In her day job Polly Lind can be found filing and managing some of NZ's important archives for the Ministry for Culture and Heritage in Wellington. In her creative work Polly applies the same meticulous detail to creating beautiful and meaningful modern tapestry and fabric artworks, adorning walls from NZ to Canada.

Polly tells us how her artwork is inspired by mythology, but she rejects 'modern folklore' that you can't make a living from creating art.

"You can make a living by being an artist, it just takes persistence and perseverance.  It is a long game not a get rich quick scheme, creating artwork should be something that you are passionate about, something that is a part of who you are."

Qualifications:
I have a degree with honours in Religious Studies from Victoria University. I have no formal art training other than school cert in art.  

Tell us about your day job.

My day job is with the Ministry for Culture and Heritage (MCH), I am an Assistant Information Management Advisor, which I like to say that the short term is 'Filing'.  It is pretty much managing information such as files, both electronically and physically.  I also help staff with their filing, and retrieve physical files from offsite storage and Archives New Zealand.  I have great interest and experience in archiving of very old paper files.  

It is said that if you are unable to find the information or file that you are looking for within 15 minutes then you have lost it, or it has been misfiled.  Finding information is all about how you put it away, which in the electronic age is all about how you name the document or file.  So when you are next naming your document or folder, think, who is going to want to find this in 50 years’ time and how are they going to search for it.  

Tell us about your creative work when you’re NOT doing your day job?

My mother taught me to sew, when the sewing teacher at school wouldn’t.  Mum had always sewn my clothing as I was growing up.  I bought my first sewing machine when I was about 25 about 20 years ago. About 10 years ago I had been looking around for some pagan artwork that was beautiful and meaningful for a witch in New Zealand. I wanted to create art to hang on my wall that was fine art, but also had a sacredness of connection.  I also wanted the artwork to have a distinct New Zealand and Aotearoa feeling to it.  Our seasons are in opposition to those of the northern hemisphere and our culture is different.  

The first modern tapestry that I created represented the southern seasons.  I used New Zealand themed quilting fabric.  Then a couple of years later I created a goddess figure with spiral printed fabric, on a white linen fabric, with a red satin ribbon boarder.  I took it to yoga class to show a friend and the yoga teacher bought it on the spot.  

How do you manage juggling both?

I work part time at MCH and part time on my art business.  It takes some good planning and I work full days at MCH and not part days, so it's pretty much three days a week at MCH and the rest is currently devoted to creating art and running my art business. 

Tell us about your creative background.

I have always been creative, and I love to sew.  I used to make fabric bunnies that had beautiful ruffed dresses and little button eyes, I also make other cloth faery dolls.  So I guess it was a natural progression to begin to create beautiful fabric artworks that had a sacred connection.  I had tried to paint a goddess figure but it was not coming out in a way that I liked.  It was a year or two after that that I created my first fabric artwork.  I have also taken a class on screen printing, but during it discovered that I did not like to get paint on my hands.  I now use fabric instead of paint.  

What has inspired you? Who or what keeps you going?

I have always liked to push the societal norms.  Fabric so often is considered to be a craft object rather than a fine art, I see it as fine art, and want others to see that as well.  I have also always been told that it was other people who created art, or made a living from creating art, or only dead artist artwork was worth anything.  I believe this is not true, it is an urban myth, modern folklore.  You can make a living by being an artist, it just takes persistence and perseverance.  It is a long game not a get rich quick scheme, creating artwork should be something that you are passionate about, something that is a part of who you are.  

What inspires me currently is to find out how far I can take the fabric medium, how I can develop my current skills and create more feeling and depth into my work.  

Would you like your creative work to be full-time?

Eventually yes I would love to make a good living from my artwork. 

What would help you achieve this?

Wider recognition… but also the way to help artists achieve a living from their artwork is to buy their art. Oh and tell all your friends what wonderful art you purchased and who created it. 

If you had the chance to start your creative career or path again, what would you do differently?

*laughs*.. Hell no.. if I did not have the life I have had then I would not be the person I currently am, creating the artworks I am currently creating.  And I am happy with who I am and what I am currently creating.  

What advice would you give to someone pursuing a similar creative career or pathway?

Do not stop.  Be persistent, be patient, learn about social media, learn about running a business.  Do not stop, keep on pressing on, you will find your audience,  keep on showing your artwork to as many people as you can, it will help to find your audience.  

Tell us about your recent or upcoming creative projects.

Currently I am working on many custom works, for a lot of different people. It is one of my favourite things to do, to work with people and create a tapestry that has a sacred connection for them.  I have just finished designing and cutting out a fox for a Canadian client. As well as two banners for a festival in Canada.  Upcoming creative projects will involve creating three gallery worthy pieces and I am tossing up ideas around New Zealand scenery, and a stack of teacups as I love tea.  

What’s your big idea for 2016?

My big idea this year is to grow my audience, to grow my artwork, get some work into shops around Wellington and to figure out how to go about getting some work into a gallery or something similar.