This week I’ve had the pleasure of spending a healthy amount of time with one of Wellington’s secret magical art jewels. Nicola Van Weersel, a local creative maven, is bursting at the seems with the kind of art stuff that every cultured city desires and only the finest humans possess. Ever since she acknowledged the disturbing absence of carelessness in her world Van Weersel has been on a one-woman quest to revive the inner child in all of us.

This crusade began nearly two years ago when she began making stuffed toys in a recurring patterned theme. Since, her rats have become increasingly larger and exponentially more psychedelic. She uses a range of materials, dyes, and accessories to make each toy unique in its own right.

Along with her sewing machine Nicola also dons a frequent brush. Her paintings are like epic scenes of creation acted out by single-celled microorganisms and looked at through a saturation filter. They tell stories of a non-descript and incomprehensible nature. Much like her toys, her paintings leave much to the imagination, again begging out the inner children within us.

Have a look at more of Van Weersel’s work on her Myspace or her CarbonMade