19th of May – 9th of June 2019. RSASA Gallery 1st Floor Institute Blg cnr Kintore Ave & North Terrace Adelaide.

Nature , the environment or climate change through landscapes,seascapes,fauna,flora,environmentally aware people ot thought provoking images.

“2010 Was the year of Biodiversity, it was also the year of the first Solar Art prize – caring For Our Planet.

The art prize started in response to the need to help combat Climate change.The public were being made aware of the urgency for action through Al Gore’s The Inconvenient Truth”, Tim Flannery’s book” The Future Eater’s ” and many others books and broadcasts .

Unique amongst Art Prizes, the winners receive vouchers for solar products from Natural Technology Prospect, for themselves,family or friends. Which means that more than 50 Artist now have solar”.

This was the second time I had entered the Solar Art prize and the second time I was a finalist.

This time I had entered with a piece called Drought.

After many years of drought in South Australia, it had entered my every day life – not all at once, but step by step the signs came closer and closer, they were everywhere I walked, drove or looked.

More dead animals on the roads, kangaroos coming up close to the house, which never used to happen, but this was the only place left that a little bit of grass grew.

Emus coming into the school yard in Burra, Emus around Burra, much closer than what one would normally see them

Our dam was dry, water tanks ran dry, plants and trees struggled, and I felt like moisture was being slowly sucked out of me.

Drought is a piece of hand made felt, made from hand dyed wool from my own sheep. It is in the shape of a circle, encircled by by rings of rusty old wire, from the farm that used to be where our property now is – before it got divided into smaller blocks, like the one that we live on. This wire is thick, old and weather beaten, it has seen many seasons, and symbolizes the rings in the water, – that used to be in our dam but now is missing. The felt has been made to look like dry cracked earth – something we had seen more and more of. Around the felt, on the wire are bones from various animals , white ,dry and sun bleached.

With many interesting and brilliant entries, I was very surprised and delighted when my name got called. I had won ” The everything else” category…..they have many categories and i guess my work didn’t really fit into any of the “usual ” categories, like painting or drawing…..I was thrilled. Not only was it a recognition of me as and artist, and the work that i do, but finally we would be able to get solar panels on our house, something that we had wanted since the day we built it.