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

I love the tactility of printmaking and being able to make an image come to life but before I get to that stage, I love collecting things and sorting ideas through images. For the past few years I've been collecting old photos from the 60s and 70s, mostly depicting family life. I like the way they are slightly out of focus and the mishaps in the photographs as people learn analog photography for the first time. It's quite naive and feels familiar. I also take photos as a way to work out what interests me about images and life, when combining them with the found photographs it’s interesting to see how they relate. I think about aspects of domestic space that have changed, the things that remain and navigating the female experience in these changing spaces.

What is the significance of vagueness or ominous overtones in your depiction of domestic spaces? 

I think it partly plays into the uncanny, questioning the safety of domestic space but as an extension on that it has to do with the nature of experience. What we don’t know is just as important, it allows us to discover and imagine and to think about what ideas are at play in a space that is pretty hard to make sense of most of the time. I also like the way that it reflects narrative and memory, the way our brain fills in the gaps in our memory to make sense of things that have happened and in that sense narrative is embedded in all memories.

Photography and printmaking each have associations with notions of ‘the archive’ or are rooted in archival processes. How have you found these correlations influence your depiction of memories and personal narratives?

I think the history of the archive and the printed image as ‘truth’ is a great way to be able to present ideas that are somewhat metaphysical. Photographic methods of printmaking allow me to play with the idea of the archive in my practice. I disrupt the archive through the collaging of  images from different events, linked together through ideas and visual ties instead of a linear version of events. It calls into question the function of the archive as a complete history and how well that purpose can ever be served. There is a lot to ponder in the idea of the archive like the notion of truth being more of an abstract one, memories and personal narrative is just as truthful as the contents of a history book.

Are there any female printmakers | artists that influence you?

There’s quite a few Australian printmakers and photographers that I am interested in. At the moment I am really interested in Pat Brassington and the way her practice deals with domestic space, the manipulated image and the archive. I also love the practice of Sydney Artist Pia Larson and find the ways her practice extends from her print practice to a larger range of mediums incredibly interesting. For the most part I find that the biggest inspiration is being in a communal studio space, talking to fellow printmakers and learning from each other.

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

At the moment I'm in Canberra doing a residency at Megalo Print Studio. It's been really nice to have the time to make a new body of work and have access to the etching facilities. I’m looking forward to showing some of  those works early next year in a series of  group shows and am slowly working towards an exhibition with the complete body of work at the end of next year. Most of all I am excited to spend more time in the studio this coming year and am appreciative of having access to printmaking facilities after a year of adapting and printing at home.