About

“At times her whimsical fancy would intensify natural processes around her until they seemed a part of her own story. Rather they became a part of it ; for the world is only a psychological phenomenon, and what they seemed they were.”   -Thomas Hardy, Tess Of The D’Urbevilles

Most of us know the void. We ignore it, hide it, push it down, bottle it up, evade it at all costs. You name it. And to those who have faced it head on (bravo) then a truly terrible fear may apprehend you, time and time again. This chronic cycle of fear and evasion plagues us with self-destructive habits, social isolation, substance abuse, mental illness – and the way we cope? The silver lining? For an artist – creation. With the visual form one is given a sense (though often deluded) of control over the formless. But unlike a child’s imaginary friend, who is often treated with sincere embodiment, the personal demons that grow with adulthood tend to fester without such recognition. The dualities of real, imagined and those uncomfortable spaces in between are concurrent in Arabella’s work, which often describes an otherwise private psychological interior. This attempt to flesh out those repressed and unwanted disturbances of the affected human mind make certain to remind us that one can know truly nothing beyond their own strictly tailored sensory parameters.

Arabella currently lives and works in Melbourne (VIC), spending her time sketching and smiling at trees and can often be seen crying listlessly into a coffee cup or laying hours in the park engaged longingly with the sky.