I was my parent’s first born and managed to share my birthday (5th Nov) with my Dad and his sister, my Auntie Dottie. I had to be two months premature to achieve this feat. (Legend has it - and who are we to argue - that Mum, not to be outdone by her mother-in-law, was determined to give Dad a baby girl for his birthday.) After the shock of me, undeterred, my parents presented the family with my brother 6½ years later. By that time we had shifted camp to Brisbane. The first recognition I had, as an artist, was at age five. It came from the headmaster of the Rangeville State School . He put my interpretation of a rabbit on public display and announced the fact on “parade” (assembly), much to my amazement and the everlasting delight of my family. The 5th Nov used to be “cracker night” before the law makers banned it. Until I was 7 or 8 years old, I thought “cracker night” was held to celebrate the fact us three had the same birthday - so naive as I was.

Art Background

- works in a variety of media - paint, ink, metal, wood, paper and computer graphics

- is represented in various private and corporate collections

- has had several solo exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions

- works in a variety of disciplines - painting, printmaking, collage, and jewellery

- is an Art educator; a Brisbane artist; a graduate of QCA and QUT

Dunstan takes her direction from such divergent influences as European Post-Impressionism, Op Art and Surrealism. Her prime concern is with the development of an individually expressive style that includes both objective realism and abstracted symbolism. The recurring motif in her work is the hard-edged square juxtaposed and contrasted with the curvilinear fragility of organic form. For her, this represents humanity’s basic need for the illusion of control over the seemingly random chaos that surrounds it in the natural world.