Karrin Thurston

Karrin Thurston is a proud Kamilaroi woman and lives in Upper Horton NSW. Interested in art from an early age, she has completed Certificates in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts and Culture, and in Tourism at TAFE. She was the Regional Indigenous Cultural Development Officer for Outback Arts at Lightning Ridge for six years, and also art coordinator for Murdipaaki Regional Enterprise CDEP.

Karrin works in many media – weaving, pottery and painting. She is an artist, muralist, potter and poet. She is heavily influenced by nature and by Country. Her work is spontaneous, the expression of her soul and communicates her relationship and bond to the land and to the earth. It speaks to sustainability and to environmental issues.

She has exhibited widely in both solo and group shows, including Inverell Art Gallery, Gosford Art Gallery and Queen Street Woollahra. She has mural commissions in Mendooran, Cowra, Walgett, Collarenebri and Lightning Ridge. Karrin was invited and attended the worldwide mural conference in Chemainus BC in 1998. She designed the Warrambool Dreaming Weavings which were part of the String Theory Exhibition at the MCA in 2013.

Karin is the President of the Barraba Potters and Craft Guild which runs the Fuller Gallery and Claypan. Her Thorungulla studio is nestled in the Nandawar Ranges near Blue Nobby mountain.

I am an artist, muralist, potter, poet and gardener. I use many different media – raffia, natural fibres/textiles in my weaving; acrylics, ink, watercolour and sand in my painting, and earthenware clay in my potting. Art is the expression of my soul and speaks to my relationship to the land, to the earth, to Country, and all that is creation.

I look to Nature for my inspiration and want to promote sustainability and the importance of the environment. I put so much of myself into whatever I am making that it never turns out the same as the mood and inspiration changes with my spirit, just as the seasons and nature evolve every day.

When in Lightning Ridge I was very fortunate to have had Aunty Rose and Aunty June to guide my art development. They helped me to reconnect to our Land and my stories through my art. I was born off Country and had never been given a totem, Aunty Rose gave me hers. I am Dhulii the sand goanna.