The 2020 Strive To Be Kind campaign focuses on the concept of kindness, highlighting that if each and every person was simply kind in their daily lives, problems such as domestic and family violence would not exist.
This year the Foundation is selling limited edition merchandise
designed by Hillary Wall.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Hillary Wall
Hillary Wall is a self taught artist and the founder of Cork & Chroma painting studios in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. Offering paint and sip sessions for all ages and experiences both in studio and online, Cork & Chroma is known for its fun and friendly approach to making art.
The benefits of creative activity are clear; it’s fun and it’s good for us! Whether mastering a skill, looking after mental health, or just picking up a brush for a pastime, painting can contribute to our essential wellbeing.
The art we make doesn’t need to be profound for it to have a profound impact on the way we feel. Creative expression has always been important to me but especially in the last few months, painting has helped me through my tougher days. It’s fun, and it’s freeing.”
Hillary mostly paints digitally and in acrylic on canvas. She’s recently taken to mixed media, combining her own photography, and digital painting to make mood-altering imagery rich in imagination and color.
Creative expression is a big part of my self care, particularly since life has changed so much from coronavirus. Most days, I am trying to paint what I need to see, sing what I need to hear. I know a piece is finished when it makes me feel a certain way. It makes me feel a kind of happiness that I would like to share.”
Hillary on the design process:
I hope this image makes people feel free and light, hopeful, joyful. To me, sunflowers, rainbows, and clouds all have something in common and it’s something I appreciate about them. That is, their loveliness is impermanent and if we are going to enjoy them, we need to be in the now.
Reflecting on The Allison Baden-Clay Foundation’s message of “strive to be kind” and “strive to be equal”, it makes me think about the simple fact that we can’t have rainbows without rain. In order to create meaningful change, we need to understand where we are as we wish for and strive toward a better future.
The resting raindrops and the composition of three sunflowers growing from the clouds actually came to me in a dream after I had started on something a little different. I re-conceptualised the piece into what it is now, and about when I was about halfway through I realised Allison has three daughters. I found that to be a really magical, serendipitous moment in the creative process behind this piece.
