Image credit: Portia Sarris, shot on film.
MLAK (Karlee Mackie) is a professional free surfer turned artist based in Byron Bay, NSW. She approaches painting organically, adapting and evolving to create work that plays with motif in space. Dynamic, youthful and fun, MLAK translates across scale, articulating in an original voice.
MLAK has exhibited internationally with major sellout shows in LA and has a growing base of collectors in Australia. In addition to her art practice, MLAK has worked with a number of surf brands, designing labels for Aerial 7, Gallaz and Rusty along with creating illustrations for children’s books.
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Why and when did you start your creative journey?
I see the creative journey of oneself at large, as absolutely everything and infinite.
The moment of being pulled from my mother’s vagina with forceps, upon reflection to this question, I see that life was spinning in the realms of human creation right then at that moment of entering planet earth, through her legs.
I have grown to understand that creation is everything. Creation is and acts as a constant, spinning in the realms of human life, understanding and existence of everything man-made and natural.
The tools that guided me through the dimension of womb-to-world were a creation of man. Crying, over-cooked and wide-eyed, my creative journey began before I was even born. Mum was a gymnast and my dad an art/sign writer. Their support and passions for their own lives were handed down to me, coupled with the belief that I could do whatever I wish. This was a great platform to explore what made me happy.
Fists of crayons and opinionated as hell, I was wild in spirit, nicknamed ‘Cyclone’. Eager to experience and feel into everything.
Can you describe the emotion of your art?
Cursed and gifted with deep sensitivities, I’m at this point in life where I’ve reinvented myself from Kalm to MLAK. Three years ago, I had a traumatic emergency birth of my son, dancing between life and death. And shortly after, my grandmother’s death followed. Both my biggest inspirations for all my art and the symbolic messages throughout, behind, and layered within the acrylic images lined with oils.
The emotion of my art is about honouring woman life and emotional intelligence that are created by experiences. Mainly the hits of disappointments that I have come to feel are little gifts connecting me deeper into myself and the vibration of all living things on our planet earth.
Image credit: Portia Sarris, shot on film.
How has creative expression allowed you to survive/thrive?
I discovered painting and writing keeps me sane.
If I don’t do it I’m insane. Pretty simple.
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How do you get into your creative workflow?
I’m constantly switched on and choosing to live in a studio, my art is always ready and set up. I can dip in and out whenever I feel the urge.
Being a single parent, I’ve got allocated times. So, I binge paint for days, and if I have enough steam after I put my son down, I’ll paint and set that up for this reason. Dedicating our life to art and creativity.
I also love collaborations with my friends. Portia Sarris is a young photographer who I am collaborating with for our upcoming Show in Melbourne called Be EVE at the Flat Pack studios with Thom Gallery.
I also paint and collaborate with Jake Pedrano from Bondi beach. Music sets me off, I get agitated if I have to stop to go to the toilet or eat.
Once I’m in the flow it’s hard to stop. I’m addicted, and I revel in it.
What do you hope the observer/ listener absorbs from your art?
Image credit: Brigitte Serhan, shot on film
My art is metaphorical and symbolic. I like it so it’s left up to the viewer to see what they want to see, feel and experience influenced by their beliefs and life experiences. So, it’s a reflection of life, like that scene in the film Alice in Wonderland where she is falling down the hole – a dream state that you can ignite within your being a philosophical or symbolic sense of thought.
At the very least, my art can be just a painting that looks fun in your lounge room.
Creativity, for me, is exhausting in relentless energy as it’s a pleasurable constant. My mind never rests, symbolic of an oil lamp.
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