Art Practice

Currently I am a full-time practising visual artist based in the Southern Highlands of NSW in Australia.

I use a range of methods and materials to express my philosophy, experience and response to the world, with a conceptually-based, site-specific, multi-disciplinary practice including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, sound and installation.

As an artist, I feel an urgency and obligation to address the crisis of global heating and our dramatically changing climate. My current project is considering the science relating to the Polar Regions: looking to the past while contemplating the future, with a particular focus on palaeontology, oceanography and the melting ice sheets. The science demonstrates that the evidence of ocean heating in the Arctic and Antarctica do not bode well for the future survival of humanity. The changes taking place are far more dramatic and extreme than the ‘natural’ patterns of warming and cooling of the planet that have taken place over millennia. 

Residencies

2020 APECS (Association of Polar Early Career Scientists) International Online Conference - Opening Doors: Collaboration Across Knowledge Systems, presentation of FIRE and ICE - an Artists’ Perspective

2019 ICP13 - 13th International Conference on Palaeoceanography, University of NSW, Randwick NSW

2011 ANTARCTICA: Music, Sound and Cultural Connections Conference, ANU School of Music ACT

2002-3 ‘Horizons’ Artist-in-Residence, Parks Victoria, Lower Plenty, VIC

2001-2 ‘Dunmoochin’ Artist-in-Residence, Clifton Pugh’s Studio, Cottlesbridge VIC

2000 NACLC Annual Conference, Artist-in-Residence, Alice Springs NT

1996 Word / Voice / Sound Conference, Artspace, Woolloomooloo NSW

1992 Stone-carving workshop with John Ayres Traditional Stonemasonry Company, Rozelle NSW

1986 Country/City Connections Lachlan River Walking Tour with Viv Binns, along the stock-routes between Forbes and Condoblin NSW

Selected Exhibitions

2022 (solo) GLOBAL MOURNING - A Long Drawing, Downstairs Gallery at Articulate Project Space, Leichhardt, Sydney, NSW

Finalist M16 Artspace Drawing Prize, M16 Artspace Gallery, Canberra

2021 (solo) ICE BREAKER MMXXI, The SHAC Gallery, Robertson NSW

2017 Bowral Sculpture Prize, BDAS Gallery, Bowral NSW

2016 Sculpture at Hillvew, Biennial Sculpture Festival, Sutton Forest NSW

2015 (solo) MIRAGE - Desert Forms and Images, M16 Artspace, Griffith ACT

2013 What Lies Beneath? Invited artist’s response to proposed coal seam gas mining development, Goulburn Regional Art Gallery (GRAG) NSW

Art or Cunning? Contemporary Australian Sculpture, Watch This Space, Alice Springs NT

2009 Seeking Images - Interpreter / Dreamer / Pragmatist, TAFE Staff show, GRAG NSW

2002 (solo) FROM THE CENTRE, Chapman & Bailey Gallery, Abbotsford VIC

NMIT Staff Art Show, A Space Gallery, NMIT Preston VIC

2001 environmenta - Colonisation, Moss Vale Sculpture Park, NSW

2000 Artists’ Camp/Workshop Exhibition, Watch This Space Gallery, Alice Springs NT

1999 environmenta - Off The Plinth, Moss Vale Sculpture Park, NSW

1998 SUSTENANCE - Song of The Winds Festival, Varuna Writer’s Centre and Sweet Foray Gallery, Katoomba NSW

(solo) Leviathan Memories - Paradise Lost, Sweet Foray Gallery, Katoomba NSW

1997 Sculpture by the Sea, Mark’s Park, Bondi NSW

1995 DISSONANCE - Artfelt, University of Newcastle Gallery, NSW

1991 AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTA - Western Sites Component, New Penrith Lakes Development Site, NSW

THE ALICE PRIZE, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs NT

(solo) Disjecta Membra, W.I.N.D.O.W. Gallery, CBD Sydney NSW

DIS-SOLUTION, Adelaide Festival Fringe, Living Arts Centre, Adelaide SA

The EXTRA-TRIENNIAL - Fringe of the 4th Melbourne Sculpture Triennial, Gasworks Park, Melbourne VIC

1989 200+1 Changing Perspectives, Bondi Pavilion, Sydney NSW

Faber-Castell Drawing Prize Exhibition< Conference Centre, Sydney Showground NSW

Mondo - Faxo, Artspace, Woolloomooloo NSW

1988 Sydney Morning Herald Art Exhibition, Blaxland Galleries, Sydney NSW

BDAS Open Art Award, BDAS Gallery, Bowral NSW

1987 (solo) Various Places, Wentworth Falls School of Arts Gallery, NSW

Awards and Grants

2017 Commended - Bowral Sculpture Prize, BDAS Gallery NSW

2001 Sculpture Prize (joint win) - environmenta - Colonisation, Moss Vale Sculpture Park NSW - Judged by Bonita Ely COFA UNSW, and Nigel Lendon CSA

2000 NT DAMS Cultural Division, Australia Council, Alice Springs NT

1990 NAVA Pat Corrigan Artists’ Grant, Australia Council NSW

1988 First Prize - Works on Paper, BDAS Open Art Award, Bowral NSW - Judged by Nigel Lendon ITS

Second Prize - Exploratory Drawing, Blue Mountains Art Award, Wentworth Falls School of Art NSW - Judged by Anthony Bond AGNSW

Publications

2013 Alice Springs News Online, Kieran Finnane review on Art or Cunning? at Watch This Space NT

2009 Seeking Images - Interpreter / Dreamer / Pragmatist Catalogue. Essay by Gillian McCracken, GRAG NSW

1991 AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTA ‘91 Catalogue, Art Gallery NSW

Sydney Morning Herald, Arts, ‘Casting guinea pigs before Panthers’ by Terry Smith, 19/10/91

Blue Mountain’s Gazette, ‘Artist’s work featured in national competition’, 25/9/91

1990 The Adelaide Advertiser, ‘Ideas win out over technique’ by John Emery, 23/2/90

Emerald Hill, Sandringham and St Kilda Times, 4/10/90

1988 The Southern Highlands News, 30/3/88

1987 Blue Mountain’s Gazette, ‘Various Places the place to be’, 25/11/87

Education & Training

2006 Graduate Diploma Vocational and Workplace Learning, UTS NSW

Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training, UTS NSW

1992 Intensive Small Business Management Course NEIS, Lithgow NSW

1986 Bachelor of Arts Visual Arts - Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) - Sculpture major, Painting minor, Contemporary Feminist Philosophy and Theory, Contemporary Perspectives on ArtPsychology and Art, SCA Balmain NSW

1983 Adelaide Central School of Arts - Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Printmaking, SA

1982 Canberra School of Art (CSA) - Ceramics, Sculpture, Drawing, ACT

Teaching and Workshops

2006-13 Full-time position Teacher-Fine Arts at TAFE NSW-Illawarra Institute, Moss Vale and Goulburn campuses, Cert IV to Diploma and Advanced Diploma students in drawing, sculpture and painting. (In 2013 the state Government withdrew funding for Arts & Media courses at TAFE NSW-Illawarra Institute, Moss Vale, Goulburn, Cooma, Queanbeyan campuses)

2000 3 day Artists’ Camp/Drawing Workshop at Trephina Gorge, MacDonnell Ranges, 70km east of Alice Springs, followed by group exhibition of all participants work at Watch This Space

2000 ‘Drawing Western Way’ at Irrkerlantye Learning Centre, also after school ‘Youth Art Group’ at Tangentyere Council

1988-05 Part-time teaching drawing, sculpture and painting around Australia - TAFE NSW-Western Sydney and Illawarra, COFA UNSW Paddington NSW, UWS Kingswood NSW, NMIT Preston and Greensborough, Victoria, Southern Adult Education Centre Bowral NSW, Centralian College Alice Springs

1987-05 Drawing From The Inside-Out, privately-run classes, regular weekend workshops and 5-day Drawing Intensive summer and winter schools

1985-97 ARTISTSUPPORT - a part-time practical and creative service for professional visual artists providing assistance with production, preparation, and installation of artworks and exhibitions in NSW, VIC and SA - working with Bonita Ely, Joan Brassil, Joan Grounds, Janet Laurence, Ross Barbar, Frances Josephs, Juliette Fowler-Smith

Acknowledgement

I acknowledge the traditional owners of this continent, their grief at loss of country, languages and culture, and their struggle for survival on their own terms. And especially the Gundungurra, Tharawahl and WodiWodi peoples who are the traditional owners of the land where I live today.