Altona-based international artist Dovey Dee currently features in a US journal Sinister Wisdom, in a piece about women living in literal or figurative exile.
The piece was an open letter expressing gratitude to Dee’s partner for bringing her from the US to Australia.
It was published in an edition of the journal Lesbians and Exile and also formed part of Dee’s Pricks exhibition of cacti paintings and other artwork.
“Exile is a state of mind as well as a physical condition,” Dee said.
“Cactus are a potent metaphor for something that adapts and endures in harsh circumstances and then bursts forth with beauty under difficult circumstances … my backyard is a cactus garden and so I’ve got all of these species that I just painted portraits of, as well as landscapes and hillsides and so forth around Victoria that remind me of living somewhere else in the world.”
The former Louisiana resident held her first Australian exhibition at the Joel Gallery in 2011 and is currently working on her next exhibition.
Pricks was part of Hobsons Bay’s Go West events, which were supported by Hobsons Bay council.
To find out more about Dovey Dee’s work, visit her page on Facebook.
