Creating Beyond the Familiar: My Collaboration with Louis Vuitton

There are moments in an artist’s journey that feel both exciting and slightly surreal.

Creating two commissioned works for Louis Vuitton was one of those moments for me.

I feel incredibly grateful and honoured to have been invited to create two special pieces for their new stores — Walking By, created for the Louis Vuitton store in Daejeon, Korea, and Shadow Play, created for the store in Chatswood, Sydney.

Being asked to make work for two spaces that are so visually considered and culturally significant was a wonderful opportunity, but it was also a challenge.

And I think that is what made the experience so meaningful.

‘Walking By’ — Daejeon, South Korea

For Walking By, I found myself thinking about movement, passing moments and the quiet encounters that happen as we move through a place.

The title came from that feeling of walking through a familiar yet constantly changing landscape — noticing fragments, colours, shapes and fleeting impressions along the way.

In many ways, this is at the heart of my practice.

I rarely begin a painting with a completely defined place or story in mind. Instead, I begin with colour, shape, rhythm and intuition. Somewhere along the way, memories and experiences begin to surface. A street I once walked down, a colour from a distant place, a particular light, a fleeting encounter with a stranger — these fragments find their way into the work.

Creating Walking By for Daejeon brought this process into a new context: allowing something deeply personal and intuitive to exist within a highly designed public space.

‘Shadow Play’ — Chatswood, Sydney

For Shadow Play, I became interested in the relationship between light, shadow and form.

Shadows are interesting to me because they are present, but never quite tangible. They shift, disappear and change depending on where we stand.

That felt connected to many of the ideas I explore through my work — memory, identity, place and the transient nature of experience.

The painting became an opportunity to think about how abstract forms can suggest something recognisable without describing it literally. I wanted the work to leave space for the viewer to bring their own memories and associations to it.

Stepping Outside My Comfort Zone

Perhaps the biggest lesson from this collaboration was learning to trust my own visual language in a new context.

A commission can be both exciting and intimidating.

There is a certain vulnerability in making something for a specific place. You are not simply asking, Do I like this?

You are also asking:

Will it belong here?

Will the scale work?

Will the colours respond to the architecture?

Can I create something specific to this environment without losing what makes the work mine?

These questions pushed me beyond some of the habits I had developed in my studio.

And ultimately, that was the most rewarding part.

I realised that stepping outside my comfort zone did not mean moving away from my artistic practice.

It meant understanding it more deeply.

When a Painting Leaves the Studio

One of the most beautiful things about being an artist is seeing where a painting eventually finds its place in the world.

In the studio, a painting begins as something deeply personal.

It might come from a memory, an experiment, a feeling or simply an instinct to put one colour beside another.

But once it leaves the studio, it becomes part of someone else's environment.

It starts a new conversation.

Someone might see a colour and remember their childhood.

Someone else might respond to a shape because it reminds them of a place they have travelled.

Another person may simply feel something without knowing why.

That openness is important to me.

I don't want my paintings to tell viewers exactly what to see.

I want them to leave room for connection.

A New Chapter in My Practice

Looking back, I feel deeply grateful for the opportunity to create Walking By and Shadow Play for Louis Vuitton.

The experience challenged me, stretched me and encouraged me to trust my instincts in a new way.

It also reminded me why I continue to paint.

Art is not always an easy road. It can be uncertain, foggy and full of questions.

But every so often, a new opportunity arrives that asks you to take another step — to experiment, to be brave and to see what your work can become in a different context.

This collaboration was one of those steps for me.

I am grateful to Louis Vuitton for trusting my practice and giving me the opportunity to create these two special works.

And I am equally grateful to the collectors, supporters and viewers who continue to follow my journey.

For me, every painting is an invitation to connect — with a place, a memory, a feeling or perhaps a part of ourselves we hadn't noticed before.

I am excited to continue creating work that lives somewhere between colour and memory, between the familiar and the unknown.

And to see where the next painting takes me.