Talking to Artists

In recent months I have had several requests to talk about my work to other artists. Firstly I gave a talk via Zoom to the Papermakers of Victoria, and more recently spoke to Paper Artists of Queensland at the Hands-on paper (HOP) Day at Brisbane Visual Arts Community (BVAC) where we ran our hollander beater and made paper from various plants including banana. Multiple couching a is a process by which successive layers of botanical pulp are laid down over each other while wet. It provides some interesting textures and colour blends. I enjoy talking paper with other artists and hearing about their own experiments. I am a scientist at Heart and make notes about details such as how long the fibre was cooked, where it was gathered and so on. Recently, I arrived at the Gympie Regional Gallery to bring in some stock, and met another artist there, sculptor Nicole Jakins. It made me smile when she exclaimed, “You’re the paper lady!” I do work in other media including clay, textiles, watercolours and acrylics, but it is certainly papermaking that has consumed most of my time for the last 15 years and I do claim to some expertise, although there is always more to learn.