Showing “Hope” at the Castlemaine Rotary Art Show
I am genuinely excited to share that I will be exhibiting at the Castlemaine Rotary Art Show 2026, from 4 to 8 June, at the Castlemaine Town Hall.
This is the 37th edition of the show — which means it has been bringing artists and art lovers together in this beautiful regional town since the late 1980s. It is one of the longest-running art events in Victoria, organised every year by the Rotary Club of Castlemaine over the King’s Birthday long weekend. For me, being accepted into a show with that kind of history feels like a real milestone.
And for this one, I am bringing the most personal piece I have made.
The Sculpture: Hope
This piece was not planned. It came from grief — and from not wanting to give in to it.
Hope is a ceramic figure, hand-built & bisqued. Her gown is covered in black roses. In gardens, roses are red and alive. On graves, they turn black. Every rose on her dress stands for a life that was cut short, a future that never got the chance to be ordinary.
She holds a dove in her hands. She has not released it yet. That moment — somewhere between grief and surrender — is where this sculpture lives.
The dove is glazed in high-fire and carries a heart of corundum inside it, one of the hardest minerals on earth. The figure herself is fragile, and one day she will return to dust like all things made of clay. But what she holds will not. That was the idea I needed to make real: the vessel breaks. What it carries does not.
She looks up. She hopes. Hopes for the better life for all the humanity.
Come and See Hope
The Gala Opening is on Thursday 4 June, from 5 to 7 pm at the Castlemaine Town Hall.
The show runs through to Sunday 8 June. If you are in the Castlemaine area this King’s Birthday weekend, Hope will be waiting for you.
