Michelle Connolly

Michelle Connolly is a mixed media painter and sculptor. Michelle’s practice fledged while living in North Carolina, USA, where she immersed herself in visionary folk art, primitive and outsider art.  

Improvisation, play and the harnessing her own unique authentic raw energy are critical elements of Michelle’s open and organic approach to making. In her studio Michelle develops multiple works simultaneously in a prolific and generous manner that creates order from chaos through intuitive experimentation. As each mark or material is responded to, each work develops, and triggers the next to sustain Michelle’s internal dialogue with her work.  

Michelle’s assembled sculptural works are often held together with wire that at once binds together and creates their visceral tenderness and vulnerability, which is also evident in her two-dimensional works where spontaneous authentic mark making creates characters of human and animal fragility.  

Michelle now lives and works in Sydney, Australia.  

You can view Michelle’s art on instagram/connollyart. You can contact her at: marsconnolly@gmail.com.  

Ruah Grace

My name is Ruah Grace.

I am from Aotearoa/New Zealand). I am indigenous from the tribes of Ngati Awa / Ngati Porou / Ngapuhi and Airihi (Irish). I am a Peer Specialist / Researcher currently aligned within Health and with two academic institutions. I am part of the Re;Minding Histories Research Group. I am also part of the Rainbow Community and Identify as Transfemme.

My interests revolve around Advocacy and the Facilitation of “Listening Tribes”. I have a trauma-informed and holistic approach to my practice and writings influenced first by my mentor Annie Sykes and secondly by the work and practices of Martin Buber, Viktor Frankl, and Richard Schwarz.

In my other life many moons ago I was an encaustic lyrical abstraction artist working with wax and oils.