Inspiration: This is a tiny forest dweller who lives just east of Melbourne in the Mountain Ash forests.  As I was preparing for a solo exhibition in April of 2019 at the Bridges Restaurant in Hurstbridge, I looked for a subject that was in real trouble from that area. Keep in mind, that the Hurstbridge area is between Diamond Creek (where I went to High School) and Kinglake. As the world has seen via media coverage, the entire Kinglake and Marysville region was devastated by the Black Saturday Bushfires that occurred in 2009. Though I moved to Melbourne in 2010, many of my friends were involved in battling that fire and hearing their stories is something I won’t forget. 

Commonly referred to as the Fairy Possum, the Leadbeater’s Possum is a small, speedy, and critically endangered arboreal marsupial living amongst the old growth Mountain Ash forests just east of Melbourne in the Central Highlands. They are nocturnal, live in female dominated colonies, and nest in old growth hollow bearing trees. They have soft coat of grey fur, a cream coloured underbody and cheeks, and a dark brown stripe across the cheek which extends along the upper body from the head to the tail. In 2015, the possum was classified as critically endangered leading from several factors including loss of habitat caused by land clearing, logging operations, and wildfires. During the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009, as high as 50% of their old growth habitat was lost leading to smaller and more fragmented populations. 

This piece forms part of a themed collection that is focused on protected, threatened, and endangered Australian species. Through the expansion of European settlement, many species have been displaced by human encroachment, changing fire patterns, victims of predation, or have been exposed to disease. Raising awareness remains as the most significant challenge in the effort to reduce these possible outcomes. These represent the absence of the existence of wildlife in their natural environments.

This series has specifically utilised heat, flame, and soot to achieve the varying golden browns and charcoal greys present in the finished artwork.