JASMINE COE: My name is Jasmine Coe and I'm a Wiradjuri woman and a British woman. I grew up in London with my mother and I only came to Australia, I think it was in... it was Christmas 2016. And I came to meet my dad and my family. I hadn't been to Australia before. So this trip was quite a big one, you know, connecting to my heritage as an Aboriginal woman, as a Wiradjuri woman, learning about where I've come from and my family and our connection to Wiradjuri country, and what that means and how that shapes me as a person. QUESTION: WHAT HAS BEEN A TURNING POINT IN YOUR CAREER? I think a turning point in my career or a proud moment would have been the start of my artistic journey here in my practice. Now, what I'm doing here was, you know, coming to Australia and learning about who I am, meeting my family and discovering self-identity. And, you know, connecting to my heritage and Wiradjuri country and how that shapes who I am now, as a person, and how I see myself. So that, in itself, has been a really proud moment. Probably, one of the biggest things I would actually do in my whole lifetime is coming here and taking this journey. Another kind of turning point was when I joined Boomalli and became one of their artists. And they've provided so many opportunities where I've exhibited some of my work in I think three exhibitions last year there and they've taken some of my work to, you know, Hobart and took part in the Hobiennale there. And it was a real kind of proud moment thinking and seeing your work going to these places where I've never been, but what I've made and what I've created in my little studio somewhere has reached people on the other side of the world. I was making this work in London and it's kind of... it's about feeling connected and engaging with others. And it's kind of the process of that has been, yeah, a real turning point. QUESTION: HOW DO YOU FEEL WHEN YOU MAKE WORK? I think I feel a mixture of things when I make work because it's very personal for me. It's my own process of healing. And so I cry a lot when I paint because you're letting yourself be vulnerable to what you're feeling and you're feeling it and you're in it. And I think, to some extent, everyone holds pain and it's how you deal with it and it's how you process it. Painting, for me, it's therapeutic because it allows me to express emotions of what I'm holding or what I have been holding and you're creating something beautiful with it. QUESTION: HOW DO YOU SURVIVE AS AN ARTIST? I think you have to have belief. You have to believe in what you're doing. Yeah, I mean it's tough. Like, being an artist is tough because you're the only one doing it yourself. You know, you don't have a... Well, if you're starting out, it's just you. You don't have like a team of people. So you have to find the motivation and the belief that what you're doing is... there's something in it. And then, you know, you have to... I think today, to be an artist, you have to equip yourself with so many different skills. You have to learn how to navigate the art world and you have to learn, you know, how to do your accounts, how to be your own like marketing manager or social media manager. There are so many different things to it. When I left university, I kind of thought, "Oh, you know, I'd love to paint. That's what I want to do," but you're not so much equipped with the skills to survive as a self-employed artist. And I think, to survive, you need to teach yourselves or learn, from somewhere, these essential, yeah, skills.