'Grateful' has been selected as a finalist in the 2025 Sorrento Art Prize

Artist statement for 'Grateful'

I created this painting to represent my gratefulness and vulnerability. This sense of vulnerability was an issue for me during the Covid lockdown. I was not being able to visit my father in ICU. I had to work on shifting my attitude, so I made a conscious effort to ‘be present’. I did this by reflecting each morning on what I was grateful for. That was all I could control, and it helped me push the sense of vulnerability aside each day. I was grateful for my relationship and the experiences and memories that have made me who I am. The way in which I captured the feeling of vulnerability was through presenting the figures naked, but with underpants. Not sexualised but intimate. The bedroom represents intimacy for me. The photo on the bedside table is obscured to represent my accumulation of memories that have led me to this point