Through my work I explore our essential connection to the land. Our being within the world is composed of many and complex layers, both ancient and contemporary. We bring with us attitudes obtained through personal and social connections, many of which may be subconscious and yet these have a major impact on our relationship to place and the natural environment. Current urban lifestyles tend to diminish our contact with what is naturally wild. We lose our connection to nature.

In Australia, the ancient is ever present through aboriginal culture and the land itself. Yet the pace and demands of modern existence causes us to become disconnected from ancient roots. We become lost in a spiritual vacuum, disconnected from a deep sense of place as home.

Like myself, most people in Australia are either recent or not so recent immigrants. As such, we carry with us a deep sense of loss – not only of an original place called home – but also of old family connections. Through my work I explore notions of reconnection that can take place through interacting with the land, a rediscovery of the sacred and the deep value of the earth as precious and fragile.

For me, clay is the perfect material for this exploration as it literally is the earth. I enjoy its touch and working it directly with my hands in its damp, moist state. That is also when it is the most beautiful and responsive. I love exploring its many permutations: colours, textures and its fired state when it is transformed into a hard and permanent material with a huge potential of varied forms and surfaces.

Fired ceramic works may last for thousands and potentially millions of years. Clay – rock’s soft decayed remains – is reborn as new, hard rock in the intense heat of the kiln.