I am an artist. I paint on ply with acrylic, posca, estapol and stain. I draw a group of kids — there are about ten muses at the moment, but I'm always looking for that new quirky kid with the big imagination, sassy attitude and sense of humour. I often paint them with odd sized animals or vintage toys. They are a bit nostalgic looking but also there is a bit of humour and a bit of twisted reality in them. You can check them out at carmeldebreuil.com or at various galleries around the country.
Why do you do it?
I always was surrounded by art and creativity — my father was an artist and my mother does lots of fabric based art like silk painting and quilting. They saved drawings that I did when I was three and you could see even then that I loved drawing the human figure. Especially with a crown and a fancy dress. I worked as a portrait artist in Paris for a couple years which was amazing, but after that I ended up working in television in Canada until I came to Australia.
I married my husband Joe, who is the bass player in Grinspoon and we had a couple kids. I focused on writing for several years because trying to paint with a two year old ended up more like a game of trying to get him to not paint the entire house green. My dad passed away two years ago and the night after his funeral he came to me in a dream and said I should be an artist. The dream was very real and profound.
When I returned to Australia from Canada, I decided to follow his advice and basically have not stopped. It's pretty amazing how much has happened in the last two years. I'm really glad I listened.
What do you love about the city you live in?
Hehe, well, Red Rock's not really a city. We have a shop, a caravan park, and a bowling club with a Chinese restaurant. But I love our town 'cos it's surrounded by the ocean, national park and a tidal river. It's like stepping back in time when all your neighbours know each other and help each other out. Sometimes I wish I lived a bit more urban so that I could go to galleries and shows and events, but I guess I like that my imagination is my own here. There's not lots of outside influences so you can just develop your own style. That's really important to me. And it's probably better for me to be tempted by nature than what the big smoke might have on offer! I'm way too sociable as it is!
Where did you go for your last holiday?
The last time I went anywhere was to Canada when my dad had his aneurysm. It was a pretty heavy visit, but we are going again this year to see my mum. We are taking the kids and it's going to be awesome. We are going to be in Canada for Halloween so the kids will get to go trick or treating. They will also get to see the leaves turning colour and the first snowfall. Mum lives in the middle of nowhere — kinda like a frozen version of where I live here in Australia! But on the way home we are going to spend a week in LA so we'll get our tourist fix. I wanna eat my way through that city. I'm already on blogs finding out where to buy the best tacos!
What's your favourite item of clothing? Why?
My fave item of clothing is my dad's buckskin jacket. Technically it's not mine and it's not even in the country, but of all the things that I could bring over to Australia that would be it. My parents lived way up in Northern Manitoba, Canada, on a fly-in reservation off and on for years. I went to kindy there and was the only blue eyed blonde in the class which was all taught in Cree.
Some of the men went out and shot a moose and the women made it into a jacket and hand beaded it. Originally it had a hood, some rabbit fur gloves and Mukluks which are kinda like moccasins but the knee high winter version. Dad had it before I was born and it's just a part of our family. He wore it all the time and it's like a symbol of the great adventure that my parents had and we got to be part of. You can't buy that kind of history. I can't imagine any of my siblings and I fighting over anything 'cept maybe that jacket! It's beautiful.
What was your favourite TV show when you were a kid?
Ha! We never had a TV until I was sixteen but I remember watching stuff at the neighbours or at my grandparents. There were only three TV stations and one was French. The English ones played a lot of old classics after school like I Dream of Jeannie and Maxwell Smart and Batman. My grandpa was a big fan of wrestling so that always seemed to be on when we went there. And we all had to pipe down when the blonde weather girl came on the news. I didn't really have a fave show though, although I did read a lot of books. And I spent heaps of time drawing. That's probably a big reason why I'm an artist today. I certainly have the attention span to focus on stuff as I wasn't interrupted every ten minutes with advertising!
If you could travel back in time for a day, where would you go?
I would go back to my ten year old self and tell her not to cut her hair short. And to my eighteen year old self and tell her not to even try a cigarette. But if I could go to sometime outside my own lifetime? Hmmm. I'd probably go to Tahiti before the whites came. I read a bit about it and it seems like it was pretty awesome. I can see why artists like Gaugin would have thought the place was amazing.
If we were coming over to your place, what would you cook for us?
Korean BBQ. I have to go to Brisbane or Sydney for Korean food so I've become pretty good at making it. I always do Bulgolgi Beef, Gochujang Chicken and Chinese Five Spice Pork Belly as well as all the little Ban Chans or side dishes. It's so awesome and you just grill what you feel like eating. Soooo good! And we always end up with a feast of food so we invite over heaps of mates which is always good fun.
What's the best lesson you've ever learned?
You can't take it with you.
Tell us one thing about yourself that nobody else knows…
I cried before getting my kindy pic taken. Who would ever have thought I would be camera shy?!?
Are you happy with your work/life balance?
I'm really happy with my work/life balance at the moment. I'm super busy with my art and can barely keep up with the demand, which is a great place to be in as an artist. I've also got a few writing projects on the go so that keeps me busy when I'm not painting. My career works really well with having a family 'cos it's really flexible. I just wish we had more opportunity to travel overseas. That's the only thing I miss from my life before family! It's harder to be spontaneous and get away when you have to include three other people!
How do you define success?
Well, I guess happiness. It sounds really trite, but when you have an amazing family, great friends, a career that you love, good health and enough moolah coming in that you aren't totally freaking out all the time you feel pretty happy and lucky and appreciative. Those things are the basis for success and everything else that happens is just a bonus, I guess.
What's your spirit animal?
I was told by Duke Redbird, who was one of the founders of the Red Power movement in Canada, that my native spirit animal was the red squirrel. I was confused as to why, but basically that squirrel goes down the tree head first and everyone thinks it's doing it backwards or wrong or differently. The red squirrel just thinks everyone else is strange and keeps going down the tree headfirst.
