olivia
artist & illustrator.
brunswick, victoria, australia.
@yorkolivia
Olivia York (Liv) runs her illustration business full-time from her Brunswick studio; currently working on two children’s books and a canvas for a project called 100 Koalas, raising money to plant trees for koalas.
Sunlight pours through the glass doors of Liv’s adorable Brunswick studio. Potted plants line shelves filled with children’s books. Colored pencils and paintbrushes collect on top of a paint-splattered desk that could tell the stories of many blissful hours spent in the name of creation. A painting of a koala and her two babies adorned with floral wreaths provides the background for our conversation. The painting depicts so much about what makes Australia special: unique, bright, beautiful, and just a little bit cheeky. Warm and easy to talk to, Liv beams her contagious smile as she shares about finding inspiration from the things you love, and how to keep going in the midst of fear.
turn your love into a career.
“I’m obsessed with animals.” Liv grew up in the country on a farm outside of Melbourne. Her childhood was centered around her love for animals: she rescued possums, nursed magpies back to health, and pets of all varieties including chickens, horses, sheep, cows, dogs and cats. Along with her two sisters, she attended Pony Club, a horse riding club at her auntie’s farm. In her early days of creating art, Liv noticed a gap in the market for Australiana art that wasn’t overly touristy or kitschy. Drawing on her lifelong love of animals for inspiration, she decided to bring life to Australia’s unique wildlife with watercolor, pencils, a whole lot of personality. “I wanted to inject humour and nostalgia into my Australiana art,” Liv says.
“there’s no set clock on creativity”
the safe route may not be the best route.
“I wasn’t very good at illustration when I took it as an elective,”Liv says when she talks about her university days studying graphic design. “I was trying to take the well-paved road at first by pursuing a more stable career like graphic design. But I realized I didn’t want to sit at a computer all day.” After deciding graphic design wasn’t for her, Liv tried a couple weeks in a Master’s program at Melbourne University, and then realised: “I wasn’t taking the risks I needed to take. So I said, it’s now or never! And I started doing artist markets and slowly developing a style.”
find your support when you have those moments of fear.
Liv considers herself fortunate that she gets to pursue her craft as a full-time profession. “I honestly would never have thought this is how it would work out. It’s been very much a learning experience of faking it until you make it. Very regularly the fear grabs me and I wonder if I should be doing something more stable.” In these moments of struggle, Liv identifies her family as being her cheerleaders and encouraging her to keep going. Liv recalls a moment when she felt afraid of creating a life for herself as an artist, and her mom’s advice? “You haven’t come this far only to come this far. If you have to take an odd job once in awhile, there’s no shame in that.”
“if you want to live a creative life just go for it!”
no time limits on doing something you love.
“If the work you love is something you want to do forever, why do you put a time limit on it?” We are so quick to put time pressure on ourselves, thinking we should be at a certain point in our career by a specific age. Liv says: “There’s no set clock on creativity; it’s all in our heads. It’s something you can do now and for as long as you want.”
be scared, and do it anyway.
“I definitely have days where I feel like an imposter because I don’t have formal fine art training. But I don’t think: ‘I won’t do my painting, just because someone else is doing it.’ Everyone has a new perspective, so if you want to live a creative life just go for it! Go at your own pace. It doesn’t even have to mean pursuing your craft as a full-time job; it could be trying a new class or hosting a craft night with other women.” Put yourself out into the world, because if you love what you’re doing, chances are that someone else will, too.
