Through my work, I hope you’ll find inspiration. I want to inspire you and your children to live the creative life YOU want.I am an artist and a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. I work from my studio at the old Abbotsford Convent. I regularly host open days and invite you to join me at the next one. Just sign up for my mailing list to be notified when it is.
I invite you to step into another world, one filled with quirky characters and a touch of magic. You’ll find dolls and toys that have been loved and abandoned. I love to escape everyday life, and my imagination is filled with other worlds that I realise and share with you through paintings, dolls, assemblage pieces and stories. Dolls offer the opportunity for us to recreate ourselves and our lives in another dimension. I paint their portraits over and over, looking for the edgy, raw or introspective moment.
The Grimstones

I created my award winning marionette show, The Grimstones, from recycled found objects, and we toured nationally and internationally for years. It is now a children’s book series published by Allen and Unwin. The books were shortlisted for the Speech Pathologist’s book of the year award, and commended by the Australian Publisher’s Association for best designed children’s series in 2013.With funding from Australia Council, I am currently developing artwork for my next book, Future Girl, which will be an art journal and novel in one, featuring a deaf main character.

When I’m not working on books, you’ll find me painting and drawing. I like to paint pieces that represent those of us who are different. For me, it’s deafness. For some it’s another disability or an illness. My paintings validate the lives of people living with a disability, and remind us that we all need to make the effort to accommodate everyone.
Stencils-3

I am passionate about DIY, and you’ll find protests to consumer culture in my work, as I believe this is the opposite of finding our inner creative pathway.Melbourne is famous for its wonderful graffiti, which has inspired me all my life. Graffiti is the authentic voice of protest, an image of beauty that is not about money. It’s proof of the DIY ethos of an individual who has not bowed down to the “experts”. I paint graffiti on reclaimed wood to bring inside, where the images can give us pause to think, and remind us how we really want to live.

I minimise waste and resource use by choosing simple, versatile tools and scavenged materials. The imperfections of reclaimed objects become a part of the finished work. I further age them with layers of paint, often slashing and sanding them back to reveal vulnerabilities below.