In my humble efforts to make figurative sculpture over the years, I am more intent on achieving an overarching feeling, rather than any accurate representation. Consistent with my aim to evoke empathy, I will often work a figure together with a familiar animal so that there is already a visible connection that a viewer might relate to.

Most recently, The Guardians present a series of small groups of figures, charred and battle weary, standing united. They came out of a long working period of solitude, following catastrophic bushfires across the east coast of Australia, followed by the COVID years, and then by the worst flood in recorded history in my home town. Devastating, difficult times. At once these figures are stoic and strong, yet fragile. The environment permeates their bodies in the form of talismen and relics from the natural world giving them strength without separation while they face an unknown future. The mixed media additions are collected locally from walks or from my garden and the androgenous figures stand guard grounded on a line of local red earth or sometimes sand.

 

 

 

‘ravishing Eden’, Lennox Arts Collective in 2026.

Catherine Lane and Linelle Stepto push back against the prevailing hopelessness about the environmental crisis armed with empathy, story telling, awareness and increased connection to the natural world.

Both artists are long term north coast residents and active environmentalists. Their collaborative partnership spans fifteen years and is founded on old colonial histories and shared environmental sensibilities. Byron Shire is ranked second only to the wet tropics in Australia for biodiversity and the work highlights relationships in nature between species that are at risk of being lost to extinction before we even have a chance to truly understand them. There are 167 threatened species of animals in this region this is an exhibition with currency.

Photo Credit: Anna Green

Sculptures and 3d artworks made up of ceramic animals and fantastic botanicals made from animal skins and familiar plastics used in unfamiliar ways seem familiar at first glance. The works are simultaneously refined and meticulously crafted yet retain a certain primitive earthiness; a haunting beauty and fragility that lingers.