Nicole Smede & Bonnie Porter Greene began their collaboration in November 2019. Sensing Place is the first body of work from the ongoing 20x20x12 project.
Bonnie Porter Greene
Bonnie Porter Greene is a visual artist and creative problem solver with an arts practise spanning more than 20 years.
Predominantly a painter - but always involved in an array of creative projects, from collaborations with poets, small business owners, community groups, pre-schools & photographers - there’s always a large element of connection and concern for the environment in Bonnie’s intuitive gestural mark, and she rarely fails to conjure a creative response to the landscape or events that have impacted significantly upon her.
Bonnie’s paintings are painted memories of the landscape and built environments. She responding emotionally to a place and then the process of painting is intuitive, allowing the lines, forms, colours and gestures to do what they want on the canvas without any plan or design. So the images that appear – mountain ranges, graffiti walls, bush scenes and pop culture references – have a sort of directness and honesty.
She is a founding member of Shoalhaven Health & Arts (SHAA) and is represented by Gallery Jennings Kerr, Robertson NSW
Nicole Smede
Nicole Smede is a multi-disciplinary artist of Worimi and European descent, living and creating on Dharawal Country. Proud of her Worimi heritage, she works through language to reconnect to ancestry and culture. A classically trained Mezzo Soprano, she ran away from classical music early on to pursue wider artistic interests. Now, Nicole uses song, sound and poetry to explore ideas around landscape and connectedness, making sense of her place in the world, reclaiming and reconnecting to ancestry. Her work speaks of interconnectedness and how things are intrinsically linked to spirit and place.
Nicole’s voice has been heard globally on award-winning film scores, and her work has been broadcast on national and international radio. Nicole’s poetry has been featured in visual and sound pieces, exhibitions, publications and anthologies including Australian Poetry Journal, Mascara Literary review, Never Heard of Them, Baby Teeth Journal (2019), and Guwayu: for all times, an anthology of First Nations Poetry published by Magabala Books (2020).