When you’re hiking a mountain, you’re often focused on the very next step. Avoiding rocks. Tree roots ready to trip you. You’re surrounded by beauty – but you’re looking at the ground ahead.

It’s only when you stop to take a breath and turn around, do you see the incredible journey you’ve been on.

Looking back helps us look forward.

In February last year I had just landed in Seattle and was desperate to find a studio to get my art kick-started. This was pre-COVID, before the global pandemic shut the world down.

It’s such a strange thing to think about now, a world without COVID-19. As the year unfolded and Chris and I hit the road, working and making art as we road-tripped through Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona. It was a year of wonders, despite everything.

Unexpectedly back in Seattle.

The original plan was I would head back to Australia in March to walk 86 kilometres from Goulburn to Braidwood as part of my exhibition at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery in March next year. Then Chris would join me in May when his contract finished in the USA.

Turns out, Chris’ contract was extended and, so, after four months being separated on opposite sides of the world, we are back together again in Seattle.

Not only that, but I have a new studio in my old building. And it has big, beautiful light-filled windows.

It’s already been an incredibly productive space. Like a lot of North America, as we emerge from the darkness of lockdowns, we’re living in a pocket of unbridled euphoria.

Who knows what lies ahead – but it’s important to look back and see how far we’ve come.