About Me...!

BA Visual Arts | Ad Dip VA | Dip VA | Dip Creative Arts & Health |

Circle of life, water drops, whirlpools, or labyrinths....my pyrography originated from contour drawings of shells.  Burning layers of litho paper became a meditative process for me and my place of calm. Every mark, whilst intuitive, is also a conscious choice and movement. 

Longing: was a response to Australia's national and state border closures. My perspective of travel changed when a planned trip to Mornington Peninsula, to celebrate my son's 21st birthday, was canceled due to the border closure. I started thinking about the places I had never traveled to, and may never have the opportunity to, the places I had been to, and longed to return to, and the people there that I longed to hold in my arms again - and these longings became a series of pyrography drawings. I sketched and burnt aerial perspectives of these places, and then filled in the land mass with my circular markings, representing myself.

Environmental Sustainability: My contribution to the environment has always been using plastic instead of paper. I'm from the generation in the 80s that was told we were killing the trees. So much so that I initially found my pyrography exploration (above) quite difficult as I was I felt like I was killing trees... Now we've grown up and learned how terrible plastic is for our planet on a long-term scale.  I decided I wanted to try and make clothing constructed entirely from reclaimed plastic bags, stitched together with a domestic sewing machine, just like you would any other textile. It seemed like bathers would be a great idea, as the plastic is waterproof, and then there was the profound irony of plastic that we're trying to save from ending up in the ocean, ENDING up in the ocean in the form of bathers.....

As a teen & in my early 20's I dream of being a fashion designer; always drawing & designing in my free time. I lost that dream for 25 years. It was a surreal and somewhat bittersweet experience to create Audrey, but I'm very proud of myself for what I achieved. 

Audrey is a bridal ensemble comprising of bodice, skirt, and train made from 100% (new) single-use retail plastic bags - that otherwise would have gone into landfill, after they became illegal for retailers to distribute in Western Australia mid 2022.

Audrey's train is 160 cm long & covered in 23 layers of ruffles. Her fitted strapless bodice has 10 layers of ruffles.

To complete the look my model Novalee wore a floor-length tulle underskirt that I made from a donated secondhand even gown.

I designed, draped, and carefully machine-stitched Audrey over a period of approximately 3 weeks.

Audrey was on display at the Geraldton Regional Tafe Grad Show Exhibition on November 25, 2022.