Combining work with passion is a goal for many. For Chris Fraser, it’s the reality she’s been living for the past four decades. As part of National Teacher Day, she spoke to Teagan Bell about her career as an educator and artist and how the two have intertwined along the way. Pictures: Krystal Torney
FOR Chris Fraser, art has been a lifelong passion.
“I was always drawing and painting as a child and a teenager and just doing my own thing,” she says.
Growing up in Yarrawonga, she aspired to become a full-time artist, but was swayed to choose a more “stable” career, with art education the next best thing.
“Back then we weren’t presented with as many options as students are now and I didn’t want to be a nurse so I chose teaching,” she says.
After completing her education degree, Chris taught in several schools across eastern and central Australia, as well as a short stint at a high school on Nauru.
Moving to Sunraysia 34 years ago with her partner Ann, the pair settled in Red Cliffs where Chris took a job teaching ceramics at Mildura High School, now known as Mildura Senior College.
“Then a really experienced teacher left and I took over his classes,” she says.
“So I started teaching senior art classes for the first time, which was in 1986.”
Alongside teaching, Chris had been developing her style as an artist, which she describes as “a little bit quirky, a little bit whimsical, imaginative, vibrant and highly patterned”.
“There’s usually that strong use of line as well, whether I paint or draw or do lino prints,” she says.
Using a number of different mediums, Chris says her favourite is gouache, an opaque water-based paint.
“But I also like acrylic, collage, mixed media, pencil and lino prints,” she says with a laugh. “I try to mix it up just to stay fresh and I think it’s important to challenge yourself.”
Initially, Chris didn’t share her work with her students as she was afraid it would influence them too much.
“But then I found it was such a great teaching tool and I now always take my sketch books there and sometimes I take a piece I’m working on and show them,” she says.
“They see what you can achieve and because I’m usually working towards an exhibition I’ll start a sketch book or folio with them so they can understand how I develop that.”
Though she’d always been producing art, Chris didn’t start exhibiting until the early 1990s, after some of her pieces displayed in Irymple received an “amazingly positive response”.
“I was really nervous but I’d been encouraged by a lot of people to present some of my work to the public,” she says.
“So I’d had that encouragement and support and when I had my first exhibition at the Mildura Arts Centre it was just one of the best years of my life.”
Reflecting on her time teaching, Chris says while the education system hasn’t changed much when it comes to visual art, her students’ approach to learning has.
“Students often work or have a busy social life, which means they sometimes don’t do a lot of work outside of class, so to develop a strong art folio can be challenging,” she says.
“But I think they have become better at presenting developmental portfolios.
“It’s a lot easier now with the internet for them to be able to have access to amazing images and influences.
“For me, it’s still about getting the best out of the students in developing their skills and taking a risk to present their best work.”
When asked if teaching influences her art, Chris takes a moment to answer.
“I think it has because I’ve just had such positive feedback from a whole range of people, including students, that I’ve felt confident to follow my own ideas than follow what the trend in art is at the moment,” she says.
“And because I try to encourage students to learn new techniques and about new materials, I try to take that risk in my work too.”
From her home studio, Chris is currently working on a piece that will be displayed in an exhibition next March.
Though she had a studio at the Art Vault a few years ago, she now works from the bright and open space at the back of her Mildura home where she and Ann, and rescue cats Lily and Nala, moved three years ago. She says they chose the home for a number of reasons.
“You get a little surprise when you come in because it looks like a really small frontage, like a little unit, and then there’s all this welcoming space,” she says. “And it’s got good spaces and good wall area for displaying artwork and this particular area was light and welcoming, so it immediately attracted me as an art space.”
Chris says while the meaning of home for her can be adapted from house to house, there are a few ways she can define it.
“I think it’s who you share it with,” she says.
“It’s a place where I refresh and refocus and develop my artwork – it has to have that potential area for me.
“And it has to be a colourful, interesting place – I don’t like bare walls or empty shelves.”
She says it also needs to be a place where friends can gather and family can stay, such as her two adult children, Becky and James.
Now teaching part time, Chris says she’s happy with the balance between work and life.
“I always say another couple of years, so I’m just taking it year by year,” she says.
“I could retire but I’m really enjoying working with positive students at the moment.”
And as for art?
“I’ve got so much around the house, I don’t know if I should keep creating more,” she laughs. “But it makes me feel so much better when I am because it’s part of me, it’s who I am, so I’ll just keep playing.”
