Wendy Rix
Army, Painter
Wendy’s paintings tell the stories of her life as a Yuwaalaraay woman, artist, mother and Christian, while also laying down her connection to her time as a nurse in the Australian Defence Force.
Originally from Goodooga, New South Wales, Wendy was born in the nearby Dirranbandi hospital in southern Queensland. Although the family left Goodooga when she was small, Wendy returns there often because it is “home”.
Wendy grew up mostly at Redcliffe in Queensland. In her third year of university where she was studying to become a Registered Nurse, she joined the army. Enlisting as a Direct Entry Officer, Wendy was posted to 1Mil, a small military hospital in suburban Brisbane.
“It was like stepping back in time. There were multiple wartime buildings, and we still wore cardboard veils. To take a patient to the operating theatre, we had to go outside and up a hill. This was certainly an exciting, hands-on change, after coming from my training and post-grad year at the modern Holy Spirit Hospital in the centre of the city.”
Unfortunately, Wendy’s time in the military ended when she was in a car accident and broke her back. After persevering for a few months in a full body brace, she realised she couldn’t continue with the rigours of army nursing.
After her medical discharge, Wendy married and had two children. As a career, art wasn’t an option at this stage. However, she created small craft pieces and eventually graduated into working creatively with recycled furniture. It was then that she bought a canvas and began to explore the possibility of connecting with her Indigenous culture through that medium. Her elders gave their approval for her style of storytelling and Wendy began to create her own stories.
She became a single mum and with an accumulation of pressures, Wendy was admitted to a mental health facility in 2005, where she spent Christmas and New Year.
“I asked if I could bring my canvases and paint, and I painted every day about what I was feeling. The paintings depicted the valley of depression as well as the feeling of being pulled in so many directions at once. But, to me, being lost in the zone of creation, even if that makes your mind swirl and be busy, it quietens the rest of what is happening in there.”
For some years Wendy developed her artistic style while raising her two daughters and working full time as a nurse.
“I was rearing two kids alone, working, and establishing a professional arts practice and I just crashed. My body was so wrecked with stress that the doctors thought I may have Multiple Sclerosis.”
Something had to give, and this time it was nursing. The need to paint for her mental health far outweighed her desire to continue working. With both children grown, she sold their house and became a full-time artist, concentrating on healing her mind and body.
As Wendy’s style and reputation grew and developed, it saw her begin to paint wall murals, fabric paintings and tattoo designs, as well as hold art workshops and accept private and corporate commissions. Throughout, she continued to work on her own practice.
At one of Wendy’s exhibitions, the Mission Director of St Vincent’s hospital was present. She was working on curating a set of storyboards at the hospital that would showcase its Indigenous healthcare workers in the upcoming NAIDOC week celebrations. This exhibition would also feature Wendy’s own artwork. She proudly agreed to the Director’s request to add the speeches that her two daughters had given at the exhibition opening to the storyboards in the hospital.
One of Wendy’s commissions saw her create a mural at a school with sizable student numbers of both First Nations and defence families. The brief was to include reference to the school’s Indigenous and military connections, as well as their Christian beliefs, their new garden and the school library. Once Wendy began, she also included a large tree, which was inspired by her own 2021 painting series Ode to Trees and Heal Country for NAIDOC.
“I didn’t know how it would all fit together until I got there!” Wendy remarks.
Another avenue of her art is creating timber Acknowledgement Crosses for Christian schools and parishes.
“On each, I acknowledge the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the Traditional Owners of the land that the school or church stands on. I also include the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island flag colours and have a meeting place in the middle of the Cross. In my research of that community or school, I creatively include everything about them that I find, and I include a written copy of the meaning of each acknowledgement that is on their personal Cross.
“A work grows as I grow. Indigenous artwork tells a story, and all paintings find their owner by their connection to the story as well as their visual impact. I paint in a contemporary, abstract style, drawing from my history and family, about experiences, Christian themes and circumstances relevant to today, although the themes can translate across ages, culture and time. I find painting very calming, therapeutic and spiritual.
“I paint in response to music, conversations, colours, feelings, nature, my past, my present and my future. My paintings are my story. They are all a part of me.”
