Shameless Plug is a series where we turn things over to creatives. In exchange for plugging their project, they have to spill their guilty pleasure, biggest inspiration, career hack and a few other secrets. Today, Tove Spary touts older women artists, Bunnings test pots and your landlord’s white wall primer.

Tove Spary is a painter who moved to Tāmaki Makaurau from the United Kingdom as a teenager. She spent much of her twenties undergoing a process of self realisation through therapy and her gender transition, then began her practice with a conviction to make sense of her position in a world that seems at odds with itself. She paints predominantly in acrylics, and skirts the line between figurative depictions and abstract reimaginings of traditional subjects. Spary is particularly interested in our distorted personal perceptions of the natural world and the contradiction between the ‘real’ and our subjective realisation.

Here’s the painter’s Shameless Plug:

The moment I knew I wanted to be an artist was when I realised I could draw snakes really really well in year one. But no, really what made me realise this was after 30 years, it was the one thing that has always been there. No matter what I found myself doing, it has always been the lens in which I can process and understand the world through.

The place I feel most creative is the ~white-wall-cosmos~. Not so much a physical place, but when I’m just spacing out with no distractions. When I’m minding the gallery at work or in a waiting room and I just get lost in the plain white walls. I’m always carrying a sketchbook to get ideas down and this is the time I fill it up.

My hottest career hack is don’t do expensive. Don't break the bank worrying about getting the best quality paints or materials. The amount of very successful artists I’ve seen that still use painter tester pots from Bunnings says it all. And it's always worth checking your rental’s shed for the landlord's white wall primer. ;-)

My biggest inspiration is the older generation. It’s been such a pleasure to see so many older women artists get their dues recently. Lois Dodd, Ida Applebroog, Rosalyn Drexler; all making art well into their 90s. It inspires me immensely when even if the world was not looking they never stopped making. That level of drive is just awe-inspiring and now the world is finally showing up for them. My lowkey theory is that painting is the secret to a long life.

My favourite arts space is The Old Folks Association. It’s such a staple of the Karangahape scene and has such a wonderfully rich history. It was my first residency and the board there is a group of great people who really are interested in seeing young (and old) artists thrive. It will always hold a special place for me – you can still see some of my smaller works there!

An artwork everyone should experience at least once in their life is any Rothko. There's one in “Pop to Present”, now on at Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery! It's marvellous. You just can’t process the light or colour of his work without standing in front of it. It morphs and vibrates depending on your distance from it.

The best advice I’ve received is an oldie but a goodie. The painting you are working on does not have to be your masterpiece. For every painting you are happy with there are five crap ones. It can be immobilising when you feel so worried or stuck in what you are doing. I tell myself it's okay! It can be bad! That's very freeing to me.

My guilty pleasure is C.S.I (the o.g Las Vegas one). It's so formulaic and self-contained, it is to me the perfect TV show. It's something that knows exactly what it is (cop-slop) and sticks to its simple premise. I think TV today is so lost in the sauce of algorithm and fandom, trying to tell something big and epic and I just want that little burst of joy. I think I’d like my paintings to be like that. Also, Jorja Fox is my lesbian icon. 

My favourite podcast is “Why Theory” by Todd Mcgowan and Ryan Engley. A couple of very qualified lads talking about psychoanalysis and critical theory in a somewhat accessible manner. Building a material understanding of the world through critical theory has really helped shape not only my approach to painting, but the act of labour and social order itself. How can we reimagine it on our own terms, specifically as a transgender person? Our current system predicates the displacement of the marginalised for the big Other’s interest. We must challenge this to manufacture our own success through organisation and a radical reinterpretation of our material relations.

What I’m reading is A Life’s Work by Rachel Cusk. It explores her experiences of being a mother and how much it changed her for better and worse. Motherhood and transness are rarely considered together. It is both held as a necessity for womanhood but by no means what defines it. Reading this makes me feel like I am not missing out on too much…

My shameless plug is Green Noise! My upcoming show at Studio One Toi Tu. It’s running from 5 February to 5 March and is free to visit. I’ll be sharing a new series of paintings inspired by my time in mental health services, depicted through the landscapes of Pukekawa (Auckland Domain).