The Wooden Shack

… by Tamika Hogan

“I remember waking up in our old wooden shack by the beach in Margaret River to the footsteps of my Dad telling me to get up and go surfing. 

I was only a little girl but I remember it like it was yesterday. That feeling of wonder and awe for what the ocean might hold that day. There’s whispers of that feeling in my paintings. That’s when I know if I have gotten one just right. 

When he wasn’t encouraging me to get in the water he’d encourage me to paint. I drew on everything I could. I poured over sketch books. I was always making something. 

My parents had just parted ways and it was a rocky transition. I could hide under the waves or escape in painting them. It was a kind of sanctuary and either way, I ran to the ocean almost every day.

Dad must have understood that. I came home from school one day to find a beautiful new easel and a fresh set of paints and brushes he’d bought me as a surprise. That was when I started really trying my hand at painting and family and friends started to order a commission here and there in return for a bit of pocket money. 

It kept me busy over the weekends and out of mischief. It kept me grounded and planted the seed that maybe one day I could make a living doing what I loved most. 

I left school hungry for life experience, I wanted to understand the world and all it’s things. I booked a ticket to India and left with just a change of clothes and a beaten up sketchbook, I just wanted to create. India, as poor and hectic as it is, felt like the place for creators. 

But soon after arriving a creative block came over me. It wasn’t India’s fault, there was just so much to explore that I couldn’t sit still, I wanted to see it all. 7 years went by traveling the world, I covered a lot of ground soaking everything up along the way but I didn't feel the need or desire to pick up my brushes and put paint to paper. 

These ‘gypsy’ years pushed me towards a pretty humble existence where I gained a true understanding of the healing and even transcendental power of nature. The many months spent sleeping in a swag, falling asleep under blankets of shooting stars, the soft crackle of a campfire and waking up to the sound of a new swell that arrived during the night. 

Then, a few years ago, I had what I jokingly call my “quarter-life-crisis.”

I moved home again to reset my compass and finally dragged out my dusty old easel and that was when it all came pouring out. All of it. 

Mostly in blue’s and greens, pink and tears… Maybe I wasn’t blocked at all. Maybe it had just been my time to collect and live?

This time around my creativity was coming from a very different place, I guess my work has become a gallery of recollections. 

I want to evoke that feeling of absolute wonderment the ocean gives through the language of paint and share it with the world. When people look at my paintings, I want them to feel the same way that I did when Dad would wake me up in our beach shack, tell me to get up and go surfing.”

This edition sold out in 6 days, so a limited run was reprinted of this special all-girls issue.

You can purchase your very own limited edition hard copy below.