Tell us about your creative process, what drives your practice?

I really enjoy the process of making and often in my work there’s evidence of a time-based feeling to the labour. I have an affinity with materiality, the agency of materials is the driving force behind an intuitive and undetermined process. I’ll often collect discarded texts, then stitch, collage, tear, draw, and layer them with my prints. Collecting and archiving is an important process, it’s an impulse driven by the need to seek and fill gaps within cultural memory. For me, archiving and memory are tied; the fear of dementia brings home the significance of memories and their ability to keep us connected. 

But in saying that, archiving is more than recording works in order to keep them alive, it’s a collection of actions; drawing, writing, photographing and printmaking. It’s about connecting to events of the past and the present, and moving in and out of time. It’s a way of turning old failings -whether they are unwanted prints, discarded objects or old ways of thinking - into new possibilities. It’s a way of giving new life and meanings to objects through an exciting, laborious and satisfying practice of printmaking.

How have you found your cross-disciplinary practice informs the way you approach printmaking? 

Drawing is the basis of my practice, and the drawing will often determine how I’ll proceed with a printmaking process. Monoprinting is an ideal medium for me as the mark-making is painterly and expressive. I like to use the subtractive monoprint technique; wiping the ink away with a paper towel and cotton buds to expose the surface of the plate and then pull a print from that. It's just a magical process, it yields a freeform drawing quality and it provides a unique quality of light that is hard to achieve in drawing or painting. In the monoprint, Lock Door, I was able to achieve an atmosphere through chiaroscuro, which is a feature I often use in my work. 

I also enjoy the intaglio technique for its alchemical processes. I find that an expressive quality and richness in the marks can be achieved from copper and zinc etchings. Various tools produce unexpected and interesting marks and suits concepts of memory, palimpsest, and erasure that I often explore in my work. Copper etching is my preference for portraiture, as in The Green Beret, it lends itself very well to my expressive style of drawing. I used aquatint and sugar lift towards the end of the printing process to achieve tonal contrast, this variety and richness of the tones also affects the atmosphere of the work.

Objects seem to be a recurring element within your artworks. What is the significance of objects, both found and created, in your practice? 

Found objects have a fragmentary nature, similar to the way we experience life. We might grab part of a conversation as we pass someone, or see a fleeting image, or a whiff of an aroma. I often respond to the graphic elements of found texts; diagrams, maps, charts. I love how serendipity plays a part in the decision making of creating. 

There are theoretical dialogues within material culture that show that things have biographies because we encode them with personal value. To give an example, mourning became a social ritual within Victorian society in the early 1900s, and mourning stationery was embraced by a culture of mourning. Black-bordered envelopes were sent with condolence cards as part of a ritualised practice, whilst it also became a codified form of control to signify the length of the mourning period. 

So, when I found some black-bordered envelopes in an antique shop, I wanted to continue moving these materials of mourning through time. I made a series of etchings from them. The envelopes’ bold, black graphic quality appealed aesthetically, but so did their history, and the thought that someone had discarded a personal object. The print, The Task of Mourning, is a copper etching that yielded unexpected and interesting marks that suited the concept of memory, palimpsest, and erasure. Aquatinting produced rich tonal grades, and a layer of beeswax provided a natural warmth and tactile texture. The idea of extending the life of an object in this way is very appealing to me.

Are there any female printmakers | artists that influence you?

Most certainly! Besides the female lecturers at St George College of Arts and the National Art School, there are many influential women. Claire Humphries uses similar materials and processes to mine, and her concepts relate to my own interests in time and memory. Rebecca Mayo uses texts and maps to explore a sense of belonging and our place in the Anthropocene. Deidre Brollo for her simple but evocative artist’s books, Janet Laurence’s interest in nature, Eva Hesse, for her minimal, and sensitive works. Kiki Smith whose paper sculptures relate to the vulnerability and fragility of skin. Louise Bourgeois whose work is rooted in memory and biography and her desire to recreate an emotion. Helen Frankenthaler for the way she modulates colours to achieve sensual forms. And finally, NAS lecturer Carolyn Mckenzie-Craig, who was a huge inspiration whilst I was studying, she gave so much of her time and knowledge.

Finally, what exciting projects are you working on at the moment?

I have a few things going at the moment; I have been commissioned to do a work for a 90-year-old woman who loves the ballet. I’m also painting domestic objects for a couple of group exhibitions which have been postponed to March 2022. I recently got some objects out of storage, as you do during lockdown, and found that they had such a powerful presence, I felt compelled to paint them. I have a couple of mid-century Mixmaster’s which I've painted at a monumental scale, highlighting their form and imperfections. I’m also making an artist book, it’s a nice way to work between different modes of expression. I enjoy them for their aesthetic qualities and for their ability to communicate subjective ideas but more importantly, for their haptic nature.