Vicki Torr Emerging Artist Prize 2021

When I received the phone call I flushed pink with excitement. It feels amazing to have such good news after what feels like a really long dry spell. Hearing that Portal won the Vicki Torr prize this year made me buzz with energy and motivation.

Close up of Portal: The Closed Door during the Glass Armours Solo Exhibition, 2021

Portal will be the first of many in the jade series. Although I call it the jade series, it’s actually made of cast recycled glass; a process I’ve been experimenting and developing over the last couple of years.

Although glass is a beautiful material to work with there are so many areas/steps in the making of glass artworks that could create waste. So as I’ve learnt more about the process, I’ve become more in tune with ways to recycle/reuse material. Some of them involve crushing up one off moulds that have been fired and mixing them into fresh raw material for mould making. (A process I learnt from Dr. Angela Thwaites, who calls the new mix ludo.) And sometimes that involves looking around at the discarded and shattered glass lying around, and giving them a new life.

The last two years have really opened my eyes to the effects of climate change. As an artist working with cast glass I realize that it is impossible to be completely carbon neutral but I guess I want to make as much of a difference as I can, however little it may seem so this series is an important step in that direction for me.

Thank you to the Ausglass members for voting me in and keep a lookout for a new body of work!

National Emerging Art Glass Prize 2020

“Head Cases” in the National Glass Art Gallery, Wagga Wagga

This post has been a long time coming. I first found out that I was awarded the National Emerging Art Glass Prize 2020 in April, but it didn’t feel appropriate to be celebrating when the whole world was reeling and mourning from the shock of all the COVID19 deaths in Italy. I was conflicted and thought it best to be satisfied with my mini fist pump and celebrate when times were better.

Well...times aren’t really better, 2020 is destined to be chaotic it seems (which is fitting considering how started off with the massive fires in Australia burning at their worst in January). But despite all the damage and the chaos, I also find it to be hopeful, like there will be a metamorphic change after this. And since there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight, I might as well take this time as good as any to celebrate, to continue making art and find reasons to be happy even amidst so many reasons to be sad or angry.

It was the first prize I have ever won as an artist. It felt validating and encouraging. I felt seen. Not just by the audience but by the people closer to home for me. My parents have always wondered if I had chosen the right path (even though it has already been 5 years since I graduated with my arts degree), they love and support me but they also worry for me.

I truly couldn’t have gotten here by myself. That is not to say I don’t believe in myself, but the path of an artist can be so fraught that I think even the most confident person can falter and be riddled with self doubt. If it weren’t for those who believed in me even when all evidence pointed otherwise and urged me to keep applying, keep making, keep trying, I don’t know if I would still be on this path. 

So I want to thank all those people who have been cheering me on since the beginning and those who saw me and believed in me when I needed it most. You are the reason I am still here. You guys are my treasure.

Without further ado, here are some images of my work up in the National Emerging Art Glass Prize 2020!

I have yet to go see it in person because of the quarantine, but I do hope to catch all the beautiful entries before the end of the Exhibition in September 2020! In the meantime I’ll keep creating and pushing myself in my craft. :)