My reason why…
Every artist has a reason why… Here’s mine!
As a child, I loved making art since the very early days of school. I prized learning new art techniques - I was especially interested in chance and accident using paint and ink. Gestural brush strokes, pouring, dripping and splashing paint really excited me - the spontaneity and energy you could see in the results were awesome - and I loved how free it made me feel. I adored colour and was fascinated with colour science. I was attracted to portraiture and figures - the challenge of being able to capture someone's personality/vibrancy in my art.
My parents didn't make any real efforts to encourage me to discover career options - being an "artist" was certainly off the agenda, and in fact, I clearly remember some of my influences today (Andy Warhol and Jackson Pollock) were openly scoffed at when their art and the prices they fetched were shown on the "tv". By senior school, despite my obvious passion for art and my disinterest in maths/science, my parents would not allow me to study art any further. My parents thought that maths/science would give me better options outside of school. So my art passion was stifled for many many years - until I found myself to be in my 30s and a wife with a family.
I started to take drawing classes and progressed to a full-blown Fine Arts degree where I studied part-time for over 10 years. I finally finished, conceptually trained, through the University of South Australia, graduating in 2012, with a Bachelor of Visual Art, Specialisation Painting. I won the UniSA Medal for my outstanding academic results in the Division of Science, Education, and the Arts. I became a member of the Golden Key International Honour Society - they in turn invited me to attend President Obama's Second Inauguration in January 2013, where I had the opportunity in joining nearly 5,000 students from across the globe for the University Presidential Inaugural Conference. Unfortunately, my then-husband wouldn't "allow" me to go. But in 2013 my work was selected by top South Australian art-aficionado's, including the then Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Nick Mitzevich (now director of the National Gallery of Australia), to participate in The Helpmann Academy Graduate Exhibition - an incredible honour for any graduating tertiary art student.
On my artistic journey throughout my study, I used my work as a refuge and explored my feelings through paint and image. I discovered in this process that my children and I were being subjected to coercive control measures and were suffering from domestic abuse. Coercive control generally involves manipulation and intimidation to make victims scared, isolated, powerless and dependent on the abuser. If you are interested to learn more about this complex issue click here.
I implore you, if you suspect someone you know is being subjected to this form of abuse, have a conversation with them!! Despite how educated or “together” you might think they are, sometimes they are so insidiously abused that they do not even realise it’s wrong - and most of the time they are being brainwashed into believing it is their fault! Please look out for your friends and family. My awakening eventually led to a long, overly protracted, and abusive divorce, but now I'm free to be an artist! So my journey is definitely a positive thing!
Presently my work celebrates inspiring images of women standing in, emerging from, or swimming through, water. I paint the female figure in unique, bold poses so women can celebrate freedom with confidence and live braver lives. My women are strong, beautiful, resilient, independent, and above all valued - and it is through drips and splashes of paint that I evoke freedom. I also use vibrant colours and a stark contrast to communicate confidence. The underwater world offers an other-worldly, nurturing, healing, and freeing space for my women to explore. Here, my women are free from restraint, free to be who they want to be - all the things I wish for all our daughters. My paintings uplift my viewers - I am a woman, my subject is women, and I'm painting for women - we women, and our girls can do anything we want! THIS IS MY REASON WHY!!
Today my paintings are incredibly unique and internationally sought after. There is no one else that paints the way I do! Notably, I was a Bluethumb Award Finalist in 2021. And to date, I have sold my work Internationally to private collectors in New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany, the USA, Hong Kong, and every state in Australia.
