Interview Transcript from Illawarra Stories Wollongong City Libraries Oral History Project – Kathryn Orton
Interviewer: Jennifer Macey
Interview date: Unknown
Jennifer: …you please start by saying your name and where you’re from and what you do.
Kathryn: I’m Kathryn Orton. I live in Coniston now but grew up in Orange. Um, I was a graphic artist in Wollongong for about 15 years and now I’m just an artist. A fine artist. I do a bit of teaching now at Red Point and but I taught at TAFE in Wollongong and a bit of tutoring at the University over the years.
Jennifer: And you are… Your artwork is probably most recognisable as the cover of the programmes and the posters.
Kathryn: Yeah, yeah, I think from, from about 1991 I think to ’94. Maybe it was earlier and a bit later, I can’t remember anyway, but I did the posters and things for the Folk Festival all those years. That was when I was a graphic artist as well.
Jennifer: And how did you come to be involved?
Kathryn: Oh, we joined the Folk Club that used to be at the Beaton Park Tennis Club, it was a lovely little old weatherboard building at the back of the cl- the club that’s still there now. And they used to have all their concerts there. And so, we just went my partner and I, for um, hear the music and I guess they found out I was a graphic artist and asked me to do some of the posters (laughs). And I did always like doing posters, actually, poster designs and lettering and things like that. But it eventually it got a bit much really ’cause I was working as a graphic artist as well and (laughs), and then doing a whole lot of stuff for free. But, all these musicians, just some of them particularly put a lot of time and effort into it. So, I’m feeling a bit slack now since I’ve stopped (laughs).
Jennifer: What’s it like sort of capturing… You know the essence of a festival in, in a poster?
Kathryn: Oh well, I used to do little sketches when we were at the folk nights. That- they were, um, I don’t know if it was weekly. It could’ve been, but it was probably monthly. And I used to sit there and draw some of the performers as well. And then I’ve always had an interest in where I am. So, looking at the landscape as well, and particularly when the festival was at Jamberoo, it was in that lovely old pub building. And surrounded by, you know, escarpment and parkland and trees, which is another favourite thing of mine. So, I guess you just make things up often (laughs) really.
Jennifer: And so that building actually features in one of the posters. Can you describe that? Can you, ca- like, because this is audio, can you talk me through the visuals of your poster?
Kathryn: Yes, so the Jamberoo Pub is an old – it’s a two-storey building, the brick on the bottom, maybe stone, I can’t quite remember now, but the top floor’s Tudor style so it was white with those black things between the panels. And it had two peaks in the roofline. And it had a nice little beer garden out the back, eventually, I think. It’s a nice old-fashioned pub, still – I haven’t been there recently. And then straight across the road was this lovely little park that opened out onto a big Football Oval. And as the Folk Festival grew and grew, the oval got taken over with tents and marquees and things like that. So, it was really lovely when the Festival was at Jamberoo, it was smaller, but each year it gets a bit bigger. So that now it’s huge (laughs), here at Bulli. This is, it’s quite a nice venue here, I reckon, though. Um, and there’s lots of different places where lots of performers can be performing at the same time, so you can never see everyone (laughs).
Jennifer: What’s it like coming here?
Kathryn: Oh well, I like it, I only made it today this year. So, one day out of five, four or five, but that, it’s good to be here, because you see familiar faces, you hear lovely music. You see people who look interesting, lots of them dressed up in costumes. Yes, and it’s just really friendly and inclusive.
Jennifer: And it feels like a bit of a community or family. Or you know, you return and you see the same friends and that sort of thing.
Kathryn: Yeah, well, that’s true. You do see all these people that you know, and you know, you might only say a few words to each of them, but it’s a nice thing to be able to do. And there’s a real familiarity with – between people – with that, even if you just know faces that you’ve seen over the years, it’s nice to think, oh yes, I know that face.
Jennifer: And you know, I mean, you must have seen a lot of changes being involved so early.
Kathryn: Yeah, well, it’s I don’t know, it’s sort of it’s similar, but it’s different, and that’s the same with anything really. I wish sometimes I could play an instrument. I can only draw pictures and paint them, but the musicians seem to have such a lot of fun and some of them have so much fun there in as many bands as they can be in. So, you see them everywhere. But they just …I’m sure it’s good for people playing music. Good for people’s souls.
Jennifer: But I think it’s also good for people souls to listen to music.
Kathryn: Oh, it is that right, and they all need audiences, don’t they, so I’m happy to be an audience, that’s what I can do.
Jennifer: Well, I don’t know, I feel like you’re like this integral part of the Folk Festival you, you, were the image, you know, you were what people held in their hands and carried around with them.
Kathryn: Well, that’s right. So, a lot of those early posters have my handwriting on them in the headings and things like that, the newer ones are all typesetting or work done on computers now, of course. But so that’s how things change. Most of the stuff I did was hand done. That’s how I learnt my graphic art skills was doing it all by hand and it was only while I was working that computers changed that whole industry. So, I learned a little bit of that, but not enough to be really good at it. So, then I took up painting and drawing.
Jennifer: You must have a really specific handwriting style. Or did you practice that? Or like as a graphic like, and then that becomes sort of the, the look of the festival? Like at the time in the early years? Must’ve really been you.
Kathryn: I guess perhaps it was me cause it was my handwriting, I used to do a lot of screen printing and I’d cut paper stencils so I would just draw or letter with textas. And cut, cut round them and then print them as screen prints. Um? I’d still do that, but they’d be reproduced more easily by someone else. And then the last ones I did, I just did a whole lot of little pictures that they could move around and use in different places, so they used those for a few years, I think.
Jennifer: And you said your favourite one. Can you describe your favourite poster?
Kathryn: My favourite poster that I designed was, was from the 1992 Festival at Jamberoo and it’s just, it’s basically a- similar to a lino cut image. It’s just black and white and it’s got some of the traditional instruments in it. I did it as a scraper-board artwork. And it’s simple and bold and clear, I think. That’s what you aim for, you know, clear message.
Jennifer: I really like some of the people that you’ve drawn in one of the other posters, that, that green one, that big one there that I took the photo of.
Kathryn: Yeah, yeah. Well, that was, I work with the photo of the pub in that one and I just drew the little people sitting under the veranda. And I – oh well – at the time I was a student at TAFE I think, doing drawing lessons and classes and life drawing classes and drawing at the at the music sessions at the Tennis Club as well, so you get familiar with you know, drawing people, A little bit familiar.
Jennifer: So, is there anything that I’ve missed that you’d like to add? Anything like thoughts, impressions, highlights of the festival’s for you over the years?
Kathryn: I always like to see Alan Musgrove play, that’s why I’m here today, cause he was in the Pie Eaters. I’m always impressed with how many bands Dave de Santi plays in and he did a lot of the organising for the first 30 years. I think he still does, actually, he’s just got incredible energy. Some of the people that were here early on aren’t here anymore, which is a little bit sad, this year, people are noticing the absences. But there’s still others, you know, there’s a lot of new folk music players and just musicians really, who, um, enjoy playing music. And that’s really nice. They enjoy playing it, and there’s people like me who love to hear it.
Jennifer: And why folk?
Kathryn: Oh, not just folk, any music really. I actually like the stuff with brass in it. The lively stuff really, yeah, that’s a bit more, well, I’m, I’m heading for this Latkes Balkan Cabaret in a minute. ’cause it’ll have that combination of a bit of brass, a bit of probably an accordion, some guitar, some beautiful singing. Lovely stuff.
Jennifer: Alright, well thank you very much for your time.
Kathryn: That’s a pleasure.