Art Career Beginnings
When I started art school, it was really an opportunity to explore my creativity and photographic practice. I don’t think at that early stage I really had any idea what the outcome of that would be.
In my early days of practicing my art, it was my immediate friendship group and associated sub-culture that inspired and influenced my practice. This still holds true today, although it is mostly a different group of friends and colleagues who are practising artists who inspire me. However, mostly It is my experience of the world, as a woman, that directly influences the work I create.
My Jennie Thomas Traveling Scholarship Experience
Winning the Jennie Thomas Travelling Art Scholarship allowed me to travel overseas and view international art. The act of seeing work, which I had only seen in books or on screen, was a truly amazing and inspiring experience. Witnessing the way other countries celebrate and appreciate art on a completely different scale to Australia, also gave me a valuable perspective on the worth of being a practising artist. Being awarded scholarships and the like were a worthy addition to my CV. I’m sure winning the Jennie Thomas scholarship lead to other opportunities such as being selected for a place in the highly competitive Master of Fine Art (research) at the Faculty of Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne.
Beyond The Scholarship
I am now a Melbourne based artist and curator working predominately with photography and installation. I have continued to be a practising artist since leaving Newcastle University many years ago, exhibiting extensively at Artist Run, regional and commercial galleries in Australia. I have recently resigned from my position as gallery manager at the Colour Factory Gallery, a commercial photographic gallery in Melbourne, where I worked from its inception for the last four years, curating many exhibitions. I am now in the process of opening my own commercial gallery in Melbourne, ‘Strange Neighbour’, which will be a creative space that also has a photographic studio, and a black and white darkroom for hire. I am currently a Sessional Teaching Associate at Monash University. Having been heavily involved in the arts for my entire career, I really don’t see myself doing anything else in the future!