Various combinations of these works were exhibited in the following exhibitions:
Nature/Culture, Artspace Mackay, Queensland, 2003
Small Wonders, Perc Tucker Regional Gallery and An Altered Playground, Umbrella Studio, Townsville, Queensland, 2004
Beachcombing, a daily meditation, a primary gathering ground of flotsam and jetsam for the making of art, for Keep Our Beaches Clean, for walking with dog, for seeing anew, to breath sea air…
…yesterday’s dusk, another nightfall, dry-season bleached, skyblue, a different cloudscape, wet-season washouts, a tidal lagoon, purple skies, a mangrove forest, the foreshore giants, coconut palms, evergreen, the movement of waves, a banded sea, coral polyps, the distant reef…
These are the things I see and know, each day an altered playground.
Prior to relocating to the coast in the Whitsundays in 2000, my work was largely devoted to painting and related two-dimensional practises. For a few years my focus shifted to ephemeral and site-specific environmental installation and to sculpture, including major Public Art Commissions.
These intimate sculptures invite intimacy but may also be viewed as maquettes for monumental works. Responding to the elements, to the play of light, the rhythm of tides, the movement of water and verdant plant-life, I am inspired by the constant changes in the immediate coastal environment, defining my new sense of place.
Though abstract in form, an anthropomorphic quality is present in most of the works and reflects my long-standing relationship with figuration in image making.
A preoccupation with ecology and the environmental preservation of this beautiful coastline is reflected in the choice of materials, predominantly plastic detritus washed onto the beaches and obsessively collected. I am rarely without the ubiquitous plastic shopping bag in my meditative beach walking.
Creating these works evolved through a series of stages – collecting, cleaning, sorting, storing, selecting and finally constructing.
Playfulness and a quirky humour are an inherent part of this process and of the finished works.
