Your work and installations often create ‘situations’ or ‘experiences’ that reflect objects and destinations. What pulled you toward this area of specialisation and artistic style?
In the world today, art has to do a little bit more. It has to move people. People have it experience it. Everyone gets glued to phones and tv screens and I think attention spans are so slow that you have to do more. There is beauty in artwork, and it takes a strong artist to produce something static that makes time stand still. Art in the daily life is really important and that’s what I incorporate into my work. I look at the way we live, and try and incorporate art into it.

What’s your earliest memory of creating art?
Gosh. I picked up some balsa wood when I was really young, and I found a keyring in the shape of a surfboard. I was so obsessed with surfing that I would use this tiny little woodworking machine that my mum got me for my 7th or 8th birthday and I would just sit there and make these little two-inch surfboards with little fins. I think that kind of led to how I make art today – I really enjoy three-dimensional work, space and mixed media.

What first drew you to a career as an artist?
My high school teacher was really influential, and at the time I kind of just felt art was the only avenue I could really go down. I was really into graphic design, visual arts, painting and just making things with my hands. I wasn’t that great at other things at school, and at lunch time I’d just go into the art room and make things and watch surfing videos. I think it was an outlet for me, like surfing was – they connected for me, it was freedom and a getaway for me.

Tell us a little about your involvement with HOTA’s new We Are Gold Coast exhibition?
I’ll be hosting ARTLAB’s Sunshine Domes – which is like the old conventional snow dome souvenir, but reinterpreting them. Instead of snow domes, we’ll be doing sunshine domes – a sunny, warm spin on snow domes for the Gold Coast. We’ll be getting kids involve in this too – to get their interpretation of what the Gold Coast is like. Snow domes are like another world, like a world within a world – kind of a fantasy. This leads on from our recent project Super Souvenir, where we did a bunch of projects around the Commonwealth Games that were based around creating sustainable souvenirs.

The We Are Gold Coast exhibition itself really explores the identity of the Gold Coast – how have you seen the city’s artistic culture evolve over the years?
There’s a lot more work being taken outdoors now. Murals and street art are becoming part of daily life, which is an important step for the Gold Coast. I think everyone has to take part in art for it to grow. That’s kind of what happened with Melbourne with street art – it just blew up and eventually became part of the culture. Architecture is changing dramatically too, and I think the coast has its own interesting design sensibilities coming out more and more as we evolve. We’re still quite small here, but it’s changing.The beauty is that there are so many possibilities on the Gold Coast – it’s such a new city, it’s going to have a huge influence on the whole of Australia one day. I think the Commonwealth Games is just the tipping point for us to be our own city with our own style, and I think it’s important to consider art as a part of that.

You’re known for having a multi-disciplinary background – who or what do you feel has the biggest influence on your work?
I take a lot of inspiration from architecture and design, and even just people – I think those things encourage us to consider the ways we interact in life. Like, say the feelings you get when you go to a restaurant is art … I think that life and art are really mixed. Plus, I think it’s important for me to grasp what’s happening outside of our city. Conceptual and modern art is growing in leaps and bounds in other cities, so I try and stay up to date with that.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
The KISS method – keep it simple, stupid. That’s what my dad said to me. It’s easy to have way too many thoughts, but we need to reduce every idea down to its essence and keep it simple. But, um, I don’t often really keep it simple … but I’ve come a long way, haha.

The We Are Gold Coast exhibition runs at HOTA from Sunday May 12 until Sunday July 15 in the Main Gallery.