Art imitating life has won a prestigious Trusts award for Anna McLeod.
The Titirangi resident has finished second for her sculpture, ceramic, and assemblage entry in the 36th
Trusts Art Awards. Waitākere Arts hosted the event, sponsored by The Trusts, at the Corban Estate Arts Centre in Henderson.
Anna’s prize-winning piece in stoneware clay, Coral Twist, cuts a vertical twisted form inspired by her own life.
As a child, Anna was diagnosed with mild kyphoscoliosis, an abnormal curve of the spine on two planes, and believed she had grown out of it. But a chiropractic appointment and the resulting x-ray revealed the twist was still there, she says. “I’m celebrating that little spinal twist,” the 59-year-old says. “I think it's beautiful and a unique part of me. I made a series of twisty conical forms that then became rock formations, and this one, I incorporated references of bone anatomy and structure.”
The art teacher and pottery tutor also incorporated a suggestion that this could be a marine coral formation, to weave several layers of meaning into the work. It took 12 painstaking hours to build the sculpture by hand in stages, allowing the clay to set in between each process.
The Waitākere Community Arts Centre committee member says she was surprised to earn an accolade given the calibre of the other entries. “The judges understood the work and the various nuances within it,” she says. “That was worth just as much as the prize to me. I am very grateful to Waitākere Arts for hosting the exhibition, to The Trusts, the many sponsors and people behind the scenes that make this exhibition event possible.”
Waitākere Arts President Sue Butler has praised The Trusts' support. "On behalf of Waitākere Arts and our participating artists, I would like to thank The Trusts for the opportunity to host such an amazing Awards Exhibition. Each year our show gets better!"
Anna launched her early career in Health Sciences and worked as a Sleep and Respiratory Therapist. “Yet there was a yearning to re-explore art for personal reasons,” she says. “The yearning was an awareness that I had some family history and personal history to work through and I gravitated to art as a form of self-therapy and expression. I had a wonderful opportunity to stay home with my children after my second child was born. It was then that I started to explore my inner stories and memories and emotions through art.”
In 2005, she returned to study art as a mature student. Anna started making and exhibiting work but took a decade-long break while teaching full-time. In 2020, she left the full-time profession to pursue ceramics. “Although I have been making work since 2005, I feel like I’m just getting started.”
She plans to use her $2200 prize money to travel to Japan, a bucket list destination postponed by the Covid-19 outbreak. “I have always been intrigued by the complexity of Japanese culture and love the art of the Edo period,” she says. “I look forward to visiting pottery towns and artisan workshops and returning with new inspirations to put forward into my work.”
Seven of the 13 artists to win awards live in The West.
Winners of the 36th Trusts Art Awards
1st prize Art- $3000 | Nyle Major | |
| 2nd prize Art- $2200 | Miki Nozomi |
| 3rd prize Art- $1500 | Jane Davies |
| 1st prize Sculpture/ceramics/assemblage- $3000 | Oliver Cain | |
| 2nd prize Sculpture -$2200 | Anna McLeod | |
| 3rd Prize Sculpture -$1500 | Fiona Newton |
Youth Awards
| 1st prize 13-15 yr Art- $500 | Stella Cho | |
| 2nd prize 13-15 yr Art -$300 | Karamu Southon |
| 1st prize 13-15 yr Photography - $500 | Ezekiel Taumoepeau | |
| 2nd prize (not enough entries) | ||
| 1st prize 16-18 yr Art - $500 | Kim Yeyoung |
| 2nd prize - $300 | Harmony Leti | |
| 1st prize 16-18yr photography - $500.00 | Keen Aicken |
| 2nd prize -$300 | Will Lopez |
