Betty-Ann Heim - Print Maker & Lino-Cuts

Betty-Ann is an Art Gallery Guide, Front of House Volunteer and a Print-Maker. 

Details about the exhibition

Inspired by……… an exhibition by 26 volunteers at AGSA 

(Art Gallery of South Australia)

Light Square Gallery, 39 Light Square, Adelaide 

https://www.tafesa.edu.au/adelaide-college-of-the-arts/light-square-gallery

Wed 5th August - Friday 21st August 

Monday to Friday - 10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m. 

Official Launch:   

Jason Smith, Director, AGSA 

Thursday 13th August, 3.00 p.m. - 5.00 p.m. 

Music is original music by David Innocente 

"One Thing Led to Another"

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Welcome to Inspired by Art and Volunteering, an exhibition with me, Tanya Iggerson. This podcast I interviewed Betty Ann Heim, and Betty Ann is a gallery guide and she also volunteers at Front of House, and Betty Ann talks a little bit about what that means and what that role involves as well. It was so great to interview Betty Anne right after she had presented an artwork on the floor of the art gallery to the other gallery guides, and that's something that we do as gallery guides. We train for a year before we're qualified to run public tours, but we also have ongoing lectures and training, and we have to present, I think it's around 12 every 12 months to 18 months. We have to present an artwork to our fellow gallery guides and we assess ourselves. So it was really interesting to have that experience before interviewing Betty Ann. Anyway, she has a lot of really interesting things to say, and I really loved our conversation. So sit back and relax and enjoy the chat I had with Betty Ann. Betty Ann, thanks for being on the podcast. I'm going to share with the listeners that we have just heard you do a talk on the gallery floor on John Brack. Well, did you enjoy that? I loved it.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

I thought I'd be nervous, but um the other guides are so wonderfully supportive. Everyone, when I looked out at the crowd, everyone was smiling at me. Um no one wishes any ill to anyone else. So it it was such an easy presentation because there was so much positivity surrounding me.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

It's a wonderful thing about being a volunteer and a guide here. So now I'm going to ask you the question, which listeners will go, I think I think she just answered, is what do you do as a volunteer here at the Art Gallery of South Australia?

SPEAKER_00 2:07

I do two things as a volunteer. I'm a front of house volunteer, and I was a front of house volunteer for two years before I became a gallery guide. So I welcome people into the gallery. Um, one session a week, I'm front of house, and another session a week I run a tour, normally a general tour of the gallery of our permanent collection. So that's it. I've been doing that for about four years.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Oh, how fantastic. What do you love about being a volunteer here?

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Oh, that it's funny. I th I thought when I became a volunteer at the gallery that I was giving something, that um by volunteering, you know, I was giving my time and and contributing. I had no idea what a buzz it would be to be a volunteer. I get so much back from being both front of house and a tour guide that um I sometimes go home feeling just a tiny bit guilty. That um that um it is the whole thing is just so much fun. And the response from the community when they come into the gallery is so positive. It is a great gallery, and people at the end of a tour often make a positive comment about the curation, how wonderfully laid out the gallery is, and what a surprise it is that we're not a big gallery, we're not Sydney, we're not Melbourne, but the quality of the work and the the curation, as I said, of the gallery is just so good.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

It is so good. We are so lucky here to have these extraordinarily talented people, aren't we? And you do feel the same way and feel that sense of pride of, you know, this is our gallery.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Absolutely, it is, and it really is our gallery. So when people come into it, you know, it's not while you're having a tour of it, there's that tiny bit of um just a little bit of ownership that it is our space.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yeah, beautiful. You're going to be in our exhibition inspired by, which is all of us volunteers, which are 25 of this is amazing. It's what a wonderful group, 25 volunteers going to be exhibiting for Sala. What is your art practice, Betty Ann?

SPEAKER_00 4:18

I'm a printmaker. I've been um, I don't know, something about the tactile qualities of printmaking. I've as an ex-art teacher, I've taught everything painting, drawing, um, pottery, wheel thrown pottery, and hand building claywork. But there's something about printmaking that has always had my attention. I like the tactile qualities of it. I like learning new techniques, and I like sometimes it's it's almost alchemy. It's the chemical process that changes something into something else.

SPEAKER_01 4:55

Do you know what I found really interesting in your presentation talking about the print making of John Brack's print is the the darkness or the shade that is done by those very fine lines plays together. I found that really fascinating. It is.

SPEAKER_00 5:12

It's um this planning, um, a fair bit of planning. It doesn't happen, um, it's not Jackson Pollock, you know, that um there needs order, and often the just the printing process is a technique all on its own. The making art, and then like Brack, who had a master printer doing his work, there's there's it's twofold. There's the making of a piece of art, and then there's the printing of a piece of art.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

I got that from your talk today. It was it was really interesting. So, for the Inspired by exhibition, what were you inspired by to exhibit the works you're going to exhibit?

SPEAKER_00 5:55

I'm from the heartland of Canada and um a large farming community, and many of my family live on the land and still live on the land, so I spend a lot of time in a car. When I go to Canada, we spend a lot of time driving. And in Australia, I have one child who lives out by rogue and another who lives the other side of Clare. So I also spend a lot of time in the car. I like landscapes. I spend a lot of time looking at landscapes. So my work is based on landscapes, and it's based on um a lot of pattern, but sometimes just a pattern in the clouds. So a bit of abstraction in landscapes, and all of the pieces that I've put into this exhibition are based on landscapes. They may not look a lot like a landscape, but the inspiration for them is in a landscape.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Oh, I can't wait. It's gonna be so great. So I have one last question for you. What do you love about art? Everything. That is the best answer that anyone's given them.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

I like the talking about it. I like discussions about art, I like looking at art, I like making art, I like making art with other people. It's just um, and it is in this time in my life, it's the center of everything.

SPEAKER_01 7:20

That is the perfect way to end this podcast. Thank you so much, Betty Ann.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

That was wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 7:27

I hope you enjoyed that chat that I had with Betty Ann. Printmaking is amazing. I'm so fascinated by printmaking, and I think it was when I studied Albert Durer through my studying art history, the northern Renaissance artist, of how incredible printmaking is to create light and shade and dark, and it's just so clever, and I can't wait to see what Betty Ann is going to put into our exhibition. I also loved what she loved about art, which is everything. I think I'm the same, Betty Ann. So, anyway, I hope that you enjoyed that chat. And please join me next time when I interview another artist that will be exhibiting at the Inspired Buy exhibition, which there's details in the bottom of this podcast. So until then, bye for now.