I was walking through the Carriageway Park in the late afternoon looking up through the trees and in the half-light the birds seemed to meld into the branches becoming one. They were strange beings with heads protruding from branches and sticks for wings.

This fleeting vision inspired my “Stick-Birds” series of (wall mounted) zoomorphic sculptures, melding elements of the natural world into one and exploring sculptural qualities of both.

My sculptures take on hybrid forms as the porcelain is physically wrestled into shape and the subtle features are modelled before the surfaces are painted with cobalt blue washes responding to the tonal shades of the tree bark.

These hybrid forms are inspired by the elemental things from nature and the unique Adelaide Park Lands.

Handbuilt porcelain, cobalt underglaze decoration, glaze

50cm x 50cm x 10cm (wall mounted)