After much discussion, ‘transition’ was the subject chosen by the 2πr Artists for their group exhibition in August 2006. Over many months each artist investigated the transition theme following her own individual path.

 

I found the exhibition subject ‘transition’ very challenging and spent some time searching in my mind for a direction in which to proceed in creating my artworks. The answer came when I was in my studio, looking through the treasures I had collected on my travels over the years. A box filled with many rusty, stained and weathered pieces of iron caught my eye.

 

I remembered collecting these iron fragments at an old copper mine on a trip to the tiny township of Chillagoe, in tropical north Queensland. The quality and patterns of these fragments had a compelling attraction for me as they represented the years of transition wrought by time, the sun and the weather. Their varied shapes and irregular edges, together with the fact that they had been in a state of transition for over a hundred years, appealed to me immensely. It seemed logical and potentially interesting to use them to explore the ideas of transition.

 

I selected a piece of iron that captured my attention as a starting point for each work. I then tried to incorporate something of the character of the area – warm colours to suggest the heat of the midday sun, newsprint to signify European occupation, muted yellows inspired by the dryness of the cane grass so prevalent in the area and undulating and unexpected shapes to invoke the variety in the surrounding landscape. I hoped these features would make an unequivocal statement about transition in this unique environment.

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