#41 - Olivia Dryden - Beautiful life after death

Real People, With Jason Dunstone - Consumer Insights, Market Research, Customers, Design Thinking and More

Today we are joined by Olivia Dryden, jeweller and taxidermy artist. Since graduating from Adelaide College of the Arts in 2014, Olivia's career has advanced significantly and she has receive acclaim and recognition for her work. You can find Olivia's website at oliviadrydenjewellery.com Olivia has travelled to India in 2015 for the Helpmann Academy 'Sanskriti Kendra Residency'. The six week residency was an opportunity to escape, be ripped out of her comfort zone and thrown into a world of culture, colour, religion, contrast and overall, just an amazing country. Olivia was also recently awarded one of the inaugural Helpmann Academy Fellowships, supported by the James and Diana Ramsay Foundation valued at up to $20,000 each. This fellowship allowed Olivia to spend three months in London establishing connections and networking opportunities to further develop skills in taxidermy and jewellery making. Olivia's beautiful art comes from a curiosity with death, which arose when she started researching the Victorian Memento Mori period from the 15th to 18th century. She admired the symbolism they used to depict death, like the skull-and-crossbones and the hourglass. She was especially interested in the jewellery that was made using the deceased's hair, and the post-mortem photography. She loved how such a taboo subject, death, could be shown in such a beautiful way. Olivia has had a solo exhibition at 'Life After Death' at Hill Smith Gallery and her jewellery is available in many jewellery stores. We go on a wonderful journey from a childhood loving art, and how Olivia's thirst to keep learning and see the world differently continues and will ever continue. In a profession where only 2% make it, Olivia's passion, network and entrepreneurship is seeing her triumph even with the challenge that comes with life as an artist. Real People is a podcast hosted by Jason Dunstone, the founder and managing director of Square Holes. Subscribe to Real People on your favourite podcast player. Jason builds on his 25 years of conducting human-centred research, interviewing average and not so average people (rich, poor, old, young, content and vulnerable) to understand what they believe and how they behave. Check out the Real People website - http://squareholes.com/realpeople Connect with Jason Dunstone on Twitter @jasondunstone - https://twitter.com/jasondunstone?lang=en Send Jason an email - [e-mail] Read more blogs from Jason Dunstone - https://squareholes.com/blog/author/jason/ Find out more about Square Holes - http://www.squareholes.com/ Produced with Apiro Media - https://www.apiropodcasts.com/