To stray is to lose our way, either physically or cognitively, moving beyond established boundaries or onto unknown tracks. Exploring straying as an aesthetic and an idea, Stella Laurence embraces humour and the uncanny. With her patchy colouring and ink scrawls often wandering beyond their paper boundaries, she draws her rescue cat, Rosie, the ultimate other and outcast. Similarly, Stella, a three-time Tim Olsen Drawing Prize finalist, is a New Zealand Australian Romani Gypsy nomad outsider. Her tension-filled drawings thus reflect the close, yet utterly alien, relationship she shares with her cat – and the world – as human and animal strays.
