WOW finalist thinks YOLO
Meg Wilshier decided she was going to start doing exactly what she wanted and became a finalist in New Zealand’s biggest wearable art show.
Cancer forced Meg Wilshier to start living in the moment and because of that she is Hamilton’s only World of Wearable Art finalist this year.
And following her experience with cancer she decided “you only live once” (yolo) was her mantra.
Meg is not an artist. At least that is what she tells people.
Everything about her says otherwise, the stroke of orange through her hair, her enthusiasm when speaking about art, not just her own work but the work of others too.
Being the only person from Waikato to make it as a finalist in the open section of the World of Wearable Art competition this year is a big feat, especially for someone who is “not an artist”.
Walking into Meg Wilshier’s home the first thing you notice is the lack of bare space on the walls. Art is everywhere. All different types, from paintings, photography and pottery, all spread around her home in almost every corner.
A lot of the ceramic sculptures she made herself.
Her garment for WOW “Kathy would love this in purple” is Meg’s first garment she has entered.
The orange and black post-apocalyptic warrior style garment was one of 159 garments chosen to be featured in the Wellington show.
It is made of about 75 ceramic pieces, tyre inner tube and bicycle parts.
“I wanted to make an outfit out of ceramic, I was fascinated by how I would secure it using only ceramic.”
Her favourite piece of her garment is the latch at the back. It is a ceramic hinge, which is held together by a ceramic nail that she made herself.
Meg began pottery classes after she was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago.
“I just decided that I was going to do exactly what I wanted to do from then on.
“I’m completely fascinated with my own head, there’s so much, I think I wasted so much of my life saying I’ll do things tomorrow and when I got the cancer I found out I have to do things now and today.”
She decided she was going to enter WOW after attending last year’s show.
She began making her garment but was unsure she would finish in time.
It was her husband Nigel who ended up pushing her to complete it.
“Actually Nigel enrolled me in WOW in the end. I’d been working on these outfits but I wasn’t sure if I would get anything finished. I came home one day and Nigel said to me ‘congratulations designer 7737 I’ve entered you in to WOW’.”
While camping in Gisborne, Meg found out she had made it as a finalist.
“I had been thinking all the time they only took it because they needed to make up the numbers.”
When she saw her garment on stage she knew it deserved to be there.
“It was really neat, I did enjoy it. I really enjoyed seeing it and I think one of the best things was it did have its rightful place, I think it deserved to be there.”
