Being kicked out of the house as a seven-year-old for being too messy paid off for Lake Grace-based sculptor Tania Spencer.
Looking back to those very early days when she was given a pair of jewellery-sized pliers and some copper wire and told to create her art in the vacant shearer's quarters, she can see where her passion for working with wire and other recycled materials started.
"I had wrecked all the tweezers in the house and my artwork was spilling out of my room," Ms Spencer said.
"So, I got banished to the shearer's quarters and I realise now that this was my very first studio."
Ms Spencer grew up in Karlgarin, west of Hyden and Wave Rock and moved to Lake Grace when she met her husband, who is a shearing contractor.
Some of her fondest childhood memories are of making shell sculptures and covering flowerpots with shells with her grandmother.
In high school she did some art study, but did not pursue this as a tertiary subject as she didn't think she could make a living from it.
Instead, Ms Spencer worked in hospitality and went travelling before meeting her husband.
When they moved to Lake Grace for work there was no clothing store which was a catalyst for going into business.
This followed a stint in clothing manufacturing and retailing in Perth, including working for leading local fashion designer Liz Davenport.
She was able to continue manufacturing and selling her clothes from Lake Grace and contracting her services to Perth clients.
At the age of 32, Ms Spencer decided she really did have a passion for art and it would be good to go back to university for further study in the field.
She completed a Bachelor of Art (Art) at Curtin University - majoring in sculpture - while also raising her daughter and running her clothing business.
Ms Spencer is now a well known WA mixed-media artist and creates work with wire, recycled and found materials.
Much of her work has a strong textile flavour, including knitting, weaving, crochet or twine, and used plain fencing wire.
"I use materials that I grew up with and tend to shop at the hardware store, rather than at art supply shops," Ms Spencer said.
"Or I find things on farms to incorporate to my pieces."
Ms Spencer works out of her studio which has been set up in the former Lake Grace Bakery, drawing inspiration from her own small property, which has been refenced and is a good source for her wire.
"I also use copper, aluminium, stainless steel and other materials depending on the scale of the project," she said.
Ms Spencer's work ranges from small jewellery pieces to 30 metre sculptures - and everything in between.
Several years ago she did a range of jewellery made from wire and old relics found onfarm, including jar lids and pieces of old china.
She has been exhibiting since 2000 and, while her work can appear deceptively simple, there is typically an underlying social or environmental context.
"I usually delve into issues where there is some dissention or things like plants that shouldn't be in the environment or indiscriminate land clearing," Ms Spencer said.
This month, she is busy preparing a 6m sculpture for the annual Cottesloe Sculpture by the Sea exhibition.
It is called Gumnut Quartet and is based on the caps, or operculums, that fall off gum tree flowers.
"I have five of these shapes linked together in a tall piece of work," Ms Spencer said.
"They are so perfectly shaped and I've reimagined them in knitted wire that will be suspended between the pine trees on the grass bank near the old Indiana Teahouse."
It will be the 10th time Ms Spencer has exhibited at Sculpture by the Sea.
She has had previous success at this event, winning the 2008 NAB Sculptures Scholarship and the kids choice award that year for her 30m long pythonasaurus.
In 2011, she won the Clitheroe Foundation Emerging Artists Mentor Program and had senior WA artist Brian McKay as her mentor for the year.
"That was a great year and made me take a fresh perspective on my work," she said.
Ms Spencer said she loved the environment at the Sculpture by the Sea event.
"It is great to see people responding to the sculptures and it is just such a good atmosphere," she said.
"It is WA's biggest outdoor art showcase and the most prestigious out of the State's sculpture exhibitions."
Ms Spencer said it was advantageous to have international artists exhibiting in Cottesloe, especially those from Japan who typically had a big contingent.
"You can see what is happening with sculpting on a world stage," she said.
"It is great to see what your peers are up to."
Ms Spencer has also won the acquisition prize at the Bunbury Biennale, meaning her sculpture is now included in the City of Bunbury art collection.
In 2010, she was awarded the major sculpture prize at the Rockingham Castaways competition.
Her sculptures can be found as public works in Nedlands outside the Tresillian Arts Centre, in Booragoon and at Lake Grace.
Sculpting has become a full-time passion and Ms Spencer said she was quite busy.
Her next major project after Sculpture by the Sea is a solo exhibition scheduled to be held later in the year at Ellenbrook Arts HQ as part of the Indian Ocean Craft Triennial.
The theme is Ghosts of the Wheatbelt and it will be her ninth solo exhibition.
"It is a collection of works revolving around the topic of farming practices and changing farming practices and lamenting on lost bush," Ms Spencer said.
"I am building a forest of trees."
