Art
No Order Magazine talks with the artist.
My name is Lily Turek and my artist name is Lil Grl Art. I am a 27 year old residing in Meanjin/Brisbane. I primarily work within the medium of glass art and soft soldering.
How did your career begin?
For me, it honestly began when I moved back to Brisbane. I was fortunate enough to move into the heart of West End and coming from studying in Townsville, it was such a beautiful change in landscape. When I moved, I would just walk around the streets and see all of these amazing, beautiful people and creatives. I soon became friends with a creative group of individuals and did my first group art show in 2018, which was a perspex piece. It pretty much rolled on from there and I absolutely haven’t stopped since.
Do you have a set process when it comes to making work and is there a part of that process that people may find surprising?
A very consistent part of my process is that all of my initial ideas and concepts are documented in my sketchbook. Normally, that will be the first thing I reach for in the morning - the morning is usually where I do a lot of my conceptualisation. Something that may surprise people is that a lot of the works that I actively present are ideas and concepts that I thought of over six months prior. Due to my neurodivergence and capacity to create, sometimes I prefer to do smaller, more efficient projects to get that instant dopamine, even if there is a larger project that I am interested in. Normally I work through smaller pieces and then return back to the larger concepts - they are very drawn out.
Image courtesy of the artist.
Is there a memorable moment in your journey as a creative that you didn’t know would impact your career?
I would say the first time that I experimented with perspex plastic. I was having a good old mental breakdown and I remember being starfished on the balcony at my queenslander rental and kind of just sitting with the perspex, grabbing any medium around me - paint or oil pastel - just vomiting all my emotions onto this piece. At the time it didn’t really feel like much but stepping back after a few days and looking at it made me think “wow, this is actually beautiful and something I want to pursue.” It just went on from there to doing commissions to considering stained glass.
Read the full interview in Issue 04
Published: 18th July 2025