My name is Megan Webber aka Biff, but that’s a long story. That has more to do with my younger years of wearing a Beanie everywhere I went. I completed my Bachelor of Arts Degree in Graphic Design at Monash University Caulfield in 1992. I wasn’t your typical Graphic Designer and really ended up not wanting to go into the field. I was really more interested in exploring various techniques of expres
sion. Although I did the odd design work on the side,
I enjoyed film, photography and live bands mainly Spiderbait and the grunge punk culture and along with that came an introduction to grass roots student politics. As a young 20 something women coming out my life really went into a range of political journeys. All though always creating and painting artworks for a range of student political purposes. Painted a large canvas for the women’s room at RMIT, illustrated Front Covers for Grot Grrl Zine Australia, Illustrated Australian Women’s Book Review. I spent many years around RMIT. My most enjoyable work however was working in the Aboriginal Education Unit teaching digital art to the students
I self taught myself on the computer as I had left university at the beginning of the tech revolution and really hadn’t been given much training. I was unemployed for a period of time. I still pursued my art as much as I could. Eventually having my first exhibition at the Commercial Hotel in Yarraville , which I was the first person to push to get my work in there as I didn’t know much about galleries and wouldn’t have been able to do it any other way at the time. It was a successful Pop up exhibition. Following that show the following year 1995 I was given a job training placement which at the time was part of the Newport Overpass Scheme, you know the nuts and bolts well I watched them being made. I however worked on the other part of that scheme , which involved a 25 meter glass mosaic that was later in stalled in the pool area of the Panorama Appartments in Rathdown Street Carlton. During this project I also worked with Kids at Risk program in Altona working with kids from the Western Suburbs to create two large murals for the swimming centre. I have exhibited in group exhibitions the Fringe Festival Salon Exhibition, Sydney Road Development Committee Window Works and many other groups Exhibitions in the 1990’s. My artworks for these exhibitions consisted on sculptured wires and flashing slide imagery, remembering computer tech hadn’t got to where is is today. So I do have a passion for lights, movement and imagery. My passion for digital imagery grew during this time in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Developing my skills and working with some of the best digital illustrators in Melbourne. Working for a short time with Kiera Poelsma. I had some personal issues and health issues mainly depression and anxiety in the late 1990’s to 2000’s . I did do some work at the Hanover Center in South Melbourne running an art Therapy Group for those doing rehab . In 2004 I decided to do what I had really wanted to do for years and that was NEIS . Which I successfully completed. I produced LGBTQIA T-shirts or some success, but the major role I managed to get was working with the Darebin Council to become their artist in residence. I worked collaboratively with students of Thornbury High creating a digital photographic banner which lead the Darebin Art Festival in 2006 and was presented to the Singapore Commonwealth Games team as a gift. Shortly after this personal circumstances lead me to leave Melbourne to Pheasant Creek Kinglake and then onto Seymour Central Victoria. I held a another solo Pop Up exhibition 2008 at the Harvest Home in Victoria called Interwoven Landscapes, where I exhibited a range of large digital artworks along with photography , Audi visual and painted artworks. Organising a real event with live Music from Lou Bennet Tidda, Monica Weightman, Aintree Sweet, Cyndi Boste and Racheal McCracken. This was a good representation of my life journey to that time in life. I haven’t found life easy in the County. I’ve found it difficult with isolation and a of of a small town mentality. Being part of the LGBTQIA in Seymour hasn’t been easy, but I have overtime lost myself with the environment. My artwork has reflected my current surrounding at the ones of the beach from our family getaway home to our travels to Bali particularly the Gilli Islands, Thailand and Vietnam in the past few years have been very influential with current artworks. Travelling to Hawaii also gave me an insight to what was being exhibited and sold was also a good learning curve and from there I’ve been pursuing epoxy artwork small sculptures and garden artworks. My passion is grass roots, my artwork is varied and my directions vary, but I am committed as an artist and am open to many directions.
