DARE TO BE bold.

My name is Sophie, and I am a mixed media artist living on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. I have spent most of my life here, living on my family property that has been in our family since the mid 70’s. Life is forcing us to move on soon though, so big changes are on the horizon.

When my mum died in 2014 from a short and sudden battle with cancer, it changed my perspective on life, death, and everything in-between. My art reflects my search for meaning. Her death inspired me to keep learning to find myself, because life is too short to not be curious. This curiosity eventually led me back to university to study environmental science, a thing I never would have thought I could or would do. I wanted to learn to think critically about the world, about the problems we are causing and the ways in which we might be able to fix them.

I have now finished my studies and am working in waste management and sustainability, and I want to incorporate what I have learnt, and what I am learning in this new career into big, beautiful, colourful, messy works of art. Art that shines a light on the messy footprint we are leaving behind and hopefully makes the viewer think about their connection to the planet and their place in it. I work mostly with watercolour, textas, and discarded trash I find anywhere and everywhere. There is never a shortage! I love how something seemingly meaningless and useless can find a new purpose as something beautiful. By turning trash into treasure I hope to inspire others, to know that not everything is as it seems on the surface, and nothing stays the same.