I guess it sort of unfolded slowly as an artistic career. Obviously I do have a career as an artist but it’s not my sole income. I never really thought of art as something that would be a career until it was sort of happening. During the last year of highschool, I started thinking about what to do when I was finished and maybe thought of being a highschool art teacher. I couldn’t get into the course I wanted because my marks were shit but I went to a lower tier uni first and then went to Monash to do my undergrad in Melbourne. I was doing history, philosophy and art units. I thought if I was going to be a teacher, it would be good to be able to teach other stuff alongside art. I was also doing art then and I believe that was my first exposure to the “art world” for lack of a better word. I came from skating and graffiti - that angle of art making - but I’d never really seen the fine art world and the gallery space. During that time at uni, I became more engaged with it. I started volunteering at art galleries and I really liked it. I started thinking more about what I wanted to do, or the reality of becoming an artist in some capacity - I never really considered it before. I had run a clothing brand and made zines when I was younger, thinking that I'd facilitate other people’s art in some form but as time went on and I spent more time in that space…one opportunity led to another and it allowed me to keep making and continue having a career as an artist. I ended up working in galleries for about 10 years and for the past few years I was also teaching at university. I'm currently working as a landscape garden labourer alongside making art and finishing my PhD.

Just to trust my instincts a bit more, just to be yourself. I know that sounds really lame, but be yourself in terms of your personality and however you operate with your friends and immediate circle. I feel like it's nice to see that in an artist's work, in the way they operate professionally. There's something to me, it's really a hard thing to explain but the more time I spend looking at art, I like to see a sense of honesty in someone's work that you believe that they believe in. I think that can be tricky for people that come from graffiti into the art world or from skateboarding or punk music - I think it's easy to feel a bit out of place. But that's okay. You don't have to try and change yourself to make it work in the art world. If you make good work, that's fine. That's all you need to do.