Oh, this was so much fun… but painful from a technology perspective! Don’t worry, we stitched it all together so hopefully you won’t even notice {thanks Greg!}. Today I’m talking to Melbourne based artist Sandra Eterovic. She paints weird and hilarious things on wood in a folk-artish yet modern way. Sandra went from studying Art History, to designing rude underpants, to making the scary jump to full-time artist… let’s just say her inner critic had an opinion about that. Anyway, you can listen right up there under that amazing pizza t-shirt, or you can subscribe on iTunes.

So, let’s start with a few of my painted cut-wood favorites:

Marlboro. So awesome. Speaking of awesome… paintings on vintage ping pong paddles? YES!

Oh I love them so much… not to mention the salami and lemon growing off that vine! ♥

Up next, the gorgeous cover that Sandra did for Australia’s Frankie Magazine – and a shot of her page in their 2015 calendar:

So cool!

Now, let’s talk art prizes. The piece below, with all of the crazy t-shirts, titled “Read My Mind”, is the piece that Sandra has in the run for the R&M McGivern Prize. $25,000. Yeah. Just think of all of the wooden t-shirts she could make with that! If you’re in Melbourne on September 16th, go and vote for her! It’s a people’s choice award, so let’s get this done people! Here’s her painting, followed by a few of her other ‘funny things on shirts’ paintings that I love:

Come at me bro! HAHAHA! I love that one.

Ok, so in the not so speedy speed round, Sandra said she’d rather be a mermaid than a unicorn. This painting instantly popped into my head… I knew Sandra had painted a mermaid before. Here she is in the form of a sassy tattoo/scarf:

Ok, I’d want to be a mermaid too. And finally, I really wanted to include a photo of Sandra herself so you could see who you were listening to! Here she is in her lovely home {photo via The Design Files}:

Beautiful… Sandra, her work, this conversation, all of it! A lot of her work can be found in her shop, so pop over and pick something up … a flower-covered ping pong paddle perhaps! Thanks so much to Sandra for bearing with me through our technical difficulties, and for being so open and honest. Thanks to Saatchi Art for supporting the 66th episode, and thanks to audible.com for making my new book into an audio book! To preorder a copy for FREE just use my fancy link: audibletrial.com/JealousCurator. And finally, THANK YOU for listening. There will be more art for your ear next weekend.

Other links:

1. Design Files 
2. Frankie Magazine
3. Craft Victoria
4. R&M McGivern Prize, Melbourne
5. Elizabeth Gilbert’s TEDTalk
6. Martha Rich
7. Lisa Congdon