Valley of the Nightflowers: Fieldey

Last week I introduced you to one half of the curators for the Valley of the Nightflowers exhibition, so now I present to thee the other gorgeous half – Fieldey aka Haylee Fields, who I had the pleasure of meeting at the opening last weekend…

So I’ve read that you said you have an un-natural passion for giving inanimate objects strange human attributes – talk me through this what are some of these past creations?

I’ve just always been one of those weirdos who give things like their car and surfboard names… and from there they develop a personality all of their own and I take it very personally when the time finally comes for said car or board to go to the great junkyard in the sky… it’s like losing a friend (sort of). Following on from there it was only natural when I started painting surfboards to give them names and characters to match. An example of that is the very first board I ever painted – my 6’6″ Superfish which I painted with a “reverse mermaid” (Ie. The body of a woman and the head of a fish) and called “The Fish Wife”.

I saw you did tutorials sponsored by Molotow, how did this opportunity arise and why do you enjoy about being able to broadcast these vids?
I’d been using their products for about a year as they are awesome for surfboards, and I was asked to paint a surfboard for a Sea Shepherd fundraiser. My brother filmed the process for my YouTube channel Fieldey TV, and we snuck in a little bit of product placement and sent it to them. They loved it and asked me if I could make more tutorials for them! I’ve loved working with them to produce these tutorials as I’ve discovered a lot of little tricks and new products of theirs though the process and the tutorials themselves have had a great reception!

I’m pretty jealous that you were born in NZ, its such a beautiful place – how long were you there and how did you end up on the other side of the world in London? and now Perth? Why Perth? Haha.
Well my whole family are Kiwis and when I was 8 my parents saw an ad in the paper for a 3 year position as a bakery manager on a tiny and remote island called Norfolk Island. They were like “why the hell not?” got the job, moved us over there and then lived there for 20 odd years. One of the things about growing up on 5km x 8km rock in the middle of the ocean means you have to leave once you finish school if you want to do stuff with your life that doesn’t involve tourism. I studied Graphic Design in Sydney and did a year and a half stint in London working as a designer there… after a while the grim weather really got to me so I headed back to the island intending to work for a year there and save money to travel the world. I got back and met a boy… who was from Perth… and the rest is history 😉 He was actually writing a PhD in Anthropology about the culture of Norfolk Island, so I came back to Perth while he finished writing the PhD. It’s been 10 years since I left London and we (me and that boy) are now in the process of saving money to travel the world in 2017… better late than never 😉

Finally, how has working on the Valley of the Nightflower’s exhibition been? What were some stand out moments for you? What can we expect?
Well this is the first exhibition I’ve ever organised, so thank god Natasha is my co-curator as I had completely underestimated how long it takes to organise a show AND paint for one… it’s been awesome having her knowledge and expertise and over that time we’ve become buddies which is super cool! You can expect a beautiful art experience at the exhibition – the theme is really fun and I love all the different interpretations of it!

Featuring a local, all female artist line up including Anya Brock, Calliope Bridge, Hayley Welsh, Jodee Knowles, Kim Kim Kim, Monday, Sarah McCloskey, Sheryl Young and Sofia Varano – Valley of the Nightflowers is an art exhibition that gloriously and unashamedly celebrates these wild women and intriguing night flowers.

It runs at Linton & Kay on St Georges Terrace until the 22nd, be sure to witness this.