Artist Statement
June Perkins is a multi-arts creative who combines, poetry, blogging, photography, story, memoir, and more to explore the themes that interest her – childhood, youth, peace, ecology, spirituality, environment, cultural diversity, resilience and empowerment.
She creates her work to engage, empower and uplift. In this exhibition she explores the theme ‘Illumination’ on a variety of levels.
She has been influenced in her work by her children, family, Queensland, extended family, Papua New Guinean Indigenous culture, the Australian cultural and physical landscape, and environmental writers such as Rachel Carson.
Her poetic influences include Maya Angelou, Judith Wright and Oodgeroo, Dylan Thomas, the writings of Baha’u’llah, and many global Indigenous writers who all write in a way she finds heart felt and rhythmic. She loves Spike Milligan, Shirley Hughes, Pam Ayres and Roald Dahl.
She creates her works through combining her creative pursuits, so for instance she might write a poem and then sing it, and then modify the written words after writing it to fine tune its lyricism.
She takes photographs and notebooks when walking and then later spends time creating place based pieces from these visual and written records. She consciously plays with set poetic and song forms.
Although she predominantly likes to work in free verse she will move out of her comfort zone to improve her art and extend it and likes to explore a wide cultural array of poetic form and not just stick with ‘European’ and ‘English’ forms.
Her poetry is about connecting, reflecting and depicting the world through the power of words. She wants to evoke emotions about special places and times that especially might appeal to parents, grandparents and the children and youth they care for.
Be Illumined 
Reblogged this on Pearlz Dreaming and commented:
Only one week to go to Illumine. Here is my Artist Statement.
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