Getting to know... Venus Hoy

Venus Hoy is a multidisciplinary artist and creative fire-starter who thrives on connection, curiosity, and doing life differently. With art as her anchor, she blends hustle with heart to inspire, uplift, and spark change wherever she goes.

At the weekend you’ll find me... Honestly, it depends on the weekend! Most of my time revolves around art and mahi. Being a full-time artist isn’t really a nine to five job. It takes hard work to make it and that means working unconventional hours. Even socialising, for me, is work. Its networking opportunities and a chance to mix minds with others and spurn new creative thought from those interactions. Fortunately, when you love what you do, it doesn’t feel like a chore.

I’m a real nerd about… History, psychology, philosophy, graffiti, symbiology, knowledge really. Humans fascinate me. The formation of individual identity as well the formation of society and the cycles we perpetuate…. They deeply intrigue me. Honestly, I was that kid who hung out at the library during lunch time. Lost in books or comics. My love of knowledge and art have been something I’ve had from a very young age, and it hasn’t faded. If anything, my curiosity and thirst for understanding have deepened.

My real life super power is… Connecting amazing humans! I have a talent for meeting some of the most extraordinary people, and one of my favourite things to do is connect them to one another. I’ve witnessed some amazing things evolve from those connections and it’s really rewarding to know you’ve been the thread bringing the two pieces together. I’m absolutely flabbergasted with the talent around me. People who I am blessed to call my adoptive whanau.

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken… Probably moving here to be honest… I flipped a coin to decide and bought a ferry ticket the next day! I like to live by the motto ‘do it for the plot’ as much as I can. I’d spent over a decade creating a really beautiful network of people around me who are absolute frothers, people who will go out of their way to hype squad you so that you know and feel amazing and loved. Leaving that for the unknown was terrifying. What I’ve learnt in life however, is that great things are to be found on the other side of fear.

My biggest pet peeve is… Talking about stuff and not doing it. I deeply fear a life spent talking about things and never experiencing anything. I mean, that’s the whole point of life, isn’t it? To live. I’ve seen so many lives wasted talking about things that people want to do ‘one day,’ for the one days never to happen. I want to live an extraordinary life, and to watch others waste opportunities or shrug things off into the “too hard basket” really grinds the old gears! Nothing is impossible, there’s always a way, you’ve just got to figure out the puzzle to get there.

I hope in ten years I will be… Living... I honestly believe it isn’t my job to know where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing. As hippy dippy as it sounds, my job is just to listen and go in the direction that the universe points me in. I find, as the old saying goes, the best laid plans of men and mice never work out well. I have a kind of direction that I want to move in and I work hard and hope that it goes that way, but I flow with where I am needed and can make the most valuable contribution to things. My biggest hope in life is just to be doing as many amazing things as I can in the time that I have in this life.