Grant gives young printmaker a jump start

Print maker, Amy Kerr, has been selected as a recipient in this year’s JUMP mentor program to develop her skills in a Japanese-inspired fabric print project.

Kerr, (pictured), who runs her own design range, Moyou, began print making 15 years ago in high school, and later studied the craft further at university, where she studied textile design – specialising in surface design: designing, dyeing and printing fabric.

She believes that being chosen for JUMP, a national mentoring program for artists aged 18-30, who are in the first five years of their professional practice, will help hone her skills even further.

“Receiving this grant has been an amazing and exciting experience,” Kerr said. “It means that I can undertake a one-on-one mentorship and focus on developing and producing a funded creative project over the next nine months with Keiko Kawashima, director of Gallery Gallery and Kyoto International Contemporary Textile Art Centre. It is especially important because it could potentially extend my existing professional practice and help me progress to the next stage of my career at a national and international level.”

As part of her mentorship Kerr will work on producing a body of hand-dyed textile work using the traditional Japanese dyeing method of katazome, a resist dyeing technique that has been used in Japan for hundreds of years. “I have recently travelled to Kyoto, Japan to meet with Keiko, to brush up on my katazome skills, and to purchase specialist equipment and materials necessary to create katazome work in Australia. I will also travel to Japan at the end of my mentorship to show Keiko the completed body of work for critique,” she said.