Throughout July, some of my artworks from the graphic novel, ‘The Carnies’, will be on show at the Unicorn Lane Gallery, Ballarat, next to the Unicorn Cafe, 131 Sturt Street (near the corner of Sturt and Lydiard Streets). (2 July – 1 August).

More work, and information about the graphic novel, can be seen at my website: wryworx.tumblr.com.

I will be showing and selling some copies of my graphic novel.on Saturday 7 July, 12pm-2pm, at the Unicorn Cafe, Ballarat. This is the launch of ‘The Carnies’ artwork exhibition.

Using the medium of ink and watercolour, the exhibition shows scenes from a circus, with its colourful performers. But ‘The Carnies’ is really the story of a quest; by a scientist, who seeks a refuge for her unique native Australian animals. Perhaps the circus will provide a safe haven? Colourful native circus animals is a fun fantasy. But would it really be such fun, for the animals?

I began to use watercolours only a couple of years ago, but now love the medium. I have also embraced the graphic novel format – so much more fun than the technical challenges of animation!

For the last few years I have volunteered at the Hepburn Wildlife Shelter, which has enabled me to study Australian native animals up close. (hepburnwildlifeshelter.org)

The animals of The Carnies represent a mixture of our unique, beautiful and rare wiidlife; animals such as the kangaroo, wombat, bandicoot and quoll, crossed with colourful birds such as the orange-bellied parrot.

I love the power of the graphic novel to tell a story. Sometimes images can tell a story, and bring you into the artists world, where words fail. I believe that the graphic novel medium has recently received a high degree of acceptance as an artistic format, with extremely popular recent examples such as ‘The Walking Dead’. A graphic novel can now stand either as a completed work in its own right, or as a blueprint for further development on screen.

I worked as a multimedia graphic designer (at the University of Melbourne) for many years, in the 1990s and 2000s, before moving to Central Victoria in 2012. I have taken part in local exhibitions since 2013. Recently, I produced a series of watercolour ‘Coats of Arms’ featuring various endangered species, which formed a book displayed at Booktown 2017 in Clunes. I have also experimented with sculpture, creating a barbed wire corset and tiara!

I enjoy creating animations, although a graphic novel involves much of the same process – creating images, a storyboard and a storyline first. I completed my first animation The Bunyip strikes Back in 2001, which screened at the Melbourne International Animation Festival and at many other venues.  I partially completed an animation which told the story of the last Tasmanian tiger, but I have found the story too sad to complete for now. Maybe one day, I will tell the tale of the tiger, Alison Reid and the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart…