ARTWORK LOCATION: IGNITE STUDIOS, 60 Crane Street, Ballina 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY: 

Gala Jane is a research based mixed-media artist who uses text to create a social commentary around women’s safety and mental health through the use of found objects, textiles and hand painted signs. Graduating from Southern Cross University with a Bachelor of Art and Design in 2020, she has gone on to exhibit in solo and group shows throughout Australia and her murals can be seen permanently around the Northern Rivers. Her studio and artworks were destroyed in the 2022 Lismore floods, which has directed her current practice to explore the ongoing trauma and healing after these devastating events.

SELECTED ARTWORKS: 

A Place to Create, A Place to Share, A Place that Matters (Flood Recovery Mural), 2023 – After reading through the feedback from the Ballina flood recovery workshops and speaking to members of the Northern Rivers community as well as drawing on my own experiences, there were three main factors that stood out and were being repeated as important during these times of recovery, Safe Space, Community and Sharing. I used this to inform my design and worked with Ballina Shire Council and the Northern Rivers Community Gallery to finalise a concept and design. A colour scheme was chosen to represent the place and people of Ballina:

• Orange monochrome - Representing the famous big prawn.
• Blue monochrome - Representing where the sea and sky meet.
• Orange and blue together - Representing where place, culture, arts and people meet.

With organic shapes, bold colours and three-dimensional text, the three murals that surround one of the sheds at the rear of Ignite Studios reads, Northern Rivers, Bundjalung Nation, a place to Create, a place to Share, a place that Matters.