“Summer Holiday”

Medium: Water Colour & ink

Size: 72cm x 88cm x 2.5cm

Artist’s Statement:

"Summer Holiday", painted in a style I refer to as "quirky" I feel this childlike style captures the essence of one of my favorite memories, a memory of a 10-year-old child, where Mum, Dad, and 6 kids piled in their Ford Falcon and drove along a winding gravel road to the beachside campsite at Hot Water Beach, New Zealand. The only reference in the painting to the location is depicted by the traditional digging of holes at the ocean edge for hot water. I wanted you to be able to look at the elements that create a story while you meander through the picture invoking your own memories of perhaps your favorite beachside campsite.

"OLD MAN MANGROVE -Thank you for the memories"

Medium: Oil on Belgian Linen Canvas

Size: 61cm x 45cm x 3cm

Artist’s Statement:

As a child, over 50 years ago, I remember playing in the small saltwater puddles near an emerging mangrove plant at Hydeaway Bay. Every year we would come and play and the mangrove was always there, it was always like coming home seeing our favourite tree waiting for us. Old Man Mangrove, as we called him, became bigger and stronger, protecting and providing a home and ecosystem for crabs, mud skips, fish, shells, barnacles, worms, birds and numerous other animals and plants. They all found shelter and food, in the gnarled and time formed root system and branches. The Old Man is irreplaceable to me as he brings back those wonderful, sun filled days, playing under his gaze.

“Lazy Heron”

Medium: Watercolour and pencil on paper on 300gsm hot press cotton paper

Size: 38.2cm x 68.2cm x 1.5cm

Artist’s Statement:

I recall a day

drifting with my old mate Ray.

Nothing much to say.

Nary a whisper.

An eternal book chapter,

timelessness itself.

Let the tiller go,

no use for the daggerboard.

Coast slides slowly by.

Jib telltales hang slack.

Gentle slop and slap. Full reach.

Lazy heron glides.

“Boulder Creek Cliffs”

Medium: Acrylic on Canvas

Size: 76cm x 101cm x 3cm

Artist’s Statement:

Boulder Creek flows down from Mt Dalrymple, with big waterfalls and big rock faces, until coming out of rainforest to border my parent's cane farm. As a child, this was my playground, along with my 5 siblings. We used to slide down these cliffs on fertiliser bags, down to the water below. I've always loved the layers of coloured rock that jutted out towards our favourite swimming hole. There is constant erosion here, leaving trees to hang over the cliff with beautiful exposed roots - so fragile and yet so resilient. Sadly this year the farm is no longer in the family, but I have great memories.

“Making Memories”

Abstract depiction of a Neuron.

Memory facts

The human brain has about one billion neurons inside of it, with each one capable of creating 1,000 connections to other neurons. The more you think about a memory (mental exercise) the stronger the connections between neurons locking it into the memory bank.

There’s virtually no limit to what your brain can remember. It can store about 2,500,000 gigabytes of data, about 300 years worth of television.

Memories begin as early as five months before birth prompting some parents to play music to their baby.

The brain prioritises information based on emotional intensity. Emotions along with sound, smell or sight can trigger memories.

Sleep is significant to memory. Sleep helps in the retrieval and storage of long-term memories.

“Incoming Tide”

Medium: Acrylic and Mixed Media

Size: 66.5cm Height x 104 Width x 4 Depth

Artist’s Statement:

I walk the foreshore at Slade Point Creek, Mackay most mornings. I love the everchanging tide and the detritus that the tide washes up for me to find each different day. The relentless incoming tide wipes away the memory of the previous tide. It rushes, circles, hisses, sings, seeps and creeps or meanders through the mangroves to rewrite anew.

“Shallow Reef Garden”

Medium: Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

Size: 63cm Height x 77cm Width x 4cm Depth

Artist’s Statement:

Shallow Reef Garden is based on my memories of walking tentatively over the reef at low tide.

This process of abstracting the image allows me to play with planes of colours and grants me to dream a little of the wonder of a coral garden with its mysterious coral bommies and uneven surfaces for fish to dive and hide under.

“Red Gum”

Medium: Wood Print

Size: Height: 60cm x Width: 84cm

Artist’s Statement:

'Memories' exist in the world around us, they transcend that of the human experience and are engrained in the natural world. The memories of our natural world are collected by our great Australian Bushland and can be found inside our incredible fauna, such as the River Red Gum. The rings of the tree ring hold a unique record of the harsh, yet beautiful Australian bush as the Red Gum provides us a glimpse into its memories as part of the land. The work expresses an open invitation to access these memories; encouraging the audience to intimately connect with a life that existed outside of our own lived experiences; witnessing "the heart of a trees very existence as you look along time" - Bryan Nash Gill.

“Dining in the Whitsundays”

Medium: Acrylic on paper

Size: 80cm x 90mm x 15mm Framed

Artist’s Statement:

Memories of fine dining with calming views across the Whitsundays

“Pandanus Ct”

Medium: Acrylic & Gouache on canvas

Size: 42cm h x 52cm w x 5cm d

Artist’s Statement:

A classic coastal beach scene from Caloundra, Sunshine Coast. Capturing the deep aqua & golden beach tones associated with the coast in a 1950's vintage style. The vintage style the artwork has been painted in aims to capture a style reflective of memories and times gone by.

Growing up on the coast, we regularly surfed, swam and walked around this headland and nearby street aptly named 'Pandanus Ct'. Now living in the city, I often reminisce my childhood and memories from growing up on the coast and look forward to the time I can escape the city and be back at 'Pandanus Ct'.

“Mostly Happy”

Medium: Personally handmade, hand-cut, hand dyed paper & hand ground glass

Size: 33cm high x 26cm wide x 4cm deep

Artist’s Statement:

Glass is such a reflective medium, perfect to explain my memories.

The increasing depth, & depth of colour, of each sheet of paper, & the shadows they cast, takes you further into the memories of my past.

This piece is hand-made, hand-dyed and hand-cut paper. Grinding my own glass enabled me to achieve the size grit, and the colours I needed to reflect my happy, sad, and sometimes black times.

My husband tells me my memory is terrible. That's true. My happy are mainly recent. It pleases me that my happy memories are stronger than the sad.

Deep down there, I know there are more memories. I'm not sure if I want to find them.

“Shuffling cones”

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 76cm (height) x 76cm (width) x 5cm (depth)

Artist’s Statement:

The memory game, cups and balls alluded to in my work, Shuffling cones possibly dates to Ancient Egyptian times. Clearly, this game is referenced in Hieronymus Bosch: The Conjurer 1475-1480.

Here, I play with the still life genre of western painting in my questioning of how to better live with the land. Three red nostalgic cups bond with banksia cones. Nature and culture coalesce in my mind evicting binary modes of thinking.

And memories are somehow evoked from this work. I think of myself and my two siblings being these creatures. I am the little one being silly at the front.

In enacting cultural games such as this, I feel connected to peoples across time and space.

Do you wonder where the ball lies?

“Psychedelia-Memories of mental disorientation”

Medium: Kiln formed Glass Bowl, hand made glass cane, murrini, sand blasted back

Size: 30cm x 30cm x 6cm x 2kg

Artist’s Statement:

Memories of mental disorientation.

Growing up in the 1960's as a child and talking to older teens and adults experience 'mental disorientation' with the effects of 'magic mushrooms'.

Getting an insight into their mind of what they were experiencing, the colours & patterns they described were very similar to the wall paper, curtains & fabrics that were in fashion in that era.

Using glass as my medium, I can control the patterns & colours and transform it into mesmerising patterns.

“In the mangrove forest”

Medium: Batik on canvas with stitching

Size: 120cm x 60cm x 4cm

Artists Statement:

This artwork is a salute to the mangroves of our coastline. "In the mangrove forest" was created to reiterate the value of mangroves as a thriving habitat for aquatic and bird life. When I reflect on visits to these habitats, it evokes memories of squishy, sticky, smelly, salty mud - an assault on my senses. I'm glad I now appreciate how intrinsic this element is to providing a healthy marine eco system for threatened and endangered species. The layers of stitching embellishing the batik artwork reflect a dynamic natural environment that is connected and multi- layered.

“Tutti Frutti Sunset”

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 20cm x 20cm x 3.5cm

Artist’s Statement:

Gelato coloured clouds above fields of sugar cane - these are my enduring memories of crisp winter afternoons around Mackay, as the sun sinks below the horizon.

“Afghan Girl”

Medium: Charcoal and mixed media on archival pigment print on paper

Size: 75 x 105 cm

Artist’s Statement:

I create with a method called 'painting with charcoal' using fine animal hair brushes I craft myself, plus charcoal powder, I can achieve a dramatic effect of contrasting light and shadow. I love using these ancient techniques to create realism, drama and depth in my works"

This work responds to the theme of memories - the eyes are the windows to the soul and to be human is to have a collection of memories that tell you who you are and how you got here.`

"Collection Of Past Memories"

Medium: WS oils on stretched linen

Size: 76x60cm

Artist’s Statement:

This still life depicts a small amount of memorabilia collected by my late husband & myself over many years. Memories of a wonderful life came flooding back as I recalled the

happy times spent fossicking. These special times are what memories are made of.

“Cockatoo In Blue”

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 61.5 cm high x 44.5cm wide x 4cm deep

Artist’s Statement:

I love painting and I am very proud when I am able to paint a subject from my own photos.

I have vivid memories of the day, camera in hand I spotted this handsome male Red Tailed Black Cockatoo. I took lots of shots that day and knew he would be great reference for a painting.

I have used a teal colour palette and more graphic style, without losing any of the detail that I love to paint. The vivid white background makes the bird come to life on the canvas.

“Paradise Found”

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 76.5cn high x 51cm wide x 4cm deep

Artist’s Statement:

I am a keen bushwalker and amateur photographer and this painting is made up of many reference photos taken on my trips into the rainforest.

My painting takes you to the heart of the rainforest, the sun is filtering through the canopy, the birds are screeching and cracking seed pods, water droplets are dripping from above and the tree frog is sheltering in the foliage. The abundance of life is a paradise.

I don't want my memories to just appear on canvas, so we must all work to preserve these pristine environments so the rainforest doesn't become just another memory.

“How Soon is Now?”

Medium: Handcut paper collage framed in recycled Tasmanian oak

Size: 60cm x 60cm x 5cm

Artist’s Statement:

Pourshafighi's meticulously handcut analogue paper collages demonstrate how life extends beyond its own subjective limits and often tells a story about the effects of global cultural interaction over the latter half of the twentieth century into the twenty-first century. Pourshafighi's collages are complex worlds constructed from recycled paper ephemera to address notions of sustainability, remembrance, temporality, and the fragility of life. These collage works can be considered 'visual remixes' or recontextualisations of popular images through an intersectional, queer feminist lens; a movement Pourshafighi considers a form of resistance against the 'logic' of destructive capitalist market systems. In How Soon Is Now? through the act of cutting up the work of British painter David Hockney, Iranian born Pourshafighi creates brand new work that challenges the binaries we continually reconstruct between Self and Other, between our own 'cannibal' and 'civilized' selves. How Soon Is Now? toys with the audiences past associations of Hockney's original source material whilst grimly warning us that if humanity stands passively by in the face of the catastrophic impacts of climate change, our irreplaceable natural environment could become little more than a memory.

“Memory cells of Autumn”

Medium: Acrylic on paper

Size: H 40cm x W 35cm x D 1cm approx

Artist’s Statement:

Cells of Autumn is a piece reflecting on memories and how each memory is a small fragment like a jigsaw puzzle that builds the memory .

“clouds”

Medium: porcelain

Size: 15cm x42cm x 25cm .5kg

Artist’s Statement:

The beauty lies in the formation of clouds in the sky. Made from porcelain. The clouds evoke a feeling of peacefulness as the memories of childhood take hold. Lying in the grass on a summers day looking up to the clouds and imaging them to be animals.

“Reined memories”

Medium: Clay

Size: Height: 50cm x Length: 50cm x Width: 24cm Weight: 10.6 kg

Artist’s Statement:

Often the value of a moment is only understood when it becomes a memory. It is vital to hold onto memories that are flying or fading away like birds, they scatter the good and the bad. Some wonderful things we forget and some terrible parts we simply have to endure. As humans we have the ability to rise above, follow our dreams, choose our path learning from our past. Our past is always "reined in" we decide which parts will fly with us as we move forward. Stoneware hand built sculpture, Decorated with oxides, stains underglazes and glazed.

“Echoes of a previous song”

Medium: Oil on timber

Size: 61cm high x 91cm wide x 2.5cm deep

Artist’s Statement:

The Whitsunday passage sees the annual migration of humpback whales travelling north to mate, this has been their path for generations. The memories of all the migrations that have happened in years past still linger in the songs that whales sing today. Like the islands themselves, these massive gentle creatures are part of the Whitsunday story.

Hunted to near extinction before the ban in 1963, humpback whales have made a miraculous comeback with their numbers now plentiful in our oceans.

Inspired by my love of animals, I use oils & timber to create detailed works exploring the relationships between species and their changing habitats.

By combining my naturalist style and quirky compositions I invite people to learn about vulnerable species and do more to protect them.