“It’s just not fair!” thought Lucy. “I’m only 10 minutes late for dinner but Mum’s so mad. It’s not like I burned down the house, or something. I was just playing outside. I wasn’t bad. I’m fine. I can look after myself. I’m big enough to do what I want. She’s not the boss of me!”

Robyn’s painting looks at the awakening of self in a child. That moment when they distinguish themselves as separate from their parents and crave independence. They want to make decisions for themselves, take responsibility, be their own boss; but in reality their parents have quite a different view. This realisation of self, faced with society’s resistance to allow that child to be truly independent, pushes the child to closely examine their role in the family unit, their place in the world, their rights, their aspirations, and they will push the boundaries. And have lots of bad moods!

The title is an adaptation from Matthew Woodring Stover’s novel “Blade of Tyshalle”.

Robyn’s piece is painted with oils on “Dodgy Paper” mounted to board. This hand-made paper provides a beautiful substrate for the artwork, where paint is applied in transparent glazes to reveal remnants of the paper beneath, including many unexpected visual surprises for the viewer such as newsprint. “Dodgy Paper” isn’t all that dodgy; in fact, it’s incredibly resourceful and sustainable – hand soaked, chunked, machine pulped, hand pulled, hand pressed and hand harvested paper, made locally in Melbourne by a friend of the artist.

This piece was created by Robyn for the “Sphere” group exhibition, which examined the human condition – birth, growth, emotion, aspiration, conflict and mortality. Artists were asked to express the symbolic, metaphorical and literal narratives surrounding this theme.