Stop That Noise: A Weird Little Interview With Australian Artist Lily Turek
Lily Turek + squiggly art = !!!
Lily Turek’s colorful, contour-ish, stream-of-consciousness art can be found on skateboard decks, walls, perspex, posters for Girls Skate Brisbane’s Big Deck Energy gatherings, and other unexpected surfaces throughout Australia. After coming across Turek’s creations, which dwell under the moniker Lil Grl Art, we thought we would see if she’d be down for a weird little interview with Gold Snow. Turns out she was.
Read on for some Q&A, some art-sharing, and some kick-pushing with Lily Turek.
Lil Grl Art, Lily Turek & Girls Skate Brisbane—Creating Inclusive Spaces Through Skateboarding, Art & Hugs
Us: What is skateboarding to you? How and what has it fed you?
Lily Turek: Skateboarding is a challenge every single time. It’s uncomfortable and it’s frustrating, but also beautiful and fluid. It has fed my soul, it has shown me some great and unexpected things. It has handed me some beautiful friends and most of all, it has given me a place in the queer community, which I still struggle with outside of skateboarding.
Us: How is it that you have come to breathe?
LT: Trauma, it showed me how to appreciate every breath.
Us: Preach… When and where were you happiest?
LT: Sleeping in the back of a van with my best friend traveling the coast.
Us: Tell us about your morning/evening rituals?
LT: Morning - wake up, coffee, draw, drive to work. Evening - complain about cooking dinner, cook said dinner, paint or practice skateboarding downstairs, then bed HELLA early.
Us: Why is art necessary?
LT: Because I would be an empty corpse without it. I would happily say art saved me, I don’t meditate when I’m anxious I art.
Us: What is your current state of mind?
LT: Keep moving, keep improving, keep progressing every day.
Us: Tell us about Big Deck Energy + the art you created for/surrounding it.
LT: I was approached to form the creative platform within the Girls Skate Brisbane community. I feel like skateboarding is an art form of the body and so is painting/visual art. I was already painting decks for the past two years so I thought why not open up a space for upcoming artist to do the same. Since then a fair few humans have approached me wanting to start skating or start their own creative outlet. That’s probably the most rewarding part.
Us: Why is this important?
LT: My own sanity. To make other people’s lives more fulfilling.
Us: Tell us about Girls Skate Brisbane.
LT: I had a panic attack before attending my first Girls Skate Brisbane meet up. Walking into it I was hugged by three people and instantly felt in a good space. I hadn’t felt that way in a very long time. I owe all my progression in skateboarding and art to GSB.
Us: Who did you last talk to?
LT: My barista, for my coffee order (iced latte).... Australia’s hot man
Us: How would you like to die?
LT: Being held by my loved ones.
Us: Favorite female skateboarder (it can be yourself)?
Us: Yeah, Nora can roll.
Us: Other artists whose work you adore?
LT: Del Kathryn Barton and Ben Quilty
Us: How will you continue?
LT: With a sketch book, balancing a coffee in one hand and a skateboard in the other.
Us: Importance of getting more womxn on skateboards?
LT: Because we are the ones needing to lay this path for future womxn skaters. We deserve this recognition, the exposure. No one is else going to do it for us.
Us: Mornings, afternoons, or evenings?
LT: Mornings, every time. I look crusty as shit but the world doesn’t.
Us: Which words or phrases do you most overuse?
LT: Dude, that’s wild, cheeky, stop that noise (ie. if someone is talking negatively about themselves I say ...stop that noise!)
Us: Last concert you attended?
LT: Two Door Cinema Club, which was in my top three performers to see before I die. It was beautiful. Arctic monkeys are next!
Us: Dance ’til you drop or wallflower?
LT: Dance ‘til I drop, all day everyday.
Us: Describe your style (of dress) in a single sentence.
LT: I would say it’s a hobo artist crossed with a skater who lives at the thrift shop… paint stained, coffee stained and always a few holes.
Us: How will you let it be different every time?
LT: Because I am different every time. And I am totally okay with that.
Us: Tell us about your art-making process.
LT: I people watch a lot when I have my coffee. I’m always on my own so I soak up the energy , environment, people’s moods. It always starts there. I normally go through a sketch book a month of coffee scribble, then it build from there.
Us: Who told you it was ok?
LT: Myself and my psychologist when I couldn’t say it to myself
Us: Themes/threads that emerge through your art?
LT: Gayness, nudity, hands, colours, kookiness.
Us: Goals for your skating?
LT: Firstly, fuck this whole “but can you do a kick flip!?!” mentality. The amount of guys that have yelled at me in the street that same old line. Why would I define my abilities of skateboarding by one singular trick? I don’t define any other aspect of my life by one singular skill. Why change that for skateboarding and purely for the sake of a random dude at the skatepark or a random dude yelling at you on the street? Fuck them. So really, my goal is to never stop.
Us: Favorite song from the last 15 years?
LT: Shooting Star by Bag raiders.
Us: No one can argue with that music video.
Us: Which living person do you most admire?
LT: Leo Baker
Us: We LOVE Leo Baker. Goddamn.
Us: First skateboard you owned?
LT: Christmas 2012. I fell off the following day and didn’t touch one again ‘til December 2018.
Us: What is your compass?
LT: My anxiety. It’s a great filter for the people and environments I do and don’t want to be around.
Us: Favorite trick and/or style of skating and why.
LT: Andy Anderson’s style, if you haven’t seen him look him up!!! Literally goes against the grain with every trick he rips. Which is what I want to do. I want to shock people and confuse them, haha.
Us: Ohmygod. This film is gorgeous. Andy’s riding is gorgeous—there’s some Daewon in there, some 70’s influence, and also just… him. That human just dances on a board.
Us: Go-to medium for creating art?
LT: SKATEBOARDS, ACRYLICS, PAINT PENS 4 LIFEEEEE.
Us: What is the skateboard industry lacking?
LT: Womxn ran groups, organisation, companies, skate brands.
US: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
LT: Stop being a little bitch when it comes to skate tricks
Us: Nonessential essential for a day at the skatepark?
LT: A good fucking attitude.
Us: Nail on the head.
Thanks heaps, Lily. We adore who you are and what you do. And we very much look forward to seeing more skate-informed art + art-informed skateboarding come out through Lil Grl and Girls Skate Brisbane. Ciao!