I’ve had an itch for years that I’ve wanted to scratch.

It was a secret and insistent desire to make sculptures!

Finally, this year, having closed my studio in town to begin working from home, I took another step sideways and made the decision to finally indulge myself.

Hence I joined our local pottery club and not only do I have a studio to use in town, I have access to a kiln and a group of fun and inspired potters.

Its been a few months now of experimentation (I’ve given myself a year to be a beginner) and slowly I am becoming clearer about the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ of this new media.

Hand built ceramics are the first step in my intended process. Once pieces such as this one above are fired and glazed, I will be building them into mixed media pieces and installations.

Stayed tuned as finished pieces are unfolding!

My studio is a garden.

An overgrown tangle of influences where I plant my ideas, my feelings and experiences; digging around (fumbling around) and watching things grow.

For seven years my studio space has been in an old milk packing warehouse overlooking a weeded-over train line. Fifteen minutes drive away from home. This seven years was a time of extroversion – exhibitions, open studios, classes and sharing space with fellow artists.

But lately, the artistic journey has taken me underground. It’s been a time of looking at the core elements of my practice. Who am I as an artist? What are my goals, intentions, values? And how can I align my art practice more deeply, and more harmoniously with the other aspects of my life?

From this time of reflection, a new studio has been born!

After months of planning, saving and negotiating, I now have a beautiful wooden studio next to my home dedicated to my art practice.

Yes, a dream manifested.

New soil to cultivate.

I can’t wait to see what will grow!

With a mixture of anxiety, vulnerability, relief and exhaustion, the Belles-Lettres exhibition has been hung (hanged?), opened and blessed by a wonderful crowd of well wishers. The work that I am presenting is a collection of mixed media experimental pieces that, at their core, reflect my process over the past year of rediscovering a playfulness in my practice after nearly four years of academic study.

Collage has become an important method for me to engage my creative self and I really enjoy exploring different approaches to it. These works explore the integration of collage into layers of resin. The installation itself is also a collage; of my work with those of Nathalie Verdejo. Nat similarly works in a process based way, using plaster with embedded mixed media.

The Northern Rivers Community Gallery is a beautiful space, provided by the Ballina Shire Council. There are four rooms so four exhibitions are presented over each four week period. In the large room is Steve Waller with a magnificent exhibition of contemporary drawings:

Steve presents a mix of hyper-realistic drawings and abstracts. Shocking, intriguing and a world unto themselves.

In the other rooms, Amanda Bromfield exhibits Rococo inspired ceramics and Imbi Davidson exhibits dynamic landscape inspired paintings.