Artist Statement

I have an interest in all things ordinary.

Much of my work is autobiographical and explores what is seen but not seen in our everyday lives.

It is humorous yet challenging and often disquieting in the uncovering of a strange beauty in the aloneness, grief and alienation of contemporary existence.

 My work is rooted in deeply held feelings about the environment, influenced by anarcho-feminist politics and a love of surrealism and the absurd. Nothing is what it seems. Visual illusion and delusion fascinate me both in the artworld and the world at large.

I started to make photographs when I was 8 yrs old with my father's Kodak Exactor! I have been making photographic images ever since.

My work draws on my experiences as a nurse, mother, teacher, feminist, environmentalist, gardener and traveller.

 Brief Bio

*Born in Bingara NSW Australia on 11.9.1956.

*Schooled at Minto Public School then Campbelltown High School.

*Started Teaching Certificate at Armidale CAE in 1975 but ‘dropped out’ to become involved in politics.

*Travelled to Adelaide where I was an active member of the Womens Liberation Movement, Adelaide Anarco-Feminists and the Women’s Art Movement

*In 1980 I trained as a Registered Nurse at the Repatriation General Hospital, Daw Park - later working at the Adelaide Children’s Hospital.

*During 1986-88 I travelled on my own through Asia and Africa and a brief time in Britain working as a nurse and living on a shoestring.

*On return to Australia I worked at the Camperdown Children’s Hospital and completed Midwifery training at Liverpool Hospital.

*In 1995 after a series of personal tragedies I enrolled in the University of New South Wales, College of Fine Arts - Art Education degree a long time dream to take my artmaking side more seriously.

*From 1999-2008 I have taught visual art and photography at Leumeah High School where I was Head Teacher of Creative and Performing Arts.

*In 2007 I was awarded PhD in Art Education UNSW,COFA for my thesis "Theories of Photography in the Visual Arts Classroom".

* In late 2008 I took up the position of ARTEXPRESS coordinator with the NSW Department of Education and Training's Arts Unit.

*All this time I have continued to explore artmaking, teaching myself to paint, use the camera and darkroom as well as exploring embroidery, sculpture and now my mobile phone camera.

*I have run workshops to teach people to use digital cameras at Campbelltown Arts Center because despite what the manufacturers tell us they are hard to use...