EXPLORE MY MULTIFACETED APPROACH……

THE ARTIST/PARADOX

Angela Kernick -

Multidisciplinary mixed media artist & surface designer based in Ballarat, Australia. 

A few quick facts before I get all deep and dramatic….

  • JUST CALL ME- Ang, as Angela is too formal & makes me feel like I am in trouble. 
  • MY VIBE- It’s detailed, complex, it’s a lot.(Read the ‘short but also rather long version’ below)
  • ANTAYJO ART- A made up name using my name & that of my fave two people in life -my kids. 
  • INSPO- Linda Jackson, Jenny Kee & Iris Apfel
  • DREAM- A collab with Romance was born
  • OBSESSED- Statement art, fashion decor & many other things
  • GETS A THRILL- from op shopping
  • LOVES- My kids and how they cheer me on when it comes to my art
  • STAR SIGN- Cancer
  • BELIEVES- Angel numbers, intuition, symbolism, affirmations & more
  • COLLECTS- Vases, Scarves, Art & Fashion books to name a few. 
  • TATTOOS- Seven (had to stop, too addictive)
  • FAVE COLOURS- Purples & Lilacs
  • QUALIFICATIONS - Bachelor of Arts but otherwise self taught as a creative. (I also hold a Diploma of Education Support & others specific to other industries.)


The short (but also rather long) version 

Here goes…..

I am one of those people you hear about that was obsessed with art as a kid but didn’t follow what came naturally, instinctively,obsessively until I had my own. I was telling my kids that they could be ‘Artists’ when they grew up but didn’t allow myself that choice.

Art for me then, and now (although not aware at the time) was a regulator of my emotions. I got lost in it, focusing for hours, able to block out everything that made it hard to concentrate. The more details I added to an artwork meant the more time I could escape from the circus that was/is my brain and drown out the sounds, overflow of thoughts and other aspects of life that made me uncomfortable. When I was hyper focused on being creative I felt/feel somewhat peaceful. 

In my younger years I used to wake up early to draw things I saw on tv, dreamt of having my art in a book & would draw directly onto my Levi 501’s.  

I loved fashion and popular culture and was obsessed with reading magazines, often having a meltdown if my mum couldn’t find me the latest issue at the shops. I had my own sense of what I liked but hated the idea of being perceived so the way I expressed myself with fashion ebbed and flowed over time. Regardless, I always loved a good slogan t-shirt to get my point across.

Despite having an intense creative calling I  let others opinions, society & my own perfectionism derail me into a path where I was labelled as efficient & an organiser. Although I am very detail oriented and analytical I don’t think the other labels I accumulated were a completely natural state for me but was a way to manage things, to have a sense of control when I couldn’t control the world around me. (Reflecting in more recent years:I was also trying to control myself.)

This began my constant search for meaning, improvement & clarity of who I really was which resulted in reading other people’s philosophies, admiring other cultures who seemed so sure of their identity & devouring self help literature. I was hyper curious about myself as I was with everything else, forever questioning how I could be this, but also that. I was calling myself a paradox and not knowing why, torn in so many directions. Wanting change but also wanting things to stay the same, to be seen but to also hide away. 

Through starting to be creative again in 2017 at the age of 40, (while on maternity leave with my daughter & on break from a career I didn’t return to) and thereafter pretty quickly I could see the themes that were emerging in my work. Starting artworks as faceless & or with masks, fans or interesting eyes covering faces counteracting other works with blatant statements. A push and pull between hiding & standing out. I have always been drawn to people who “owned” who they were and I was also creating art around this concept even when I was struggling with that myself. 

Things were happening in my personal life during these years and even though I returned to creativity things were unravelling, as everything I had coped with over the years started feeling more & more unmanageable. Dealing with my own health issues and wanting to ensure my own kids got support if they need it I decided to follow through with an assessment for Neurodiversity after considering it for so many years. 

This has led me to where i am now, with a formal diagnosis of Combined ADHD and Autism as of January 2026, which has been very validating. The most monumental thing I have taken from it all is that I am and always have been authentic at my core. It wasn’t just general anxiety, I was in a constant battle with myself & was masking my way through life situations to cope. 

I can’t say exactly how this will change me going forward but I do know these things:

I was always meant to be a creative & wont leave that side of me behind again. 

I am passionate about this as a career and am hyper focused on making my mark both in a “people know my name” sense as well as it being one that can translate to a stable, long term income. 

As it always has been, my work will be inspired by fashion and influenced by feelings, and that won’t change. 

It will navigate between a seriousness and a humorous take of subject mirroring my personality.

Through it I will explore themes of self expression, authenticity, identity, obsession, inspiration & reflection. 

My art is rooted in details regardless of the medium I choose to work in or the approach. The details are me. They have been ever present in my work as a child & now as an adult. A way to both calm myself and express who I am. I am protective of them as they represent that I am complex, I am more than one thing, a combination of lots of things.  

I don’t plan every colour, or the composition I just instinctively know what to do and let it flow. Art is my time to not overthink as generally and with everything else in life I have tended to. 

I hope by reading this you have gained some insight into who I am & how it informs my work. I have spent decades trying to make sense of myself & for me going forward it is about creating not curating; unmasking more, (with supports) which at this point can only be a good thing for my general life & creative path.

To close off this ‘about me’ I will leave you with this…..

I have always had the description of my work as- ‘Uniquely detailed art to quirk up your life’ and this must have been me giving myself permission to be the true me before I ever felt like I could. I hope my art  awakens that in you too! 

P.S- For anyone reading this that left art behind as a kid & has regrets please get back into it! You will learn so much more about yourself and who knows where it will take you! 

Ang 💜



NOTE-
I am in the process of writing a more formal Artist Statement & Bio (from a perspective other than mine) but I want to be authentic and share the real me through my own words here rather than write formally from a third party perspective.