AWARD-winning Kalamunda artist Mikaela Castledine’s first entry into the Mandorla Art Award has earned her the top prize.
Castledine entered the St John of God Health Care-sponsored award inspired by the theme: ‘and then I saw a new heaven and a new earth’.
The finished product won her the $25,000 prize in one of Australia’s most significant thematic Christian art competitions.
Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE
Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.
READ NOWHer sculpture titled God is in the House combines glasses, bottles and eggs cups into an architectural piece that reimagines religious buildings.
In the artwork, she draws on her experiences gained overseas after winning a Sculpture by the Sea travel scholarship.
“I had been to Burma and India and spent a lot of time exploring how religious buildings – no matter what religion – seem to have similar architecture, which is where I found my inspiration,” she said.
“For me, the process was about converting the ordinary into the extraordinary.”
Mandorla chairperson Angela McCarthy said Castledine’s work offered new vision.
Castledine continues the health care family connection, with multiple pieces by her mother Valeria McDonald a part of the St John of God art collection.
The sculpture will join the Mandorla art collection housed at New Norcia Museum and Art Gallery.