Drawing is a process of thought for me and a product. I am always looking for different drawing languages and surfaces. My skill evolves as I explore the use of ceramic material and ceramic paint; onglaze.

Thematically I have two lines of enquiry; I have been exploring exile and the experience of estrangement and separation. My parents, who migrated from Poland, lived through war and then isolation from the rest of the modern world during the communist era. Arrived in Sydney with few objects: photos, a suitcase and a ceramic tea set given as a wedding present.

I have drawn on plates retrieved from opportunity shops as incomplete sets. Metaphorically paralleling émigrés who have lost members of families to war. Incomplete dinnerware is like incomplete families. Through drawing members of my family from old photos, I trace the lines of history with lines of onglaze.

My second line of enquiry has been the relationship of guns to American culture. In contemporary America, the relationship people have to their guns has become a close

alliance between humans and a Christian God, who happens to be white and male. Gun culture sits at the intersection between religion and nationalism. I'm drawn to how the second amendment gives people the right to bear arms, yet people feel a distinct lack of trust when they arm themselves. This becomes a cultural norm for their children. There is a proliferation of photographs of children on the internet holding and playing with guns. The guns are considered educational toys. As young people get older, the photos of gun holders become less ‘wholesome’ and more fetishistic. This is an incongruous combination of imagery that metaphorically describes the inconsistency of American religion and gun culture. In this series, I also have slip-cast toy guns and decorated them.