My arts practice draws creative inspiration from Australia’s natural environment with a particular interest in the Merri creek, the Victorian Coastline and natural spaces in Naarm /Melbourne. This project explores Australian trees, their shadows, and our interactions with them in both urban and natural spaces. I am interested in trees as sources of creative inspiration and comfort, but also their fleeting and shadows as impressions on the surrounding environment. I’m inspired by these moments that are ephemeral and constant, yet overlooked as mundane.
I use intaglio copper printmaking to capture moments I am drawn to; the calm feeling and experience of engaging with trees, dappled sunlight and shadow, experienced in passing on a regular commute, or when fully immersed in a natural environment. This project reflects where the tree’s presence is felt through dappled light but is itself absent from the image, leaving the shadow behind. This subject matter reflects the intaglio printmaking method used. The main copper matrix is the origin for which the print, or ‘shadow’ of itself is printed onto another surface, in this case paper. This triptych of prints explores the juxtaposition of capturing a fleeting shadow, and the time and processes taken to replicate nature’s mark-making by hand onto a copper making by hand onto a copper matrix.
