artists profile
Allison Virtue
Fine Art
Perfect Potion Production team member
Allison was born in Brisbane in 1969 and graduated from Queensland College of Art in 1990 with a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts). Working with linocut and painting Allison creates works on paper using a stark graphic style inspired by popular images of glamour and the obsession with dissection, physical alteration and scrutiny of the female form.
Contact details: 3269 8785
Rita Doyle
Performance Art
Perfect Potion despatch team member
Rita performs the art of fire twirling. This is an artform close to her heart as it involves dance in a raw form that is accompanied by drums and is performed outdoors. Rita was first attracted to fire twirling by the enthusiasm apparent in other performers. It now become her passion which she sustains by constant exposure to innovative, dedicated and determined people who create challenging possibilities. Rita’s mantra is: love what you do, do what you love.
Contact details: 0405 497 802 or
rita.doyle@gmail.com
Melissa Thompson
Jewellery
Perfect Potion MacArthur Central store team member
It was Melissa’s mum that inspired her to take up the fine art of jewellery making. When her mum realised that the designs she asked Melissa for her advice on were the ones selling like hotcakes at her market stall she decided to take on Melissa as her apprentice. Ever since then they have shared the passion (some say addiction) for seeking individual handblown glass and Swarovski crystal beads from which to create their designs. Melissa finds particular joy in designing and making special pieces for weddings and seeing her customers shine on their special days. This makes the time Melissa spends in the creation of these pieces especially worthwhile.
Contact details: 0411 960 781/ 3351 1353 or mellythompson@hotmail.com
Peita Croft
Jewellery
Perfect Potion QVB store team member
Pieta’s clay gems are inspired by the details she sees around her. The design work is inspired by the photos taken on her travels – church door hinges, gates, lamp posts, tiles or any beautiful curly shapes that catch her eye. Inspirations have been gathered from Tasmania, Sydney and most recently from India.
Contact details: 0405 719 812
or pacstrar23@hotmail.com
Tanya Grant
Textiles
Perfect Potion Elizabeth Street store team member
Tanya enjoys exploring the overlooked subtleties in life. To her that is where the true magic of any subject lies. Tanya watches for that one moment which captures an entire experience and forms not only a memory but stirs a feeling and a connection. She loves the art of expression through any means. With the Daydream Collection Tanya has created a series of shawls which try to emulate the subtle beauty within nature – whether it be a fallen leaf on the forest floor, or the dewy moss on a hidden stone, each shawl has its own unique story. Individually handcrafted they aim to inspire the imagination of the wearer. For one magical moment cast your day aside, lay amongst the leaves, dream towards the sky.
Contact details: phoextan@hotmail.com
Carmen Hannay
Fine Art
Perfect Potion MacArthur Central store team member
Painting for Carmen is a little escape from our busy world. She paints the human form in one way or another and likes to try and capture moments that reflect a certain mood. Carmen mostly works with oil paints due to their rich pigments and they enable her to work in very fine detail. At the moment she is having fun experimenting with different styles and techniques.
Contact details: 3366 5209 or 0431 582 424
or carmenhannay@yahoo.com
Rachel Wardrope
Paper Art
Perfect Potion West End store team member
Imagine a new mother needing to unleash her creative being while searching for outdoor activities to entertain and educate her young son. Combined with her commitment to thinking globally and acting locally Rachel re-uses paper, water and plants discarded for waste. The result is beautifully crafted paper products that are recycled and handmade. Welcome to rah paper.
Contact details: 0415 820 150
or rahpaper@optusnet.com.au
Michelina Accardi
Quilting
Perfect Potion Head Office team member
Michelina’s love for Italian culture and exotic destinations has influenced the designs in her work. Seeing fabric as her canvas, she loves the use of bold colours and rich velvets, brocades and silk. Shabby chic features heavily throughout Michelina’s home and is often reflected in her work. Michelina draws inspiration from the love of her family, husband and soulmate, and their French bulldog, Romeo. The style, class and great artists of the 1920s are embodied in Michelina’s work. The pieces are individual and full of character. They are designed to wrap you in their warmth and love.
Contact details: (07) 3254 0667 or 0403 907 432 or michelinaaccardi@yahoo.com.au
Chervel Murphy
Mosaics
Perfect Potion Head Office team member
Chervel creates her mosaic artworks using pieces of brightly coloured glass. She is inspired to take an ancient art form and make it modern. This is made obvious in the abstract and geometric forms in her work.
Contact details: (07) 3256 8500
Steven Briggs
Illustration
Perfect Potion Head Office team member
Many of Steven’s paintings and drawings are inspired by surfing. He considers surfing an art form and a way in which he can express his true feelings and emotions. It is these same feelings and emotions that are expressed in Steven’s paintings and drawings.
Contact details: 0431 335 541
Paola Milani
Fine Art
Perfect Potion Head Office team member
Paola studied both Fine Arts and Media Arts at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and enjoys using mixed media to create her art. Her work is informed by the intriguing connection between the natural world, religious symbolism and the subconscious.
Paola creates dreamlike, atmospheric photographs. Familiar scenes of clouds, water and nightscapes are transformed. They invite the viewer to gaze deeply within and can be a source of meditation and reflection. Her paintings are inspired by the water crystal photographs of Dr Masaru Emoto. Water crystals which have been exposed to the energies of love, hope, happiness or gratitude bear an uncanny resemblance to mandalas from various cultures throughout the world. In response to the fears, uncertainties, terror and paranoia which has dominated since the events of September 11, 2001, Paola is producing artworks to inspire love, happiness and the chance to dream.
Contact details: paolamilani@hotmail.com
Georgeina Clear
Jewellery
Perfect Potion QVB store team member
An appreciation for unique and innovative form is one of the drives behind the jewellery of Georgie Clear. The use of resin as a medium reflects the desire for flexibility in being able to print, sculpt and design her pieces. The working processes are often experimental; this is often part of the attraction and challenge of working with this medium. The influence of antique and modern Japanese drawings are apparent in the particular style of botanical themes used in the prints. Inspiration is gained from the wonder and awe of nature’s inherent design and the beauty of plants and flowers. Georgie has created pieces that can be worn playfully and with versatility to reflect the freeness of the fantasy wonderland that may be escaped to when engaging with the beauty of nature.
Contact details: 0421 478 997
or georgeinaclear@hotmail.com
Ann Fleming
Photomontage/scrapbooking
Perfect Potion Head Office team member
Ann has taken the craft of scrapbooking and created a memento of her travels. Photographs have been included from her adventures in Thailand, Malaysia and Darwin and on board the Regal Princess. Colourful stickers, tickets, itineraries, certificate of her equatorial crossing, and materials such as textured papers, cloth butterflies and gold foil have been montaged to form an eyecatching keepsake she wishes to share with you all.
Alison Gallagher
Sculpture
Perfect Potion QVB store team member
Alison comes from a very creative family - her mum hand makes amazing cloth dolls and characters and her sister sings and draws. Although acting is a passion of Alison’s she also expresses her creativity through her hands and this is satisfied through the sculpting of clay. Clay sculpting appeals to her desire for detail and allows her to work away until her expectations are fulfilled. On the other hand she also finds the messiness of working with clay appealing. The theme that is currently emerging in her work is that of the female form with its beauty, power and strength.
Contact details: Alicat Designs
0422 550 527 or alicat27@gmail.com
Jade Dibblee
Performance Art
Perfect Potion Fortitude Valley store team member
Jade is an independent performer and choreographer and has been performing in dance and other physical art forms for more than twenty years. Last year she was a member of the exclusive Youth Arts Mentoring Program and received Arts Queensland funding to produce an instalment of her one-woman show, Under the Skin at the Judith Wright Centre. Earlier this year she was one of six people invited nationally to join the West Australian Academy of the Arts’ highly regarded Link (Honours) program. Jade’s interests centre around the mind-body connection, and these qualities: passion, integrity, commitment. This will be the second instalment of Under the Skin, a work based around the idea of memory – or rather, what, where and how you would search for yourself if you no longer had one. It questions the ways we define ourselves and other people. It is also therefore about disintegration and impermanence of the self and of everything else.
Contact details: 0427 407 006 or jade_diblee@hotmail.com
Melinda Smith
Fine Art
Perfect Potion Aromatherapy Instructor
Melinda has been creative ever since she was a child and spent her entire youth drawing or daydreaming of drawing. In the late 1980s she completed her Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) in Sydney followed by a Graduate Diploma of Graphic Arts in Brisbane. She is inspired by the simple beauty of the arrangement of sentimental objects that give a home its ambience, fresh spring mornings, flowers in full bloom and luscious women who lead succulent lives. Melinda happily expresses herself in any media at hand; charcoal, photography, paints, pencils, watercolour, pottery or even her child's fingerpaints.
Contact details: 0733913383
or sandromel@optusnet.com.au
