Big future for NMIT arts graduate

Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology (NMIT) Visual Arts Coordinator Graeme Cornwell says teachers can but dream about students of the quality of Mikaela, a young artist who is fulfilling all expectations after graduating in 2014 from NMIT with a Bachelor of Arts and Media.

Twenty two year-old Mikaela has just been awarded a prestigious Select 2015 Art award for post graduate students at Canterbury University, putting her at the top of a class of 34 students. It's further proof, says NMIT's Dr Cornwell, that the young artist is destined for great things.

Mikaela herself is a humble recipient, unruffled by all the attention around her.

"It has come as a complete surprise", she says of her award from the University of Canterbury's Ilam School of Fine Arts. Instead she was wondering if her marks would be good enough to make it into a Master's degree next year.

Mikaela came to NMIT, transferring from the Design and Arts College in Christchurch. "It was either Nelson or Whitecliffe College of Arts in Auckland and I chose NMIT".

She says her NMIT year was another leap forward in her career. "The tutors were a big help. They were pushing me in the right direction, giving me enough guidance to know what to do but not telling me exactly what to do.

"There was openness there of me being on my own but them in the background ready to help which was fantastic".

Mikaela describes her style as "conceptual/minimalist", often using installations in her imagery.

She won her Select 2015 Art Award for her work, Untitled (2015), a light box displaying layered 'text' drawings which is now part of an art collection of more than 5,000 items.

The young artist lets her work literally speak for herself.

"I think for me it has always been a way of communicating because I'm a very quiet person and I don't always have a lot to say. I think a lot but art is a way of getting things out".

Describing her works, she says she explores formlessness through the obsessive and repetitive acts of writing and drawing. These written words are not her own rather they are a documentation of conversation.

In his 35 years teaching at renowned art schools in Australia and at Auckland University's Elam School of Fine Arts before coming to NMIT, Graeme Cornwell says four students have stood head and shoulders above the rest – and Mikaela is one of them.

Her Canterbury University award is worth $2000, but she says it's the recognition that's most important, giving her more confidence to pursue her art.

"I've always felt good but not quite good enough but now people are able to see the message in the work".