Artist Statement 2026
Be still. and silent. Look and listen. Breathe. Feel. Everything is Connected.
Artist Biography 2026
Sue’s strongly rooted connection with nature has grown from her Celtic ancestry and has adapted to transplantation to her birthplace and home of south-eastern Australia.
Alongside graduating with a Master of Natural Resources from the University of New England in 2007, Sue worked for 25 years as a professional in the natural area restoration field for a number of LGAs and NGOs. During this time, it became clear that the ‘environmental sustainability’ and ‘sustainable development’ paradigms, based the false promises of technofixes, don’t work, and that global heating and species extinctions are only accelerating.
A practicing artist since her studies in fine art at Melbourne Polytechnic last century, Sue’s art now focusses on the reality of the collapse we are currently experiencing, and on living life with eco-grief. Sue’s work aims to avoid the use of new materials, working in found objects, collage, re-used textiles, photography and, occasionally, words. Sue is also a Diploma-qualified meditation teacher.
Sue is currently studying for a Diploma in Creative Arts and Health, which supports and strengthens her work facilitating TVS ‘art for nature’ workshops. Whilst art-making is the central focus of all TVS’s workshops, Sue’s workshops also aim to foster societal cohesion, connection with other humans and with the natural world and mindfulness, while celebrating the beauty, diversity and sacredness of the nature we have left.
Sue continues to work collaboratively with The Tree Veneration Society, having previously been involved with TVS projects at the Beams Festival in Chippendale, The Green Square Arts and Community Initiative, the Auburn Refugee Centre, as Co-curator of the Tree Tales 2023 exhibition at Chrissie Cotter Gallery, Camperdown, and as facilitator of art and nature workshops in inner Sydney.
Awards
Winner – Inner West Community Art Prize (Cooks River Art Prize) 2014
Publications
Book Chapter: Aesthetically Pleasing Plantings: Restoring Native Vegetation in Coastal Sydney inUsing the Visual and Performing Arts to Encourage Pro-Environmental Behaviour, edited by David Curtis. Cambridge Scholars 2020
