My story so far!
When I was at university one of my favourite topics was an anthropology paper called ‘Ritual and Belief.’ It accentuated a pre-university interest in different cultures that developed when I backpacked around different countries in my early twenties. On reflection, it seems that a lot of my work has been shaped by my travels and the people that I met along the way, in addition to influences from English literature and a love of colour.
But it’s people that fill my cup. Where are their accents from? What makes them tick? What are the languages, songs, literature, and food that shape their lives? What rituals, beliefs, mythologies and world views tie their cultures together? Learning about these things shakes up my own beliefs and assumptions that I have about the world and alters my perspective.
Culture is a shared sense of belonging and understanding of how to live in our own physical world. It helps explain the unexplainable, and creates collective knowledge and wisdom. On the surface it looks like we are vastly different but underneath our similarity is that we all have a way of life or system of belief that makes us feel connected to a greater whole.
When you buy a piece of my art and bring it home, you are honouring people from all over the world and choosing to connect with them - and connection is the foundation of what makes us human.
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I come from a family of artisans - my Dad was good at writing and interested in history, geography, politics, reading and also making things. My grandmother was a supreme weaver and my mum’s talents span woodwork, leather work, drawing, knitting, puppet making and fine art painting. This is the basis of why I work in 3D.
My first job (way back in the mid eighties!) was in Medical Laboratory Technology. I loved science - especially biology - and a long time before the industry was mechanised, I worked in the Haematology and Cytology departments with test tubes, petri dishes, and pipettes - measuring and mixing liquids and chemicals, and spending a lot of time looking down a microscope.
As life went on, I did a three year OE and then went to university to study English Literature, Linguistics and Anthropology. Some years after this, I arrived at the door of a mosaic workshop which then led to a mosaic conference in Hobart, Tasmania. It was here that I heard a presentation by a sculptor of life sized birds - some with a wing span of 5 metres in length - and each wing was decorated with kilnformed glass feathers! This seemed like magic and the scientific aspect of glass tweaked my dormant laboratory background!
I was fascinated and hooked - and after fourteen years my fascination has not ended.
The medium of glass brings together my love of art and science. I love colour and usually work across a warm colour palette. I have a soft spot for orange - which just happens to be the colour of friendship!
I love my job! And I am passionate about what I do!