I didn’t always think of myself as an artist. But everything changed when I was studying for my VCE.

I couldn’t ignore my love of art anymore – it is the thing that makes me truly happy.

I always wanted to be the first female prime minister of Australia. I got pipped at the post on that one, so art was the next best thing for me.

My higher education began at the University of Melbourne, but I ended up studying, and now lecturing, at RMIT after a year-long stint of running a school camp.

My love of complex cultural theory also had me thinking I would be a career academic, but this was not to be the case either.

Being exposed to art creation during university life lit a fire in me. I was at a crossroad, but in that moment I knew I wanted to be the artist and not the curator – so I became an artist from that point on.

I still have three loves that I cultivated as a child – art, walking and politics, but walking and politics are now integrated into my art.

Given that I grew up on a hundred-acre rural property, I can appreciate how important it is for those who live away from the city to be exposed to and interact with art. I like that my work is in the public realm, because I feel accessibility to the Arts is so important.

My hope is that audiences develop an appreciation and respect for art and its ability to challenge them, which allows people to find something that remains with them long after the gallery is closed.

The plan is to have them thinking about what they saw and how they felt.

Most of my work is about location and the public realm. I’m interested in narrative – fictional narrative and identity stories, stories about place and location relevance. I compose a little bit of fiction, tall story, and own “tall” tales from my family history. The difficult task is to not “dumb down” the complexity of art in order for people to enjoy it.

My favourite thing to do is walk around exploring cities foreign to me. I’ve made self-funded work overseas to expand my creative horizons – mostly to escape my comfort zone and make myself a stronger artist. A city that is not mine creates a new perspective and creativity, which is something I have channelled into my previous work.

I’ve been working for months on a project that maps routes from Federation Square to important Melbourne landmarks.

I’ve walked from there to the airport, along the banks of the Yarra and to the ports – the funny thing is that I’m dressed as a tortoise when I do these treks.

The costume is in reference to French philosopher Charles Baudelaire. He claimed that to become a “passionate observer” of the world you have to walk at the pace of a tortoise while exploring your urban landscape.

My current forms of art creation have allowed me to integrate my loves. The combination of fiction and cultural theory is exciting in that it challenges me to excel.

My friends consider me a serious person, but even they know that I always enjoy delivering serious topics with a sense of humour.