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CABARET STAR
“We work entirely differently, but we both appreciate each other’s
work,” Gerry adds. “If I’ve got a problem, I’ll just call Ann over,
and she’ll do the same with me.”
They work together in the same studio, at their South-East
Queensland home that is carved into a hillside and surrounded
by lush rainforest. But there’s no problem regarding the invasion
of each other’s professional space. “It’s a big studio – it’s three
levels,” says Ann. “The middle level is a pottery level. Gerry has
one side of the building and I have the other side. My clay is
white and his clay is iron-bearing, so his clay can’t touch mine. In
the loft is my jewellery studio and downstairs are all our kilns on
the ground level.”
As for their artistic inspiration, both Ann and Gerry take the lead
from the natural environment that so generously surrounds their
home and studio. “It’s absolutely lovely,” says Gerry. “We don’t
have a view as such – we have an environment. We’re surrounded
by trees. There are myriad birds, and we have wallabies, bandicoots
and echidnas.”
While nature provides the ideal creative environment, thematic
inspiration for their joint exhibitions – such as Showtime – comes
from within, according to Ann.
“I usually work on some sort of a theme for an exhibition – I get
a theme in mind and I try and run with that,” she says. “It often
runs off the edge, of course. But the work for this exhibition is
mainly to do with showing, being ‘out there’, and mainly in a
performance field.
“The figures are inspired by a concept. I get a bit of an abstract
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