Divergence – to move in another direction – the title for my exhibition reflects both a shift in the direction of my art, something that I have been working on for quite some time, but it also reflects on the fact that if humans want to survive and thrive as a species, we have to start moving with our eyes to the future and not continue in the direction of complacency.

It is becoming increasingly apparent the disastrous influence we have had on the environment. No longer something that you hear about on the news – abstract occurrences that have no perceived impact on your personal life – it is now something that can be directly observed in our environment on a daily basis.

Since my early years I have had a close relationship with the environment, spending many hours observing it and the transformations that occur. Paying attention to the small changes in the environment, the change of the seasons and changes that take place over longer periods of time. Nothing in nature is static, everything is in constant motion, even huge boulders that have lain on top of each other for thousands of years.

My sculpture, The Slow Dance, is created with that in mind. Made with wool from my sheep, silk fabric and silk thread that has been dyed with local plants. The wire is old rusty cattle wire, left from when there used be a diary farm where I now live. The wire is clearly marked by the slow dance of the elements.  The string suspending the felt is made from local plant leaves. Using these items to create a piece of art gives the piece a very real connection to the land where it was made. I have used the wire circles in other sculptures. It not only frames the pieces nicely, but it also fits in well with the stories that I am telling with my art pieces.

Australia is a parched continent, but in recent years the drought has moved closer and is now on our door step. Having personally felt what it’s like running out of water, and how difficult life becomes when you can’t just turn on a tap, it is no longer something that I take for granted. It has prompted me to create several works around drought and water.  Drought – Running On Empty; Drought; When The Water Returns.

As an individual trying to process the issues that we are facing with our changing climate, over-population, mass movement of refugees and poverty, it can sometimes feel overwhelming. However, I strongly believe that we can all make a difference, helping each other to grow and flourish. This is expressed in my sculptures Synergy and Symbiosis. To live together in harmony, individuals working together, with the total effect being bigger than the sum of each of our individual efforts.

Many things in the environment go through metamorphosis – change, transformation – as we must as individual human beings if we are to grow and develop our beliefs and behaviours.  I have portrayed this in the sculpture Metamorphosis – enlarged dragonfly eggs, on a branch.  Dragonflies have several life stages and are dependent on clean water for part of their life cycle.

Moving around the exhibition you will notice many different kind of seeds and seed pods.  More than sixty percent of agricultural seed production is owned and controlled by four large companies.  This is of great concern – with the loss of diversity we are losing our agency, the choice of which variety we put in our mouths, which gives us energy and sustenance. The growing tendency to streamline and make everything homogeneous is troubling, if we are not careful we will lose the difference and diversity that exists not only in nature, between people, and in our world of thoughts and ideas.

I want you to think about seeds, not only as something you put in the ground to germinate and develop, but also as a metaphor – as an idea that gets sown in your mind, where it grows and develops.  That is exactly how this exhibition started, as an idea in my mind, 18 months ago, and now it has grown and is blooming.