their futures.  

During the summit, she details her experience as not necessarily starting her studies for the things she has achieved but went into the studies for one purpose— to aid her in her textile business she recalls. From this experience she has expanded her skills and gained even more opportunities than before.   

Continue your journey, don’t see your degree as an end, but a reason to keep learning she encourages students. Continue to learn and grasp every opportunity that presents itself, let your curiosity prosper and make connections with as many people as possible — you never know where this can lead you.    

In 2022, Shyanne was admitted to ‘The Refinery Program’ an amazing opportunity that requires lots of perseverance and hard work to enter. to the program is hyper-focused on the personal growth and leadership of its participants and offers a showcase displaying their works, opening doors and opportunities.  With the help of this program Shyanne furthered her knowledge, experience, and skills with the intention of opening her own gallery, a goal she recently achieved with hard work and effort.  

She quotes her experience in the refinery as being “Amazing, helpful, and a lovely community of people,” with people who helped guide her, and a loving community behind it. She encourages students to apply for the program and advises those who don’t make it in the first time to continue applying with perseverance. She vividly recalls the experience as being an amazing opportunity that will stay with her for many years.   

The ocean serves as the topic of Shyanne's most recent collection of work ‘Linger’, a showcase available at CA Picture Framing Gallery in Coolum Developed during a 12-month stay at Sub Tropic studio, -a Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance initiative and Sunshine Coast Council-sponsored creative hub, housed underneath a bus station. It is a beautiful collection of seascapes inspired works.     

 The series has been founded on technical studies, documented with charcoal drawings and technicalities, and has attempted to capture the art of movement within the seascapes and nature. . It was during these studies that within these works, color, acrylics, and more were incorporated specifically for the artwork to create an avant-garde level art.   

Shyanne uses various artistic elements such as negative space to design ‘impactful depth and contrast at horizon lines’. In the creative works displayed in this article, Wonder Emporium and Silent, she creates an abstract feel and trace in her design forms, seeking to capture the art of movement of nature, and “the tide of power and the power of breaking water.”    

The use of pastels in her artworks display the impacts of climate change on nature and our seascapes. Her work offers a unique and modern addition to the seascape and nature category: instead of denying the changes in climate by hiding them within the designs, Shyanne’s art displays them plainly. The rising sea temperatures changes within our atmospheres, and more, are displayed in her art, creating an impacting pop to her designs that elicit deep meaning and feeling from her audience — they are not only beautiful but meaningful and raw.    

"What color would these impacts be? What shape?" (Clarke 2023) Throughout the series of tremendous canvases, Shyanne utilizes these surrealist pastel bands. They can be seen here, flowing, and spectacularly seeping into the brilliant troposphere.   

Writes Odette Van Wyk. 
Photos: Courtesy of the artist.