Bonnie Gray
We had the pleasure of talking to third year AUT student Bonnie Gray (she/her) about her mahi! We look at two pieces discussing restoration in Onehunga & Rotorua.
Tell us a bit about your portfolio! How would you describe it?
The work I've shown is from my second year of Uni, so i would describe it as the start of my journey of exploring my values of design and developing my skills to communicate my ideas. My portfolio starts to explore ecology, nature based solutions and regenerative design that improve the well-being of people and the environment. My two projects from year 2 studio were an apartment complex in Onehunga, that focused on the restoration of the original ecosystem as well as providing homes that cater to different needs of long and short term living that provided shared amenities to the residents. My other project I did was a food hub in Rotorua, along the old railway line. The hub focused on providing a Food Haven to the area that was educational in teaching organic gardening methods and cooking with the produce harvested on site that improved people's view on food and restores connections to the land and people within the community.
What is your favourite media/medium to use?
My favourite medium is to hand-draw with either pencil or pen. I've been drawing since I could pick one up, so I've always felt connected to it. I love drawing as I feel that I have the creative freedom to draw anything, so it really helps me to develop and communicate my projects. Model making is a close second as I feel models bring sketches to life as you can pick them up, look around and into them.
What/ who inspires your portfolio and why?
I'd say that the environment inspires me, I have a passion for gardening that helps me understand the importance of how biodiversity and ecologies have systems that work and support one another. It's saddening to see that we're losing biodiversity on our planet due to human consequence, through my portfolio my aims are to work with nature and regenerate it too, by taking inspiration from those ecological and biodiverse systems.
What is your favourite piece of mahi in this portfolio?
I'd say my favourite piece is my final model of my apartment complex. Blood, sweat and tears went in to that literally, but I did have so much fun making it. It was fun to challenge my model making skills, and to be hands-on in this process to put my design to the test.
What would you change now that you have improved your skills?
I think something I would change is maybe showing my design at different times of the year and how it grows over the years, especially for my food hub project in which the majority of it consists of different gardens. It would've been great to have more time to explore deeper how this space would look and be used throughout the different growing seasons. Also making models for my food hub project, especially the gardens, it would've been interesting to see how each structure functions and how the gardens are assembled.
Most helpful feedback have you ever received?
The most motivational advice I've received is to keep producing work, it doesn't need to be perfect, but as long as you keep creating you've got a process to show that helps build your creative thinking.
Any advice you would give other students?
Work with the mediums or topics you're passionate about to strengthen those skills, but don't be scared to challenge yourself to new things, the more skills you have the better but you don't need to be perfect at all of them. Uni allows us to experiment without the constraints of budget, I say exploit that - be radical and fun with your designs, but still have justifications behind them.
Thanks for sharing all your beautiful work, Bonnie. Ka Kite!
Interview by Poppy Samson
Photographs and work supplied by Bonnie Gray
Bonnie can be found on her Instagram
