Lately I’ve taken to counting birds, in the sky, in the garden. Listening to the sound of them in the trees, hidden yet present. They symbolise the freedom of flight, the raucous antidote to silence and the great Apausalypse.
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An early photogram I made in TAFE photography - I included my dad’s ink well as it was precious to me.
The future is now…
in Photography, Writing
What interests us as a child circles back as our future comes forward to meet us. We can have many lives in one lifetime. I was a writer before I was a photographer. I made films before I wrote plays, made paper before I started screen printing.
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In the repurposed fish packing shed at the Nes artist residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland in 2019.
Why artist residencies?
Why go on artist residencies? While you need a proposal to submit with your residency application, the work you make might completely go off on a tangent. I’ve learnt the best thing is to stay flexile and adapt to your new surroundings.
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Daily artwork ink on paper (detail)
Why Create?
in Creativity, Paper
Creativity is a blessing. It takes you outside of yourself to a place that is “out of time”. It is akin to connection with something greater, the divine, the universal life force.
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24th July (detail) 2021
Artists as Activists
The history of art is full of artist activists. Art can “spur thinking, engagement, and even action”. It can not only bear witness to events, but can move us to hope in the midst of despair. Hope for freedom, hope for action, hope for equality and justice in the midst of the ensuing world chaos that can threaten to overwhelm us.
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Waterholes, woven paper artist book, (work in progress 2021)
A little bit wonky
A little bit wonky is a good thing in art, it frees you from perfectionism. When it comes to repurposing old artworks, the courage it takes to tear up or paint over the old, is worth it. Old and boring transforms into wild, wonky and unique.
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Les tres riches heures du Duc de Berry Fevrier (February), detail
Marking the Days
When you are at home is self-isolation, how do you mark time? In the Middle Ages the marking of time was both cosmological and seasonal. Can we turn crisis into opportunity and document our days with creative activity?
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Me & BJ, our Clydesdale horse, 1984.
The Future You Imagine
in Creativity
There have been scary moments in my life when I came close to catastrophe. Like when we were travelling in our horse and wagon and disaster nearly struck. That was when I learned a very hard won truth. I had to surrender and hand over the reins.
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Work in Progress - stitched collage for inclusion in my upcoming Occupy exhibition 13-19th August
Failing on purpose
Rebellious daughters. We did everything we could to avoid the “domestic arts” and all they represented. Transforming a legacy of domestic skills into unapologetic art.
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Syntagma Square, Athens, 2011.
Occupy ~ bearing witness to history
in Art, Artist Books
Occupy is a powerful word. Ten years ago it was a rallying call for people in over 900 cities worldwide to protest against wealth inequality. Occupy is also the title of my forthcoming joint art exhibition and art workshops in Murwillumbah in August. Both are narratives of human habitation and occupation.
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