Could you please describe your creative practice?

I am an interdisciplinary artist based in Geelong West. My main focus is on sustainable fashion, costume, and accessory design from waste and second-hand materials and performance art as an individual and living statue though I happily expand and take on just about any avenue of creativity and expression that makes itself available to me.

When did your creative journey begin?

I don’t believe there ever was a solid start to it. I grew up as a creative in a very hesitantly supportive household, carving out some space for me to take on origami and sculpting here and there to occupy me as a trade-off for studying mechanical draftsmanship and broad strokes engineering. After coming to Australia, I kept up the origami to fill my time and eventually made centrepieces from found objects and paper to sell in between little time filling projects. It’s overall been a bit of an amorphous and non-linear journey.

What inspired you to pursue a career in the creative field?

Honestly it was from being at a loss for other immediate opportunities that kick-started the progression of developing my passive craft into work. I had lost my first job and was unemployed for several months when my partner enquired if there was anything I could do with the costumes I made. Up until that point I had mainly done costume design as a passive annual celebration of Halloween (it’s my favourite holiday as an American) that involved creation, themed photography, and then packing the looks away in the back of a closet and never used again. At the time I recently read some work by an artist who worked as a living statue in her early days and figured “yeah, sure, I could do that.” Now, some 10 odd years later what started as standing on a box for some extra financial support has become taking on the roles of sustainable designer, circularity advocate, model, performer, and known Local Entity. 

How do you connect with the Greater Geelong area through your work?

I absolutely love Geelong’s local creative community and galleries. My first go at becoming a “Real Artist” was Platform Arts’ debut “After Walter Hopps” show in 2022 with the submission of a found object sculpture and wearing my first performance costume to the closing night in a mutual theme with the work (I had the idea of being simply an anonymous creative at the time- that obviously hasn’t worked out).

Shortly after I was a finalist in We The Makers at the National Wool Museum as an emerging sustainable designer, and since then have found myself working a lot with local creatives and institutions. I’ve recently started a sustainable conversation and design collective called Our Circular Collective with fellow artist Kate VM Sylvester where we hope to connect professionals, artists and creatives across all disciplines in textile circularity and truly believe I would not have the optimism for such an ambitious multifaceted project if not for Geelong’s very welcoming and supportive artistic community. Anytime there’s a project or skill I find myself unable to work out or take on, there’s inevitably someone happy to advise with their own skill and experience to help. 

What challenges or barriers have you encountered in your career?

Pinning down long term sustainable support and opportunities. A lot of people and institutions aren’t exactly sure what they can do with me. My work is well appreciated, but as someone who spans across performance art, wearable art, and sustainable fashion design & advocacy I fall outside of the typical direct “X artist does Y practice/aesthetic” mindset. I’ve always been a square peg in a round hole, so it occasionally takes some direct dialogue to communicate that I’ll take anything on as a creative. There’s an old American expression “If you’ve got a cheque, I’ve got a talent,” so if it’s not any one of the avant garde ideas i’ve got queued up in my head, I’ll easily take on and learn whatever I need to deliver a great experience for whoever is hiring.

Looking ahead, what would you like to achieve?

I enjoy making and designing, and will always be up for commissions and peddling the occasional accessory, but in the future I’m hoping to have even more success as an advocate and organiser. I want to give creatives and professionals the platform to discuss and exchange ideas on textile circularity and sustainable productions and mindsets. I organised a gallery showing in 2025 for the first time and really loved the process of bringing multiple disciplines together under one shared value and would like to do more of that. I believe a solitary creative person can't do everything in advocacy and action for the future, but if we all have a shared platform, we could enact at least some real consideration for how people care for their clothing and home textiles both in active use, and in their discarding, on top of their overall waste in general.

Where can we see or learn more about your work and projects?

You can find me @queerythis on Instagram, and @queerythisarchive for the library of all my made looks. You’ll also find me at queerythis.com where you can find all information about commissions, items for sale, and how to book me for a performance!