Friend or Foe? 2023 (intaglio print using tetrapak plate)

This year I participated in the annual print exchange. I created 25 prints to be exchanged with 21 other staff and students from UniSQ. Other prints went to collections at Curtin University in Perth, The National Art School in Sydney, and RMIT University in Melbourne.

The work Friend or Foe was inspired by my home life. As we have refused the use of pest control chemicals and live in a bushland setting, we live with many creatures. I have illustrated these creatures using a drypoint method on a throwaway domestic object—the milk container. The prints initially feel of fear and darkness, a little like many peoples reactions to these animals, but in time both my print and the creatures expressed, become gentler, like kin, and part of a living world.