Amy Adams

Interview by Allen for Nelson Tasman Y.A

When I was 14 my parents sold our house and bought a boat in Greece. We lived in Greece for under a year. We sailed around the greek islands.  Leaving School I worked at a retirement home. But then I did this super yacht course at NMIT. 

But the art was always calling me.

I’m obsessed with artistic intervention and urban space. There is a term called tactful urbanism. It’s creative problem solving for urban issues, for the community and for the people and I just love that so much. I’m working on a few projects with the council and various things like the  chorus murals. Taking an electrical box that is often tagged, vandalised, and beautifying it for the streets. That’s my obsession at the moment.

I would be lying if I didn’t say the landscape. I always find inspiration in nature in organic form. It’s always coming back to creation and the grand design. Definitely Nelson is so rich in its architecture. We have the Abel Tasman, the forestry, the farming, we have amazing pillars that ground us. And I love reflecting back on that and how that can be pushed back into the arts. And how we can still remember that.

We started a programme at church called meal mates and you sign up and it’s this intergenerational hang out. I was like ‘these are my people. This is my jam, I love these guys.’ I was all in. I love hanging out with more lived souls and learning from them

Amy Adams

Artist