What is the concept behind your show?
There is something
particularly special about glimpsing a bird of prey on the horizon or catching
a rustling of leaves in the nearby bushes.
I am a fauna fanatic and I know
that not everyone would feel a sense of rapture like I do when I capture a
glimpse of creature in my nearby vicinity.
BUT they are there! Even if you
don't know they are or choose to ignore them.
In Janine Bourke's book 'Nest'
she says "We tend to take birds for granted, in the landscape or in our
neighbourhoods. The presence of birds communicates the health of a place. When
they're gone, it's as though there's a hole in the sky, in the air, an absence
of beauty and grace, and vivid chatter or haunting cries are replaced with
eerie silence."
This is just a reminder, a gentle prod and peck….. You
might even make a new friend of two…
What can people expect to
see in your exhibition?
Prints, prints, PRINTS!
Creature
Cravings is a collection of Linocuts and Etchings with a little bit of Screen
Printing, Bunting and Collage thrown in.
What inspires your work?
Anything from the natural
world. Give me a cup of tea and a David Attenborough doco and I'm one contented
little bird.
I live on the South Coast so walks on the beach are a good way to
get out and have a break. There are a pair of White Bellied Sea Eagles that
live nearby and no matter how lost or frustrated I feel with some work I'm
doing they always make me feel better.
Looking at other artists'
work always helps to think in a different way too.
At the moment I've been
looking at David Hockney's landscapes, Sally Mann's 'Deep South' photos and Ben
Quilty's new paintings. But there are too many to name!
For printmaking inspiration
there is always Kiki Smith or William Kentridge and for drawing ideas there's
Aida Tomescu, Anselm Keifer, Mike Parr…….the list goes on!
I read A LOT. Sometimes I
read when I should be doing other things. I'm particularly good at
procrastinating…….
I love Kids books from authors like Oliver Jeffers, Emily
Gravett and Tove Jansson's Moomin books. They have a sense of humour and the
drawings are fantastic.
Fiction is important too. Sometimes a sentence or
phrase can pop up that magically fits with what I'm thinking about in my work.
Angela Carter, Gerald Durrell and Yann Martell are just a few names in a big
pond!
Can you tell us a bit
about the artistic processes you use to create your work?
I approach making an image
in a very experimental way. I like to play with different materials and
compositions as I put the plates down on the press just before printing.
Sometimes I'll bolt out the door at the last minute to grab some gum leaves or
plant matter to emboss or do a rubbing to collage on. I can get quite impatient
so things happen very quickly and spontaneously.
I am a bookish person
(possibly an understatement….) and have a large collection of animal and bird
books that I take images from for prints. I like cropping the creatures back so
they are almost ambiguous, a peep hole into another world.
We realise that you have a
fondness for animals, what draws you to capture them in art form... And do you
give them names like pets?
I love animals. There are
so many varied and wild creatures out there that sometimes we can find it hard
to imagine they even exist.
They teach us things about the world around us and
are indications of how much things are changing in our environment.
I use them
as metaphors for the human condition, as reminders of the fragility and beauty
of life.
I don't think of my
creatures as pets, they are characters in their own right and naming them is
the best part! Charles Dickens is always in the back of my mind - now there's a
man who could name his characters! Polly Toodle, Pumblechook, Uriah Heep….They
roll off your tongue. I always have to say them aloud to decide which name is
best….Ms. Drusilla Duck, Mr. Eustace Hare, Mr. Reginald Badger, Miss Matilda
Tawny Frog Mouth….
I'm interested in how we anthropomorphise animals, giving
them human qualities and characteristics to understand and empathise with them.
Language is the thing that separates us.
