As an artist, Emilly Milosevska knows a bit about light and shade.
The 20-year-old Hillside resident has turned a dark period in her life into a positive by using it to inspire her first solo exhibition.
Cauchemar – French for ‘nightmare’ – is a series of cut-out images featuring creepy crawlies, UFOs and other paraphernalia.
“During the middle of last year, I had some mental problems and I got a really big phobia of aliens, so I started to make these cut-outs and it was a bit like therapy,” Miss Milosevska said. “I don’t experience these things any more. I kind of overcame it by doing these artworks.”
She said she was initially nervous about curating her first solo exhibition but now has her eyes on the bigger space at the Deer Park Hunt Club Community Arts Centre for her new showing.
“I want to grab the bigger space; that’s if they’ll let me,” she laughed.
“I’m currently doing Macedonian tapestry and applying that to a carnival in Macedonia – it’s called Vevcani, and it’s a pagan festival.
“My whole practice is basically trying to find who I am, because I’m divided between Australian and Macedonian cultures.”
Miss Milosevska, who is studying for a bachelor of design arts at the Academy of Design, hopes eventually to work for a graphic design firm while running an artistic practice on the side.
Cauchemar will be at the Hunt Club Community Arts Centre, 775 Ballarat Road, Deer Park, until June 7.
