Artist Hazel Dooney: 'Discomfort the Viewer, Not Turn Them On'

stated interviewed artist Hazel Dooney almost two years ago during a period in her life she describes in a post on her blog:

This is my story of the past three years: I went mad. I went bankrupt. My father died from a particularly aggressive cancer. I went mad again, and not just from grief. I stopped painting. I fell ill. I recovered. I started painting again.

Since we spoke with her she has revealed the story of her youth in a difficult-to-read blog post, admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital for a month of treatment, and regained her health. And despite her struggles, she is one of the top 50 traded artists by value in the Australian and New Zealand markets. What is most notable is that she left the gallery system seven years ago, works hard to market her own work, sacrificed a key tool in marketing her own work by leaving Facebook on principle, and yet remains very much in the public eye.

Check out her TED Talk (below), but perhaps more interesting is this video interview with Australian newspaper, The Age.