MEETANETA
Creativity Coach
Charcoal and Champagne is my passion project turned business which manifested from my love of creativity, curiosity, people as well as inspiration from a personal art project I've been growing with the help of serendipity, Lifelines.
After years of meeting people struggling with their relationships with creativity, my workshops are now how I'm able to help individuals build 'creative confidence' and reconnect to that dormant part of themselves.
I am a creative director, creativity coach and artist, and run a small brand strategy design business AW Studio, as well as the award-winning Charcoal and Champagne creativity workshops.
Through the pop-ups, private events, corporate, wellness and school workshops, Charcoal and Champagne has provided me with an amazing platform to work with the greater community.
I love bringing unique creative experiences to so many who would not normally find the opportunity to engage in this way. By inviting people to join these workshops I invite them to be vulnerable, have fun and reconnect to a side of themselves often neglected, and maybe even forgotten as they got busy ‘growing up’.
I hold a Bachelor of Arts in Design and have over 20 years’ experience working in brand strategy, brand development, and visual communication.
I started out as a graphic designer for Mojo Publicis and quickly progressed my career to art director and then creative director and have worked with a broad spectrum of sectors and clients including international brands, small business, government and non-for-profits. Find me on LinkedIn.
LIFELINES
In 2004 I combined my love of travel, culture and people and started an ongoing side project, Lifelines. Using the concept of ‘serendipity’, I approach random strangers on the streets of the world and capture some of their stories as I draw their portraits, live and in the moment. I have learnt a great deal about people as well as myself along the way.
Through these interactions, particularly in countries I don’t speak a common language, I have also come to realise how much can be ‘communicated’ without words, that I can have amazing conversations with individuals so incredibly different to me with little more then an intuitive version of a sign language.
My work on Lifelines has also lead to some interesting collaborations, including working alongside the MOMA ‘Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond’ exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia where I completed 144 live portraits in the exhibition space. I also spent time in New York where I was followed by a film crew as I drew a number of live, spontaneous portraits. Video below.
CREATIVE THINKING
I am passionate about the importance of ‘creative thinking’ for the future and run workshops around this theme with corporates as well as the younger members of the community.
I have been working with Penrhos Collage and their year 10 Business Studies students since 2017 as a mentor and keynote speaker during their Enterprise Conference, as well as holding annual ‘Creative Thinking Workshops’ for the classes aimed at building ‘creative confidence’ in our future leaders.
UPDATE
I have recently accepted a seat on the board of the Outback Initiatives Skills for Life Foundation, and I am currently part of the 2020 Creative Schools program.
The Creative Schools program is funded by the Education Department in partnership with FORM, an independent, non-profit organisation based in Perth and Culture & Creativity in Education, a global organisation dedicated to transforming the learning experience of children to prepare them for the opportunities and careers of the twenty-first century.
Thanks for taking the time to visit.
Stay creative!
Aneta