The Year That Was - A View from the Studio

2014 marked the first year our Ballarat studio was up and running. One of the first projects I developed there was an edition of linocuts for Beastarium, a print exchange folio curated by Rona Green. (My print edition is pictured bottom row centre in the montage below. I collected my folio recently, and it’s a beauty).

Top row: Jewel Beetle Woman lino block, Catoxantha opulenta Beetle Woman 
watercolour, centre left: Goliath Beetle Woman, watercolour in progress, centre right:
Cotton Harlequin Bug Woman linocut edition; below it, left: DK and Shane Jones at the
Melbourne opening of Near Neighbours, bottom row, left: installation view of
Show Time, Arts Centre Melbourne, featuring (left) my linocut See the Lady Sawn in Half!
bottom centre: three Homo-insecta linocuts. Below it, centre: Damias elegans Moth Mask
print editionfor Beastarium and bottom left: work in progress, Studio 10 at the Art Vault,

An early highlight of the year was back in January, when I was invited by the Australian Print Workshop to be one of the special Guest Artists at their Summer School. The linocut I made, Jewel Beetle Woman, was editioned by APW Master Printer Simon White.

At the APW signing the completed edition of Jewel Beetle Woman

In the latter part of the year I completed a small print edition for Editions 2014, the Australian Print Workshop’s biennial fundraiser (My linocut Cotton Harlequin Bug Woman is pictured in the top montage, righthand side, second from top). My partner Shane Jones also made an edition for the show. We were both delighted to learn that our prints were recently acquired by the City of Whitehorse for their permanent collection.

The aforementioned Homo-insecta relief prints were exhibited in the eponymous solo exhibition at the Art Vault in Mildura from late November - mid December, where I also undertook a short but extremely productive residency.

Although it’s fair to say that a substantial amount of time was devoted to print-based projects this year, equally as many hours have been spent honing my watercolour skills via the ongoing insect women series, the evolution of which has been documented faithfully on this blog.

In the interim, other exhibitions I had work in during the year included: Show Time, The Arts Centre Melbourne; Seventh Skin, Hatch Contemporary Art Space, Vic; Corporeal (continuing) Switchback Gallery, Monash University, Gippsland,Vic; Prints 25, Print Council of Australia Prints, Whitehorse Artspace, Box Hill, Vic; We were only Wainting, I.D.E.A. Museum, Mesa, Arizona, US; Near Neighbours, St Heliers Street Gallery, Abbotsford and Solander Gallery Works on Paper, New Zealand. Goldfields Printmakers, Firestation Print Workshop, Melbourne, Vic; The 2014 Silk Cut Award for Linocut Printmaking, Glen Eira City Council Gallery, Vic; 2014 Fremantle Arts Centre Print Award, Fremantle Arts Centre, WA, PAGE.PRINT.POST., Post Office Gallery, Federation University, Ballarat, Vic; Contemporary Print, Australian Print Workshop, Vic; APW Print Fair, Melbourne, Vic; Biblio-Artist Books, Clunes, Booktown, Clunes, Vic. 

Looking ahead, in February 2015 eight of the Homo-insecta linocuts will be part of Editions 2015, a group exhibition at Tacit Contemporary Art in Abbotsford, Vic. In April/June the exhibition The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not Me) at Maitland Regional Gallery, NSW will include a drawing of mine made especially for the show. The Beastarium portfolio will be exhibited at Dubbo Regional Art Gallery in August 2015. Later in the year I'll be participating in a group exhibition titled Parallel Prints NZ/Aus 2015. It's curated by Mark Graver, Director, Wharepuke Print Studio, Kerikeri, New Zealand. Full details of these will be posted nearer the times.

Until then, I wish each and every one of you a very Happy New Year.