Mystery

My love and fascination for human anatomy has always been a strong influence and theme in my work and I am particularly drawn to, some might say obsessed with, the spine, both as an exquisitely beautiful physical structure that I never tire of portraying and as an intriguing metaphor that to me expresses our fundamental core human state where fragility and strength coexist. The spine is beautiful and fragile like lace, yet its structure gives it strength. The women I portray are at once strong, fragile and elusive. The exposed spine represents their core authentic self: imperfect, delicate and powerful, inextricably woven with their traditions and culture.

Whilst my artistic endeavours come firmly from a fine art foundation I do not consider any material to be unworthy of use - each medium and combination of mediums has a language all of its own and in recent years I have wholeheartedly embraced embroidery/ textiles for their expressive capacity. There is a humility to embroidered artefacts, relegated as they have been to a female domestic setting. Aesthetically, I adore the honesty, beauty and directness of the drawn line translated to thread. I have come to conceptualise my work in this medium as constructed drawings.

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I was born in Scotland and studied Fine Art at Edinburgh University. I have continued to create and study sculpture, drawing, mixed media & traditional craft forms and have been exhibiting my art in Melbourne since 2007. My art has appeared in many solo and group exhibitions and I have received a number of awards.

For many years now I have been exploring the unique expressive potential of thread as an artistic medium. My thread journey began as I sought to translate my life drawings into textile art pieces using freehand machine embroidery with recycled fabrics. Through these textile artworks I aim to explore the female form and psyche, depicting a woman’s sense of herself and her connection to her world.

Drawing is the foundation of all my artwork and I constantly strive to portray the immediacy and spontaneity of the drawn line in my work. I seek to portray authentic human experience through my own perspective as a woman and explore themes connected to my experience of place, memory & context, my fascination with the human form and anatomy and the metaphor that this provides me for exploring the endless multiple layers that make up the external and internal worlds of our lived experience

In my most recent work I have been following my passion for urban sketching and combining this with my love of mixed media and thread drawing. My Melbourne City Sketch Collection depicts vibrant scenes of this unique city that I have come to call home, sketched on site then transformed into mixed media artworks using freehand machine embroidery, fabric, paper, collage and multiple drawing materials. I aim to provide the viewer with a very experiential view of the spaces I portray: capturing the atmosphere of the moment, my love of Melbourne’s spaces and the city’s unique character and architecture, as well as exploring my own sense of self within these places.

Commissions Welcome!