Meet the Artist

I am a polymer clay jewelry and digital collage artist living in Melbourne, Australia.

I grew up in Angola, Africa,have lived in Europe and in Australia for 30 years. The African continent still inspires some of my artwork in subtle ways.

I  graduated  from University of  Cape Town with a Science degree and a postgraduate degree in Dietetics while at the same  time learning  the craft of pottery. Health concerns led to the change in the artistic medium away from clay and fire to digital art and  polymer clay.

My pottery has been published in “Ceramics: Artists and Galleries” by Janet Mansfield, been sold in Melbourne Craft shops and found many new homes both in Australia and overseas.

My Polymer clay has been published in several copies of Australian Beading magazine.

In 2012 my Jewelry exhibit was awarded the “Best in Show” at the Waverley Artists Society annual exhibition.

I enjoy working in many media, love layering colour and texture – often with a lot of curiosity and experimentation to see how far I can stretch the process.  My studio is a chaotic labyrinth of work stations named “the mess” by my other half, a term which does not aptly describe my personal system of organisation. Out of chaos arises art.

Creating contemporary objects of adornment which are individual  is a very satisfying process to me. My work is only complete when the creations become wearable  art of a timeless nature. Well, some of it may be a little theatrical and over the top, too colourful and bold for others, but it’s what I enjoy creating that matters. The luxury of not having to work on a bread and butter line is absolute bliss, even though I am aware that it would certainly help developing a more streamlined process.

Digital artworks displayed on this website are created by careful layering of altered image fragments from a number of sources such as photographs, drawings, discarded paintings and scanned objects

Spending time with camera looking for textures or gathering natural materials such as leaves, twigs, bark, feathers, shells, and ephemera for scanning is  part of the meditative as well as immensely relaxing process of creating digital art and finding inspiration for my jewelry design.

I am a keen gardener and find much inspirational material in my own suburban garden. I collect plants, many of African origin and can overlook the lush and bold urban jungle and I have nursed over the years while I create. There is not much room for weeds to sprout, however I need to do a lot of pruning.

In 2008 I published a digital and mixed media art book:  “The Artful Correspondence of Frederic and Kate. A Cat and Mouse Saga by Eaves Dropped.”  It’s a colourful figment of my imagination with snippets of life and memories woven into text and images. It arose out of my digital art learning curve while adjusting to life in an empty nest.

I have a wonderful group of friends who meets regularly to chat and create. I meet with an eclectic group of women who alter books, collect lots of ephemera and share and care. I don’t know how I ever fitted work or child raising into my life as I am so busy and never have enough time to do all I want to achieve.

Publications

The Artful Correspondence of Frederic and Kate

Ceramics: Artists and Galleries excerpt