A line that doesn’t bleed

A fluid line is valued in the arts and there is nothing closer to the hearts of millennials than catching up for a coffee.

Emajane Fisher has moved to Tower 4 at Yarra’s Edge and is making an impact downstairs at the café.

People talk about activating your right brain, but it can be difficult.

Emajane has given up a 9 to 5 job in public health and begun a career as an artist where spatial experiments count.

She uses her entire body in her continuous line murals with the pleasure in the random connections between coffee cups, glasses, and customers. In one portrait the pupils are teacups.

“It has a graphic design element to it,” she said of her mural by the stairs to the car park. “It’s hyper-styled but I’m focusing more on imperfection. It’s about the joy of coffee.”

The move to Yarra’s Edge was from the inner north. “I became unwell in the office,” Emajane said. “There’s too much perfection in me. I had to release the high standards on myself.”

So, she moved in with her mum and began enjoying social as well as artistic life instead of putting such high demands on herself.

“There are quite a lot of retirees here,” she said. “It’s kind of fun. They have coffee and sit for three hours.”

Yarra’s Edge is also a beautiful setting and although Emajane doesn’t see herself as part of a trend she accepts that the place is visually inspirational.

It’s so hard to distinguish the visuals from the context. For me as an artist, the visuals are within a context. I love the modern buildings against the water and the architectural space shows flair. It is appealing.

She said Yarra’s Edge had a sense of community and that the move had been good for her soul. “Neighbours talk, coffee groups meet. It feels like a small town.”

She talks about her move from the inner north where she studied public and global health to the inner south as healing.

“People can be progressive but not afraid of money. As long as you acknowledge privilege there’s no need to be guilty about it.”

The pressure on young professionals is different to being an artist working on you own business.

“You have to learn to sell yourself as an artist,” she said, and perhaps that’s not a bad thing.

Already she’s received mural commissions from private clients in Fitzroy and has a solo exhibition coming up in Brunswick.

Proprietor Andrew Ligdopoulos is in favour of supporting local artists but Emajane adds something that has not been seen before in the more literal works on display – a lovely caring line that doesn’t bleed. •