I live on Wandi Wandian/Jerrinja land in the Shoalhaven NSW where I have resided for over twenty years. Prior to moving to the Shoalhaven, I worked as a dance instructor and professional belly dancer in Sydney and Canberra’s vibrant SWANA communities. While working as a community artist for the YWCA in 2009, I discovered the ancient art of basketry and began experimenting with local plant materials. This led me to Jim Walliss OAM in 2012 who took me under his wing and taught me how to become a professional basket maker and fibre artist that led me to having my first solo exhibition at Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in 2014..

There’s something about finding your oeuvre; learning basketry from Jim encouraged me to apply for a local community grant in 2015 that would take me to Ireland to learn traditional Irish basketry with master maker, Joe Hogan and further workshops with willow sculptor Caroline Gregson in Chester, England. I also offered workshops on my return trip in Dubai at the Dubai Community Arts Theatre and Arts Centre and gained valuable experience working in an international setting. The following year, I returned to Ireland and furthered my studies in traditional basketry techniques. This opened up a number of opportunities back home as I became a regular workshop presenter at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, the Wollongong Women’s Information Service in Collaboration with Women Elders from the Wollongong Aboriginal Corporation and Shoalhaven City Council’s Home Sustainability Program.

In 2017 I set my sights on learning contemporary basketry in the USA and was the first Australian to attend the National Basketry Association Biennial Conference at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. I had the privilege of learning with Peeta Tinay over five days learning how to work with round reed to make a large four handle inset basket and meet many well known North American makers and academics. Further travel took me to British Columbia to research indigenous basketry and crafts and a workshop in the Kitsap Peninsula and Bainbridge Island with renowned artists Melinda West and Polly Adams Sutton who generously showed me how to work with cedar bark and indigenous plants of the Pacific Northwest.

Travelling across the USA took me to Boston to do further research and Brattleboro, Vermont to stay with renowned maker, Jackie Abrams. I then visited Nantucket and spent a week with master maker, Tim Parsons, who taught me how to make a Nantucket Lightship Basket as well as learning the interesting history of this island that was once home to a thriving whaling industry. Throughout this trip life long friendships were made and further trips to the USA lay ahead.

When I returned home after six weeks in the USA, I opened up my own studio teaching regular classes and travelling between Canberra, Sydney, Wollongong and home to teach workshops until the travel bug bit me again. I applied for a Veolia Mulwaree Travelling Scholarship and was awarded enough money to take me back to the USA for the NBO Conference at the University of Western Kentucky in Bowling Green to learn experimental basketry techniques with Polly Jacobs Giacchina. I returned home to more teaching engagements at Liz Jeneid’s Mt Kembla Studio and the worst bushfires I had ever experienced.

Late 2019 brought the COVID 19 pandemic and the Currowan fires that burned across my region for 74 days. 2020 got worse with border closures, lockdown and life in isolation. I pivoted and began teaching online and this led to more opportunities as I began to attract international students and interest in my work. Life in isolation gave me a chance to recalibrate and re-access my art practice.

This is when an opportunity opened up a spot for an exhibition at Sydney Embroiderer’s Guild contemporary art space, Gallery 76 in Concord, Sydney as well as a collaboration with scientific illustrator, Nicole Berlach, to exhibit in the main gallery at Gosford Regional Art Gallery. I then was awarded a Georges River Artist Residency at Carr’s Park Ranger’s Cottage for two months in Sydney but this was postponed until February 2023 due to the pandemic. I also applied for a place in the Bachelor of Visual Art program at the University of Southern Queensland. Then, in late 2022 the NBO invited me to teach at the 11th Biennial Conference at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. Not only was this a big thing as the first international tutor to be invited, it was also a big challenge as I knew I needed to get the appropriate visa to meet US Customs requirements. I waited three months to get an appointment at the USA Consulate for an interview! In the meantime I also approached a craft organisation near Seattle and was able to teach a weekend workshop on Bainbridge Island while I had a whirlwind tour in between installing and deinstalling a solo show at Timeless Textiles in Newcastle, NSW.

With so much happening in my schedule, I decided to defer my university place until 2024 and then another opportunity to teach arose as I was invited to be the featured teacher at the Columbia Basin Basketry Guild in Oregon. Then something happened, and the next thing I knew, I had several other teaching spots from Bainbridge Island, Los Angeles, San Diego, Cincinnati and Albuquerque. This was challenging, inspiring and a big learning curve as I negotiated how to send materials around the USA and manage the second half of my second semester at USQ. There’s something about being an artist and living on the edge! All up, I spent eleven weeks in the USA and was lucky to spend most of that time in Taos, New Mexico. It was a life changing experience and one year later, I’m still processing the experience while I complete my final trimester of my second year of fulltime study!

After living out of a suitcase for ten years, I decided to take a break from teaching in 2025 and only taught two workshops. Having a break and focusing on my study has been a rewarding experience. There has been time to expand and take steps into new territory expanding my art practice, to set down my roots for awhile and discover new facets of my art practice.