Mission Girl, Acrylic on Rice Paper, 2007

This particular piece is done on Rice Paper and with acrylics, it took me a while but I think the result is fantastic. My favourite material to work on is paper. I would use that over canvas any day!

The story attached with it comes from my Grandmother. My Nan is a very strong willed person who had a very hard life growing up. She was born and raised on a mission, had wirey, wild hair and grew up very much with the country under her feet. She recalls some really interesting stories about when she was younger, and how when she was around 10 to 13 she was sent out to work on a property.

However there was one particular story that inspired me to produce this piece. Nan actually tells of a time when she was on the mission that she got into some serious trouble for something that very meagre and was made to wear a hessian bag for a week!! She tells of how that hessain bag itched and scratched at her body so bad but she was not allowed to take it off, she had to sleep in it and all!!

Now if you ever met or had someone tell you about my Nan, you would immediately know and understand why I placed a sly smile on the face of the Mission Girl. I pictured my Nan as a shy but never doclie girl, who as she grew older would have become very ethically and morally knowlegable which aided her in the later part of her years as a outspoken indigeonous community leader in Central Queensland. Reknowned as a force to be reckoned with!

It’s because of this that no matter how much that bag itched, I could picture my Nan thinking ” this ain’t punishment!” “I get worse from me own mum!”.