This canvas is one of 4 images I painted for my visual essay in VALA 5. Written for an international audience, it is a comparative reflection on William Blake's rather complex 1790s poem ‘The Marriage of Heaven and Hell’ and the ‘UK Defence Doctrine 2022’ (UKDD), together with some philosophical classics which together create an alternate lens on new capabilities amidst current global, geopolitical tensions in both Europe and the Indo-Pacific of 2023…I hope it makes a positive contribution at a very challenging time for us all.

People’s stories inspire my art. Aisya Zaharin is a PhD researcher on ‘Navigating Asian values and media responsibility’ at the University of Queensland. She works across the fields of political science, history and decolonisation to LGBTQI+ & Islam. She's also a Malaysian trans Muslim woman and Australian citizen with fascinating stories to tell with passion, grit, humour and intelligence. We recorded this outside so be prepared for some birds.

My new article for the Routledge journal Critical Military Studies explores my painting ‘Australia A Prophecy’ where I invite William Blake’s 18th century character Orc - from his poem America A Prophecy - to travel forward in time to Australia to guide an alternative imaginary lens to unpack the gendered, mythological stories driving geopolitical & military tensions in the Indo-Pacific where I live.

I somehow got chatting with Prof Victoria Pagan, an expert in classic literature at the University of Florida in the US who was teaching an undergraduate class on The Oresteia. My painting A Many Splendored Thing (2020), and the Furies became a trigger for a class discussion.

My painting of Professor Caslav Brukner A Parable of A Physicist And Twin Torsos is showing at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Vienna for The Institute of Advanced Studies at The University of Sussex Sept 17 & 18, 2012.

Late last year I was interviewed by Dr Jocelynne A. Scutt, a fellow Australian with a distinguished career in international human rights law for The Art of the Possible, the Cambridge University Journal of Politics