Since December 2021, Gippsland artist Jo Caminiti has been hard at work in her Cowwarr workshop, where she's been sketching, cutting, bending, and welding her biggest project to date – a 300kg metal sculpture that will soon take its place in Drouin's Civic Park, as the final piece to Council's $1.5 million park upgrade project.
The metal sculpture will pay homage to the Corymbia Ficifolia, or red flowering gum, that can be frequently found around Drouin and is celebrated annually with the town's Ficifolia Festival.
For Jo, creating the ficifolia sculpture is the combination of two lifelong passions: art and the science of nature.
Drawing inspiration from her father, who Jo would help when he was collecting and creating things out of scrap metal on the family farm, she learnt from an early age that almost everything can be reused to make something new – no matter the condition it was in.
It wasn't just Jo's father who inspired her and fuelled her artistic passion, though. Jo's mother taught her how to draw anatomically correct animals, and she remembers drafting horses as a girl using simple shapes to get the proportions right, skills that she still uses today when sketching her sculpture ideas.
As Jo grew older, she explored her love of nature through science and art, but ultimately had to make a choice about which career path she would pursue and ended up gravitating towards a career in science in high school. She enjoyed a 30-year career in natural resource management and sustainability that saw her work in local and state government, working with the CSIRO and other organisations managing the state's waterways and working towards a sustainable future.
Although Jo's career took a scientific route, she maintained her artistic hobbies and would do the odd workshop to learn new skills, and for a time was a member of the Wildlife Art Society of Australasia where she would participate in their annual exhibitions, combining her scientific eye for detail with her creative flair.
In 2016, Jo decided it was time to pursue her art full time and after setting up her studio and honing her new skills, she created her first large scale sculpture - a flying horse that now sits proudly outside of her workshop and symbolises her leap of faith.
Jo then set her sights on a new piece that she could exhibit and display in multiple locations, one that she could use to launch her artistic career. This is when she created her 'Fighting Roos' statue, which she exhibited at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show in 2017. It was at this time that Jo was successful in applying for the Creative Gippsland Come and Play in May residency with local community group the Friends of Drouin's Trees.
The residency saw Jo collaborate with the Friends of Drouin's Trees and Council's Cultural Development Officer to paint portraits of Drouin's 10 remnant giant gums in 10 days. Following the successful residency, Council's Civic Park project team approached Jo about creating a concept sculpture for Civic Park as part of the masterplan development for the site.
When asked how she thinks she'll feel once the project is over, Jo said: "At first, I'll feel a massive relief that it's complete. After that, it will feel amazing to see it standing there in the park. Being my first commissioned sculpture that I have created from concept to construction will be a lovely feeling, just being able to point it out to people and say that's my work."
