Heart-Land | Melinda Rodnight

Melinda Rodnight is a visual artist and creative arts therapist whose work is informed by her experience and spiritual connection to place.

These works are about both presence and gratitude.

They speak of the joyful relationship to our animate earth and the intersubjective space held in this vital connection. This exhibition is a series of works exploring relational presence, employing the imagery of the native flora of Dja dja wurrung country as a point of connection.

The native plants of this country are the motifs I dance with in my visual exploration of the place I call home, the unceded lands of the Djaara people. I am witness and I am participant, deepening my connection with self and country through my work. Reflection of the colours of light in the works, as if mirroring hazy clouds and vivid sunsets, bring a dreamlike quality and gentle, unspoken stillness. The intuitive inclusion of veil-like circles of light within the works is a reference to self and a symbol of wholeness, that speaks to the intimate nature of presence and soul connection to the natural world.