It seems pretty natural to me that after years of making art and working within the cultural sector to support my career, that turning toward conservation would be an appropriate pathway to stimulate and invigorate my professional life. The material science aspect, archival qualities of materials, issues of access, ethics, politics of collecting and the detective like nature of much of conservation activity is as exciting as it is broad, interdisciplinary and open ended.
Apparently many artists turn to conservation as an alternative to teaching and administration positions, but conservators turning their hand to the production of fine art is a much rarer occurrence. Artist Penny Byrne has within the last decade risen to prominence as a very gifted and highly collectable contemporary artist. After 20 years as a conservator, her finely tuned skills applied to the restoration of ceramics are now applied to composite creations in ready-made porcelain found in op shops and on Ebay. To find out more about this very interesting artist, go here… http://www.artcollector.net.au/PennyByrneTheporcelainvandal
and here… http://www.netsvictoria.org.au/penny-byrne/
I am a big fan of her work and hopefully soon will be able to pop one of her delightful pieces on my mantle piece.
Cash Brown 
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