These pots are displayed in large groups. They capture the prickly,hot wallum which reveals blossoms of surprising delicacy amongst the glittering sand and resinous scratchy bushes.

These pots are maps. The marks are intended to draw the viewer over the surface, they map the volume and exterior of the vessel, the journeys I've taken through the wallum and the creative process. Arthur H Robinson states that a map that is not properly designed will be a "cartographic failure". "The intent of the map should be illustrated in a manner in which the percipient acknowledges its purpose in a timely fashion. (The term percipient refers to the person receiving information and was coined by Robinson.) I wanted the percipient of these bowls to feel their way over the surface and through the wallum. I also wanted the pots to contain a secondary map of the cartographer (me!) and the day I made these pieces.

"The paddock" takes me back to dusty, queensland summer afternoons watching the dragonflies and smelling the kikuyu grass with nothing special to do... The paddock design reflects the glorious Queensland sunshine, the plants and grasses featured are real, taken from the paddocks around my hometown ,maleny, where blue dragonflies actually do skim and glide over the golden paddocks in the late afternoon.

"swamp cartography" a collaboration between jeweller Rebecca Ward and ceramicist Shannon Garson In August 2009 ceramicist Shannon Garson and jeweller Rebecca Ward were awarded an Arts Queensland grant to research the wallum swamps of South East Qld and produce a collaborative body of work illuminating this beautiful and fast disappearing eco system.

“Beastie” Bowls are inspired by medieval majolica pots of Umbria , Italy where Shannon did a master class with contemporary majolica artist Marino Maretti while travelling on a Churchill Fellowship in 2005. The “Beastie” Bowls combine ancient decorative techniques such as cross hatching, and medieval “Beasties” with Shannon’s trademark clean, cool porcelain forms. The combination of these two styles creates a dynamic, decorative vessels.

The Magnolia Project follows the ancient magnolia tree through the seasons expressing the power and fragility of the blossoms in porcelain. Shannon begins her exploration with “Spring” sepia drawings of knobbly twisting branches contrast against the soft, glossy interiors, shell pink, blushing to coral red. Shannon has developed her unique approach to combining draftsmanship with ceramics over the last decade. She began her career as a painter and brings the rigor of this training to her ceramics. These pots combine form and decoration in a seamless way, the body of the vessel is integral to the strength of the drawing. These pots were thrown in an expressive use of wheel throwing by weighing up the whole small collection and then throwing all the different sizes at the one time with the drawing as reference. In this way the contours of the vessels are as much part of the drawing as the lines on the pots- two-dimensional and three-dimensional become linked.

Based on the spectacular Queensland rainforest tree this design references 1940’s Australiana in its bold use of design and colour. “I wanted to create a design that would use the ideas of “Australiana” design popularized by Margaret Preston in the 1930’s and 40’s but with refined oriental forms and contemporary, soft greens to bring it into the 21st century.”

FENNEL- The anglo- oriental approach in this design combines fine brushwork with slip trailed, textured surfaces on simple, classic forms such as the teabowl.

The “Nests” are pared back, porcelain bowls whose matt surfaces, etched with drawings of twigs and sticks , form a series of birds nests which beg to be picked up and held in the hand. The nests are displayed as a group ranging from tiny bowls no bigger than a fairy wrens nest to the larger forms of magpies nests. With this series I abstracted the idea of a nest with it’s associations of home, and sanctuary .