Creative work grounded in connection,
curiosity and impact.
I’m Bohie Blackwood, an artist, designer and facilitator based in Hobart, Tasmania.
For more than a decade, I’ve worked with communities, researchers and organisations to translate complex ideas into visual stories and shared creative experiences.
I’m interested in how people understand the places and systems they are part of, and how creativity can help us see those connections more clearly.
I work across environmental communication, public art, illustration, community engagement and collaborative design. Sometimes the outcome is an artwork. Sometimes it’s an educational resource, a workshop or a broader communication strategy. The form changes, but the purpose remains the same: to create something people can connect with and use.
My StoryMy chosen name is Bohie Blackwood.
My birth name is Bohdana Palecek.
I was born in 1987 on Walbunga Yuin Country, in the beautiful Southern Tablelands of NSW, in a heritage-listed town called Braidwood.
My parents are first-generation Canadian migrant and a sixth-generation settler Australian, both of whom dedicated their careers, creativity and philosophies to the age-old craft of ceramics. Which we, in my family, simply called pottery.
I trace my maternal ancestry back through the most decorated navigator in WWII, the first public librarian in Australia, and convicts who landed in the Norfolk Island colony after years aboard prison ships (one on the female prison ship known as The Floating Brothel). Beyond that, we reach through generations in England to Norway.
On my father’s side, I trace my roots through Western Canada to a Scottish and Syilx Okanagan union within the Red River Colony. More recently, on his father’s line, we migrated to Canada from Bohemia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
My blood is a motley mix.
My culture is too.
I grew up with hands in clay and bare feet on soil, dreaming wistfully of North American birch trees, snow, foxes and grizzly bears while kookaburras laughed overhead and the hot summer sun beat down on sunburnt skin.
I swam in freshwater and learned to cook on the fire. I was raised within the Japanese philosophy of Zen Buddhism, which my father brought home from his pottery apprenticeship in Japan.
My creative journey began in film photography, then meandered through drawing, printmaking, graphic design, creative writing, hand lettering, traditional sign painting, murals, street art, illustration, and now, storytelling.
Through my creativity, I’ve travelled the world and collaborated with many partners and like-minded kinfolk…
My mum taught me how to paint. Her mum before her. They both taught me how to listen to Country. How to be an activist through my art. How to feel through my art. How to feel blessed by a day ending with enough wood for the fire and fresh veggies for the stew.
Dad taught me how to dedicate myself to my discipline of the craft. How to respect the energy exchange from “the makers mark”. How to read philosophy and question systems of power.
He’s the extrovert. She’s the introvert.
I land somewhere in the middle.
My work is in Belonging.
Belonging to family (and chosen family), to community, to Country, to ourselves through befriending our own bodies.
My imagination and creativity help me belong; they connect me to my clients, my community, to humanity and to the living ecosystem I exist within.
I offer this work to my community as a gesture of hope, connection, forgiveness, sorrow, grief and love.
And play. Always play. It keeps life interesting.
My practice is built on listening, learning and translating.
Collaboration is the foundation, not just a phase.
Professional biography
Bohie Blackwood (née Palecek. She/Her. Born 1987) is a multidisciplinary artist, visual communicator and facilitator based on Nipaluna Country in Hobart, Tasmania.
Her work brings together environmental communication, public art, community engagement and human-centred design. She collaborates with researchers, organisations and communities to make complex ecological and social ideas accessible, meaningful and grounded in lived experience.
Bohie’s practice has grown from a background in graphic design, traditional signwriting, illustration and large-scale mural painting. Between 2019 and 2023, she led a series of youth co-design projects exploring gender equity, environmental change and place-based identity.
Her research with the Australian National University’s Centre for the Public Awareness of Science examined street art as a form of environmental science communication. She now works with organisations including CSIRO, universities, government agencies and community environmental groups to develop public artworks, educational resources and communication strategies.
In 2024, Bohie became the first artist commissioned to paint the walls of the Gandel Atrium at the National Museum of Australia. Her work has also been shared through ecological art residencies and exhibitions in Australia, Mexico, Canada, Japan and England.
Today, her practice is a living inquiry into the tensions between capitalism and nature, self and system, beauty and disruption. Through collaborative authorship and embodied research, she invites us to reimagine not just what we see but how we see, and who we might become when we return to care, creativity and connection.
Art is how we make meaning visible.
Collaboration is how we make it matter.
My Approach
Every project is different, but this is the throughline:
It starts with listening
Every project begins with deep listening—to the brief, the history, and the voices often left out. Relationships come first, and trust is built over time.
We co-create with purpose
I work with communities, not for them. The process is collaborative, grounded in lived experience, cultural context and shared authorship.
Turning complexity into clarity
From science and mental health to climate storytelling, I translate complex ideas into visuals that connect with real people.
Designing for impact
Whether it’s a mural, a zine or a resource, each piece is crafted to resonate deeply and stand the test of time.
Research-led. Place-based. Empathy-driven.
I take a hyper-local approach, working with schools, councils and communities to reflect people and place through meaningful, socially aware design.
Outputs
Public Art, Digital & Hand Painted Murals
Research-led or client-led, sustainable, place-based, and community-powered.
Creative Facilitation & Workshops
Engaging groups in co-design, storytelling, and visual thinking.
Education & Wellbeing Projects
Translating science and policy into compelling public communication.
Consulting & Strategic Design
Supporting organisations with visual direction, brand storytelling, and collaborative frameworks.
Fine Art and Artist in Residence
Creating a unique site-based response to place based concerns.
This is not a solo act.
Every project is built through co-creation with young people, Elders, educators, scientists, community voices, and the beyond human world guiding the way. Together, we turn ideas into impact.
See It In Action
Here I speak with ACT Government stakeholders about a public art project turning suburban infrastructure into a storytelling platform.
Together, we co-created an illustrated 8-sided artwork on ICON Waterboxes, raising awareness about endangered species and stormwater impacts through creative placemaking and science communication.
Video by Ocolo Digital