Bump in day! Toward HOME with Kylie Harries, Rachel South, Sarah O’Neill, Mel Brady and me! They won’t be upside down and back to front when they’re finally on the wall!

Andy drove the truck and thank goodness because the terrain was pretty rough. But oh my the adventure was worth it!

And this is why it is called golden hour when even with freezing fingers in the frigid cold of early morning something magical happens!

6 months in the planning, AHA! Moments is getting real! The exhibition features artists Anna Guthrie, Ann Gillespie, David Cross, Grace Cross, Helen Evans, Kim Marston, Lucie Verhelst, Ulrike Foerster, and me! I can’t wait to see all the work on show! It’s a blast to be exhibiting for the first time some new collages from my Language of Posing collage series alongside a group of friends from Art Lab.

I’m a sucker for infographics and here is a how to for Art Lab…

There are a few things going on at the moment including participating in Toward HOME with a group of amazing artists from the Moreton Bay region. Curated by Deborah Eddy (@deborah_eddy_art) and hosted by the Redcliffe Art Society in the historic Old Fire Station Gallery the show brings together different ideas and perspectives on the home and how we experience it. Thanks so much to Kylie Harries (@the.hayshed) for inviting me and her boundless energy and enthusiasm in leading the project.

Aha Moments! is a forthcoming exhibition at the Hub Gallery, Caboolture Regional Art Gallery. It centres around Art Lab and the artists who have participated for the past three years, meeting at my studio to talk about all things art and art making! Making connections and participating in deep discussions about art with other artists has been one of the joys of Art Lab. Not to mention the ready support and mutual learning that enriches our practices. Come and see work by Ann Gillespie, Helen Evans, Ulrike Foerster, Kimberly Marston, Lucie Verheltz, David Cross, Grace Cross, Guthrie and of course, me! During the exhibition we will be sharing our work, our experiences, the concept of Art Lab through artist talks and open Art Lab sessions.

Gallery info here

I have a new respect for landscape photographers who travel far and wide, early and late to find landscapes untouched by human activity. I’m playing with grainy b&w film photos turning a perfectly ordinary roads into mood and mystery.

Made a mistake winding on the film of my 40 year old Pentax K1000. However…I’m kinda liking this 20 times over layered exposure. So now I’m playing around with that idea even though I don’t really know what I’m doing!

what is art lab

I am pleased to have been invited to facilitate an Art Lab session at Pine Rivers Art Gallery as part of a series of workshops offered by the Gallery for the duration of the Moreton Bay Art Prize.

Art Lab is a kind of model for peer support which brings together like minded artists to talk about all things art and art making. Since 2023 a group of local artists have been meeting at my place for these discussions and as into we’re well into our third year I have a heaps of resources that I have collected.

I have made an infographic and I am still working out what might be the best way to document the prompts, discussion topics and exercises.

download infographic

why art prizes?

I recently read an artist's newsletter about their shock at being rejected from an art competition and how they processed the disappointment.

Art prizes and people’s reactions to them seem to be a topic of discussion that never gets old. Why do artists enter competitions? Why do we feel so intensely when the work is either rejected or accepted? Read more…

In an exhibition catalogue I picked up recently, Elizabeth Newman: Is that a 'No', she is quoted as saying "I never try to consciously make work about anything. I am not the active agent in the art making..." And yet, her work is so strong conceptually. Or at least that is what I am reading and seeing. I want to understand the nuance between the birth of an idea and realising the idea. I should probably accept this is an ongoing quest...

Writing is very personal. I’m able to have conversations with myself in a way that I rarely would talk with other people. As read and work things out it helps me understand what I’m reading, thinking and doing. On the other hand, there is a curious vulnerability about making this personal thing public, even as it sinks under the vast ocean of ideas, information, thoughts and feelings that is the internet.

Have been reading Social Media Escape Club for some time now. The newsletter by Seth Werkheiser covers all sorts of ways to navigate social media. Given I am so sporadic on instagram and it takes me forever to create a post I thought I would try out Seth’s suggestion and put a social feed on my website. Just for those bits’n’pieces that happen every now and again. Let’s see how it goes…

This year I’m celebrating 2025 World Collage Day with two small offerings—each one an invitation into the reflective, connective space that collage opens up for me. Both are shaped around the idea that looking and making can be quiet acts of reflection, and that these kinds of acts can connect us—with ourselves, each other, and the artwork we encounter. Read more…

Working in a sketchbook has always been a challenge. I have tried over and over again—a sporadic and wistful journey of trying. Sketchbooks seem to be my permanent reminder of failure. At least loose sheets of paper can be tossed away. A sketchbook though, has a binding and if you tear out a page the absence is marked. If only I could play in a sketchbook the same way I do in my writing journal maybe I could crack the code. Read more…

At the end of 2024 I applied for the Path Primer with Dr. Kellie O’Dempsey hosted by the Redcliffe Art Gallery. My application was successful and I’ve just completed five intensive days in the program—what a ride! Read more…