Looking for Songlines

"Looking for Songlines" is a collection of shapes and patterns that I am using to help me understand the “the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as ‘Dreaming tracks’ or ‘Songlines’; to the Aboriginals as ‘Footprints of the Ancestors, or the ‘Way of the Law’.” (page 2, The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin. Picador 1987)
Territory is not imagined “as a block of land hemmed in by frontiers; but rather as an interlocking network of ‘lines’ or ‘ways through’.” (page 62)
What interests me is this idea of a thread of connection repeating itself and weaving its way through the physical country, through time, past, present and future, through language and so on. The beginning and the end have much in common and form a full picture although they are quite removed from each other, especially when what is in between is taken away.
Visually, the grid is a calming and organising element in what might otherwise be random and chaotic. The grid, like a viewfinder or window, allows me to focus on tiny aspects of joyful colour and texture.

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My work is mostly painting, drawing and mixed media. As the daughter of a cabinetmaker and a creative homemaker, I have always been interested in art and design and making things. After leaving school I originally studied and worked as an Industrial Designer but soon made my way into Graphic Design jobs and eventually into Tertiary Art and Design teaching. I currently work full time in my Mittagong Studio as a professional artist, exhibiting in Regional NSW and Victoria, and in Melbourne and Sydney.
I often work in series where I have several works happening at the same time. I like to explore one subject or idea by creating as many works as I need before exhausting that idea. I love experimenting and, although this was a good attribute for teaching painting and design, it has also resulted in my portfolio comprising of many directions in my work over the years. I just love making art.
My work ranges from abstract to expressive and impressionistic. Nature's patterns and textures are common themes where I interpret rather than copy my subject. Important landscapes include the desert, the bush and the coast. Unfashionable and untidy are appealing! I enjoy seeking a visual language that interprets the landscape that I experience. I "hear" and "feel" the landscape, as well as "view" it.
The subjects of still life and portraiture are reliable backstops that I keep returning to. There's always the kitchen, the domestic scene and dead flowers. They are static and always there for me. Portraits and the figure are of great interest, and I regularly participate in the practice of life drawing.
I regularly return to intangible subjects such as sound, noise and silence (what would a sound look like - how can I visually describe it?), smell, taste, touch, unfamiliar language, time, memory and history. My works expose my interest in colour theory and design elements, leading me to reduce any recognisable image in order to place undeniable emphasis on the emotive content. Such works can be more “difficult” to view and more challenging to create. There is a delayed reaction in their making, as if they need sort of incubation time to distill a little.
I develop much of my work in the studio referencing my sketches, photos, my written descriptions and thoughts, and, above all, my memory and knowledge.