I’m a self-taught artist who creates mixed-media paintings and fun little collectables, for lovers of whimsy and quirk.
Through my art, I explore the themes of strength, vulnerability, femininity and whimsy through stylised portraits and mystical worlds.
These stories mostly come from a deep vulnerable place in my heart, but sometimes they come from my actual dreams, the terrible trio (my three girls), something odd that our animals do, a snippet from a movie, the book I am reading, the shadows on the wall as the sun sets, etc….
It is my biggest wish is that my art inspires both the young and old to keep telling their own stories through their own creativity. To be brave and express their authentic selves be it through art like me or some other creative outlet.
I believe everyone has a creative soul, you may just need help figuring it out and I hope I can inspire you to do just that.
The short story is this:
After ditching her corporate career to explore the world on a mature age gap year (that ended up being nine years) she came back to Australia to raise her young family and decided to start living her own dreams and pursue her artistic ambitions.
Located in rural NSW, on Wiradjuri Country, LilliBean Designs encapsulates the art, designs and creations of self-taught artist Kirstin McCulloch and combines her love of story-telling and her need to create, into layered mixed-media 2D and 3D artworks, that feature stylised characters set in whimsical worlds.
Kirstin draws her inspiration from the ever-changing landscapes and seasonal colours surrounding her, her everyday musings, her insistent curiosity, and the beautiful (and sometimes hilarious) conversations she has with her family.
She hopes that through her art, stories and experiences, to inspire others to rediscover their creativity
However, the longer story is more like this:
The urge to create has always been a part of me, a part that I had ignored for various reasons until it became an overwhelming need that coincided with the birth of our first daughter, Bean, two years previous.
I vividly remember looking down at her and thinking ‘You can grow up to be anything you want. You are a blank slate.’
And in that moment I felt an almost physical jolt of knowing.
“If she can be anything she wants to be WHY CAN’T I?”
So on the day that our squishy gorgeous Bean was born, so too was the knowledge that I was born to create…
Two years later, after living in Scotland for almost ten years, we moved home to the small farming town, on Wiradjuri country, in rural NSW, where I had grown up. A place that I said I was never, ever, ever coming back to.
Homesick for our adopted country and our friends there, knowing only a handful of people in our new home, and with now two small babies I spent every spare moment I had drawing, sketching and eventually painting. Moving from my couch to the kitchen table to my garage studio creating, playing and exploring.
And this is where LilliBean Designs was established. At my kitchen table surrounded by the chaos of life.
At the end of 2010 I started my first blog ‘Listening to the Squeak Inside’ (you all can still see those first thoughts!!), opened up an Etsy shop in 2011 and sold my very first painting to someone who wasn’t my family or a close friend in 2013!
And that in a nut shell is how this crazy journey began. And I am grateful for it every single day!
Mac and I still live in my hometown, and adding to our little family with another child (They are known as Bean, Bug and Beastie or collectively as the ‘TERRIBLE TRIO’) the most omega German shepherd who thinks he is a lap dog and a cat who sometimes wants a cuddle but really wants nothing to do with any of us…
We are constantly trying to figure out our work life balance, usually bumbling along in a world filled with school and after school hobbies, trying to spend time with our family and friends, Mac’s busy workload and of course LilliBean Designs.
SOMETHINGS YOU MAY NEVER KNOW ABOUT ME ARE:
- I love taking photos of tiny little things that I find in the garden, on the beach, on walks or just around.
- Mac and I moved to Scotland for a bit. We went to travel the world for a year and ended up settling for nearly 10 on the beautiful Isle of Raasay, off the northwest coast of Scotland. I still miss it terribly and dream about it constantly.
- When the Terrible Trio ask “What we are doing today?” I always reply “The same thing we do every day Pinkie – try to take over the world”. They literally have no clue where this reference is from!
- I love a good romance novel – sci-fi, suspense, comedy, MC lite, paranormal. Anything but historical and I am in. I blame my Nan and her Mills and Boon collection that I used to raid in the holidays when I was 14.
- I am still learning to love myself for who I am. Not who I was, who I think I should be or who I want to be in the future. Who I am in this very moment in time.
- I love, love, love when my creations find their forever homes. It fills me with so much gratitude and joy. But even if I didn’t sell a thing I would still create because I have to.
- I always wear a literal (albeit small) crown on a chain around my neck to remind me that I am a queen and I got this shit handled…. most of the time. Ok some of the time!
And I am so very glad you are here.
for visiting and spending your time exploring my whimsical and chaotic world. And I hope that you are inspired to start expressing your creative voice!
You can write me an email at hello@lillibeandesigns.com. Thank you for your love and support.
