Aileen McEwen is a painter and is also pursuing a career in collections management in the museums and heritage sector. Her paintings explore ideas of illusion, desire and memory and are full of the historic spaces she works in.
Speaker #1 of Womenfolk - The Time is Now Panel
Karishma Kusurkar is a designer-entrepreneur focused on inventing new products with her brand Karishma's World. As co-founder of Belfast Design Week & The Design Salon, Karishma is passionate about raising the profile of Belfast as a design destination. She is an avid collector of postcards and a huge fan of podcasts.
Womenfolk – The Time is Now Panel
12/03/18
Black Box
18:00-20:00
There has long been a disparity between the number of men and women involved in Design and Entrepreneurship.
The Time is Now is an Interactive panel discussion which will discuss how we can encourage and support young female design entrepreneurs in Northern Ireland.
We have four wonderful speakers including Karishma Kusurkar and Aileen McEwen who will be joining us for this event that is part of Creativity Month 2018
"Defining who you are" by designer Emily McIlwaine
The way we spend our time defines who we are. It’s important to make sure we are putting our time into something we really believe in. For me, this can be described in three main points.
Identity
It wasn’t until I was in my early twenties that weaving found me. I had started a degree in textile art, but felt that I could neither be classed as ‘artist’ or ‘designer’. When I started weaving, the process was all consuming. There was something so fascinating about the rhythmic, meditative (some might say boring!) processes to weaving fabric that appealed to me. Identity for me means finding a career path that engages your head, hands, and heart. Once you find your design identity, immerse yourself in it!
Community
The more educated and skilled in our disciplines we become, the more we encourage others to share that passion, and it starts the ball rolling for a fantastic support network to share ideas with. Supporting each other’s disciplines and business ventures lifts the standard here in Northern Ireland for good design and strong practices, bringing creativity and job opportunities further afield than just the big cities. For this reason and more, Blick Shared Studios is an excellent regional hub for creatives to meet, share and inspire.
Inspiration
I find cross-disciplinary experiences stimulate creativity and encourage me to produce more interesting designs. It can encourage me to appreciate the skill needed to create something beautiful, functional and well designed. Most inspiration for me comes from fine art, or sculpture. Don’t be afraid to immerse yourself in something completely detached from your discipline; you might just break that creative block!