I'm Rebecca, a poet and painter from Aotearoa.
I grew up on a Canterbury high-country sheep and beef farm, roaming beech forest valleys and tussock-clad mountain peaks in the Southern Alps. Nowadays I'm based in Wellington where I work in communications and practice art in the background.
My first chapbook of poems launched last August in the revival of the AUP New Poets series. AUP New Poets 5 showcases short collections from three emerging writers: myself, Sophie van Waardenberg, and Carolyn DeCarlo.
I hold a Masters' in nonfiction creative writing with Distinction from the International Institute of Modern Letters, and my poems have been published widely in New Zealand. I have also written non-fiction for science education publications, academic journals, and corporate comms.
I’m an unschooled visual artist. In 2012 I was awarded the national NZQA Award for Top Scholar in Painting, and have continued to work on art around other commitments. I mainly paint in oils but tinker with other media. Recent projects include oil paintings, polymer clay sculptures, digital illustration, zines, and murals.
My visual artwork is informed by the natural world and botanical illustration; mythology, symbolism, and the occult; and feminine queerness. My paintings are currently concerned with the sublimity and discomfort of bodies and ecosystems in the anthropocene.
Contact me if you're interested in a commission, collaboration, or performance opportunity.