EUNICE McALLISTER - ARTIST STATEMENT
I came to art very late in life. When I was young, one of my sisters was the family artist. I remember her as a woman who had very little patience with anything until there was a brush in her hand and then she would focus instantly, as sharp and unwavering as a surgeon. My first exposure to art was with a kit toy called Colorforms - thin amorphous and colourful pieces of plastic that could be placed on a waxed black board in any configuration. I didn't draw or paint because you had to be born with that talent. So I read and taught myself to type.
This is how I became a photoshopping digital artist. In my lifetime, the potential to be an artist has become available to everyone through technology and a broader definition of what constitutes art.
I lived on Scotland Island, a semi-rural area north of Sydney for 35 years so my images catalogued the natural world there, the insects, fish, algae, the trees and weeds. Mixed in with the real are the imaginary or "hybrid" creatures simulating, I suppose, both sides of my mind where they co-exist nicely. I used to travel quite a lot but now I travel by making landscapes that no one else including myself has ever seen and simultaneously indulging my passion for rocks. It is an extension of the concept of Terra Nullius, but no one lives in these landscapes because they only exist on paper. For an artist, Australia is a portal to the idea of new landscapes and I am sure there are places here where no one has ever set foot.
I now live in Kuranda near Cairns and my work has gone in a different, more industrial direction. It's now an amalgamation of the natural and human-made and consequently a lot more interesting.
I've made a couple of excursions into bookmaking. My first attempt, "Between the Trees: Scotland Island Illuminations" owes its structure to the medieval books of hours. There, a meditative text is accompanied by an elaborate illustration incorporating the first letter of text.
I hope you enjoy my work.