"Measured"

Each morning begins with a dog walk through the bushlands in Central Victoria where we live – beautiful Dja Dja Wurrang country. It is a routine we look forward to. There are rhythms to this activity. My dog’s gait changes and adjusts from slow to fast depending on what catches his attention. He is full of anticipation, playfulness, and optimism as to what will be revealed. I adjust my pace trying to stay with him. He sniffs, ears pricked, eyes searching, alert, and open. I too stay attentive - listening, touching, smelling, looking - breathing in air deeply. There is a fragile, yet resilient rhythm to the flora and fauna in the bush which I am respectful of and which we both are becoming more attuned to, slowly finding our place.

Each day in the studio also has its own rhythms - its own measures - its own distractions and moments of attentiveness. I bring my experiences from my walks, and from the world, into the studio for deliberation. I am learning to navigate a more thoughtful measured approach in my studio practice which allows for objectivity and subjectivity to operate in different ways and at different times.

To measure is to ascertain the size, amount, or degree of something by using an instrument or device marked in standard units. To measure also means to assess the importance, effect, or value of something. Reliability and validity are concepts used to evaluate the quality of research. The consistency of a measure provides reliability. While the accuracy of a measure provides validation. I have come to realize that these concepts are not restricted to evaluating the quality of research, but rather extends out into the world. While the act of measuring operates in much of my daily life including my studio practice, I am conscious to also consider that which might be unreliable and to find other means and forms of validation.

The artwork in this exhibition begins with some form of measurement; ruled lines, grids, triangles, which maintains a structure for me to work with and against. The motifs and colours I employ, reflect long held disparate interests - tropes in abstraction, textiles, daydreaming, cultural memories, travel, migration, and place. Each of the paintings while deeply personal, use familiar forms allowing viewers to find their own entry points into the artwork. In this way we may arrive at points of shared (or divergent) values or meanings (whatever they are) which reflect how we navigate the world we live in.

This exhibition attempts at revealing this wonderful relationship between that which can be measured objectively, quantitatively, and that which occupies more subjective, qualitative spaces. The complex and nuanced decision-making process in the studio relies on trying to ascertain the importance or value of something by working within these parameters to arrive at a body of resolved work.

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