We are so excited to begin our first season of Toolkits for 2021, and decided to have a quick chat with some of our Season 1 Toolkits participants from Toolkits Fiction, Graphic Narratives and Nonfiction, to get to know them better!

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What are some of your interests?

Fern (Toolkits Graphic Narratives): I am drawn to many creative areas – from art to music, writing to filmmaking, taking pictures to dancing. Even cooking feels like art! I am interested in the process and flow of artmaking in its various forms, in the community it fosters and the lifeforce it unearths. Whether it be dancing at a gig, catching a candid pic, decorating a plate of food, making films with my friends, drawing for hours up in my room, playing guitar, spilling my thoughts into a journal – the creative force is always there.  

Marleena (Toolkits: Graphic Narratives): Oh gosh. I have to say my biggest hobby is Dungeons & Dragons. I’ve been playing for about 3 years already (all online) and it’s been such a blast! I find it such a meaningful, creatively stimulating hobby that has also made me a much more confident person. In my spare time, I also like drawing pictures of me and my friends’ characters, and it’s been so fun being able to do D&D art commissions, too.

I also think that at heart, I just love all things romance, and I really enjoy rom-coms and chic-lit. I think in everything I read and watch, I love experiencing the feeling of falling in love – the excitement, but also the warm security of knowing there will always be a happy ending. And on another note, the psychology of relationships, romantic or not, and how they reveal the best and worst facets of ourselves. (I enjoy listening to Esther Perel’s podcast ‘Where Should We Begin?’ for this reason.)

All of this kind of feeds into my taste for comics. Like everyone in my Toolkits program, I love all forms of graphic narratives! But I especially feel so much nostalgia and excitement for 90s and early 2000s shoujo and josei manga (‘Real Clothes’, ‘Fruits Basket’, ‘Cardcaptor Sakura’). I have enjoyed reading some other more recent stuff (‘Monstress’, ‘The Wicked + The Divine’ and ‘Sex Criminals’), but my biggest guilty pleasures are webtoons – mainly, romance isekai… As ridiculous as they are, I have sunk so much money into those things.

Other things I like: musicals, animatics, video games and RPGs. 🙂

Hannah (Toolkits: Nonfiction): Forest walks, ambient music and playing the Guzheng (A traditional Chinese instrument)

Caitlin (Toolkits: Fiction): I love cooking/baking, spending time at the beach, playing netball, watching AFLW/M, and of course, reading.

Robbie (Toolkits: Nonfiction):Queer storytelling, gender theory, history, drag, theatre-making, swimming and forgetting to wash the dishes.

Viv (Toolkits: Fiction): I’ve been thinking a lot, lately, about dying languages and language transmission, and how the latter rarely feels like a peaceful thing. Apart from that, I’m interested in bodies in and after war, scams and grifters, the language of late-stage capitalism, space and the alien parts of nature as a void we project onto, and the use of speculative fiction and genre writing as a tool to conceive or explore radical new futures.

Gajan (Toolkits: Fiction): Interests include (in no particular order) music composition, film, urbanism, travel, swimming, cycling, cricket and the Melbourne Football Club.

Ashleigh (Toolkits: Nonfiction): I am interested in drawing and experimental animation. I also love going to the cinemas and to the beach. 

 

What are you most looking forward to or most excited for about your Toolkits program?

Fern (Toolkits Graphic Narratives): Within Toolkits I am most looking forward to the collaborative experience, and the opportunity to pick the brains of so many amazing artists!  

Marleena (Toolkits: Graphic Narratives): I’m just so thrilled and excited to finally vibe with other cool comic creators! I’ve found it really difficult to find a comics community in Sydney where I felt like I belonged. So I’m super keen to make new friends.

As well as this, I haven’t been working seriously on any of my own comics in a looong while. At university, I kind of put that aside to focus on studying design and fine art. So to actually have the time to do comics, and go through a structured course to learn more from people who have so much knowledge to share, makes me very happy. I’m just happy to be here!

Hannah (Toolkits: Nonfiction): Sharing, learning, and workshopping with Stephen and the other delightful participants.

Caitlin (Toolkits: Fiction): I’m excited to gain a more formal understanding of fiction writing, but also getting to know and grow with the other participants!

Robbie (Toolkits: Nonfiction):Working with other writers! I am so excited to meet new writers and learn more about their work. I love collaborating with people and trying out new ways of writing, especially new ways of bringing writing into the everyday!

Viv (Toolkits: Fiction): I’m really excited about getting to meet and discuss craft with other writers! I do a lot of my writing and editing by myself, in my head, which is good for my sense of independence but means it’s a lot easier for me to be critical or less confident about what I’m doing. By contrast, I’ve always found working with other people opens up my understanding of what’s possible.

Gajan (Toolkits: Fiction): I’m most looking forward to being part of a collective who motivate one another to write and share work, and hopefully building up some real momentum and inspiration to push the boundaries of what we might normally think of as our capabilities. 

Ashleigh (Toolkits: Nonfiction): I’m looking forward to seeing how we might influence each-other as artists. I’m also excited to make a story. 

 

What are you currently working on/What do you want to work on in Toolkits?

Fern (Toolkits Graphic Narratives): My recent illustration series have had a focus on colour, panelling and movement – and prevalent in my current work is an exploration of the different ways our mind/body/spirit interprets the world. I’d like to ride out this wave of inspiration for as long as its flowing, but then hopefully find some new directions for my art to take during Toolkits.

Marleena (Toolkits: Graphic Narratives): By the gods, I would love to actually complete something for once. I have so many half-written scripts it’s getting kinda ridiculous. It’s been like this for a long while – I think this Toolkits workshop will actually give me the help I need to cross this hurdle I’ve been struggling against for years.

Hannah (Toolkits: Nonfiction): Currently working on a couple of exhibition essays and a poetry suite.

Caitlin (Toolkits: Fiction): I’m working on short stories, which I hope to develop and write more of over Toolkits.

Robbie (Toolkits: Nonfiction): I’m currently working on developing my AV skills and experimenting with digital storytelling, particularly in combination with theatre and non-fiction work.

Viv (Toolkits: Fiction): I’m working on an interactive fiction about a haunted house (spooky!) and a bunch of short stories with a speculative bent.

Gajan (Toolkits: Fiction): I’m currently working predominantly on a number of screen-based works, but as part of Toolkits would love to focus on some YA/urban fantasy type stuff I’ve had gestating or some post colonial literary short fiction. 

Ashleigh (Toolkits: Nonfiction): I’m working on a fantasy story called Nina. It’s about a wacky little kid navigating ecological collapse. It’s inter-dimensional magical realism, there are friendly worms that turn into big fluffy moths, a huuuge whale, vast oceans and deserts. Very sad and happy things happen. It’s very existential, and leans into the importance of living for beautiful things. Like grass and calm walks. 

 

Now the absolute most important question…what’s your sign? 

Fern (Toolkits Graphic Narratives): Smack bang on that Virgo/Libra cusp baby! 

Marleena (Toolkits: Graphic Narratives): Sagittarius babyyy

Hannah (Toolkits: Nonfiction): Sagittarius! 

Caitlin (Toolkits: Fiction): I’m a Capricorn!

Robbie (Toolkits: Nonfiction): Cancer. Yes. I am moody. 

Viv (Toolkits: Fiction): Pisces sun, Libra moon, Aries rising.

Gajan (Toolkits: Fiction): Aquarius 

Ashleigh (Toolkits: Nonfiction): Virgo! I like to think this is connected to my obsession with collecting objects and placing sentimental value on them (like rocks and cicada skins). 

For more information on our Toolkits and Toolkits: Live program (which you can participate in right now!) visit our website.