ABOUT
If self is provisional, constantly shifting, a fiction added to and subtracted from then we all have a myriad of possible selves where identity is a construction. Questioning conventional narratives of identity, my practice changes from style to style every few years over a thirty plus year span.
I was motivated by feminism to find ways to work outside the historical tradition of easel painting. I chose to work outside the rectangle, treating the wall as a white space and the painting as a shape on the wall. Experimenting with format and arrangement led to multi-panel wooden cut-outs, shaped single panels, multi-part oval arrangements and eventually a return to conventional canvases on stretchers but often working within a shape.
A lot of my work is how perception and imagination work together to make something I’m unfamiliar with. The styles fluctuate between abstract and figurative, for many years I maintained two studios, one for each approach. Style hopping critiques authenticity and explores art history while performing painting strategies that are replaceable.
I grew up with an inventive and entrepreneurial grandfather and father – the former started Farmers department store, the latter was a toy manufacturer – Lincoln Toys – and every year there was a new range of seasonal merchandise, there was constant renewal and invention. I was encouraged to take risks, to find what was new and excited me in writing – short stories published and two novels and a play unpublished, and in art, while journeying overseas (living in London six years) and residing in Auckland New Zealand. I have an MFA Whitecliffe College of Art and Design 2005 and an MCW Hons (Creative Writing) from AUT Auckland University of Technology 2009.
Awards:
1998 Finalist Visa Gold Awards
2008 Finalist Waitakeres Award
2015 Finalist Molly Morpeth Canaday Award
2019 Finalist New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award
2019 Finalist Wallace Art Awards