Smorgasboarder_23_Feb_2016-s
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IELDEY has made a real name for herself in the art world, painting dozens of surfboards,<br />
walls and skateboards, cars – even bowling pins, a 2.4m remote-controlled jet boat and<br />
has even created artwork for the 2014 Iron Fist ladies range.<br />
Fieldey - or Haylee Fieldes to those who know her closely - was born in New Zealand in the 80s<br />
and moved to Norfolk Island, where she learned a love for the ocean. Ever the nomad, she left to<br />
study in Sydney, work in London, and finally settled in Perth. Here she learned to surf and decided to<br />
custom-paint her own surfboard. And so it began…<br />
I BELIEVE FIELDEY - THE NAME, THE LEGEND — WAS BORN FROM<br />
THE MAKING OF THE FISH WIFE? TELL US THE TALE...<br />
To tell that tale I’ll have to travel way back into<br />
the mists of time when I was a wee little tacker<br />
who used to obsessively paint and draw all the<br />
time. I was always told I was going to be an<br />
artist and I believed it right up until I was about<br />
to finish school and I had a careers advisor who<br />
convinced me I’d die poor and alone if I pursued<br />
art as a career. Not wanting to die in a lonely<br />
garret missing an ear, I studied graphic design<br />
as a way to make money out of being creative.<br />
I did that for about 10 years giving up on my<br />
youthful dreams of being an artist and gradually<br />
becoming more disillusioned with the whole<br />
corporate design gig.<br />
I moved to Perth and took up surfing in 2011<br />
for something to do here and also as a way<br />
to get over my long-held fear of the ocean…<br />
after 6 months I was no longer terrified of the<br />
sea and reckoned I was more than ready to<br />
upgrade to a short(er) board (I know, rookie<br />
mistake) and decided to paint my sexy new 6’6”<br />
Superfish for fun. Having no idea how to paint a<br />
surfboard and some pretty rusty painting skills,<br />
I researched everything I could find online and<br />
asked a local surfboard shaper how to go about<br />
it. The name the Fish Wife is a bad pun, and<br />
the character that goes with it is a “reverse<br />
mermaid” the less alluring fish-headed cousin<br />
of a beautiful mermaid.<br />
Me and my brother decided to film the process<br />
and put it up on YouTube and I cringe a little<br />
bit to watch it now, but painting that surfboard<br />
kicked the whole thing off and started my career<br />
as an artist, which I now do full time. HA - take<br />
that career advisor!<br />
40<br />
SMORGASBOARDER | SUMMER <strong>2016</strong>