Studio Journal
Essays, field notes and reflections from the Tracing Australia project
Through essays, field notes and reflections, the Studio Journal is a place where I delve into Australia's landscapes, significant trees, histories and places. These writings accompany my artwork and the evolving Tracing Australia project, a long-term project looking at the stories that shape our relationship with Country and what Australia or being Australian really means.
The Question of Enough
When is enough, enough? A question that has followed me through grief, community work and the studio. On finding things to embrace, others to resist, and making a song for the trees.
Latest Posts
A month of judging, exhibitions, funding applications and art-world scrutiny leads to a more personal question: where does an artist fit, and does the work need to resolve anything at all?
A walk through the rainforest in search of purple becomes a reflection on ageing, anxiety, creativity and the lifelong urge to keep moving forward.
What does it mean to belong? Beginning on Tamborine Mountain and following the remarkable migration of the Eastern Curlew, this month's Studio Journal reflects on community, stewardship and the reciprocal relationship between people and the places that shape them.
While painting a panorama of Lake Argyle, I found myself thinking about rivers, memory and the stories that lie beneath the visible surface. This reflection explores landscape, engineering, history and the challenge of holding complexity within a single work.
Hubris and things that press my buttons.
I wonder if humans of planet earth were a collection of an alien planet, what would be in that collection and what would it say about us?
I have been in many artists studios across Australia and around the world. Some are grand and some are modest. I have come to realise that space dictates a lot of how the work comes out.
This art life on the road- Musings on overcoming comfort zones, climbing mountains, grief trauma and healing.
19 weeks in on a 6 month road trip tracing Australia, we turn the corner of the Western Australia coast and begin to head east.
When is enough, enough? A question that has followed me through grief, community work and the studio. On finding things to embrace, others to resist, and making a song for the trees.