Life oftentimes takes us on wild and winding journeys. For many, those journeys involve episodes of adventurous travel or whirlwinds of exciting career opportunities, and for others, myself included, those journeys are more internal. From a very young age, I was drawn towards the arts. I was incredibly lucky to be raised by my mother who was formally trained in Fine Arts. She allowed me so many creative arts experiences including after school ceramics and vacation care art programs. I studied three unit art at school, specialising in ceramics and was shortlisted for the Art Express Award in 2000. As was the trend at that time, my passion for creativity was channeled towards a "more feasible" career and so I studied Design at the College of Fine Arts, the same college where my mother studied Fine Arts 15 years earlier. Once I graduated I worked as an Interior Designer, and eventually took an overseas role as a Design Manager for an International Bank. Oh, how life can whisk you away from your true path, when you're not tuned in well enough!
After another degree and another career, it was after I had my two daughters that I moved back into traditional art making, taking a local community term-long course in abstract painting. It was through this course that I was able to once again tap into the artistic skills and knowledge that had laid dormant inside of me for too many years. A number of friends and colleagues asked me to create a commissioned painting and within months I was hooked. Or as I like to put it, I was home.
I am now proud to call myself an artist and art educator. It took the arrival of my two daughters for me to come full circle back to art and creativity and I cannot express how deeply rewarding it is to be in this soul-enriching space where my day job has me forming beauty with my hands. Painting allows me to feel at peace with the world.
Working primarily with acrylics on canvas, through my works I capture the beauty of nature and my deep gratitude for the land that we inhabit. My increasingly abstract style, inclusive of drips, freeform brushstrokes and a range of mark making, eventuates from my passion for emotional expression and my respect for the spiritual process of painting.
