Julia McInerney: October 2025

Julia McInerney is an artist based in Naarm Melbourne. In 2023, she graduated from Monash University with a PhD in Fine Art, and currently works in mental health. Julia visited Plumwood Mountain in October 2025, working on a series of drawings in response to Val Plumwood’s dreams.

Julia at the residency cabin (photo courtesy of Julia McInerney, 2025).

Before visiting Plumwood Mountain, I became interested in the writings of Val Plumwood, particularly her reflections on her near-death experience with a crocodile and how this trauma surfaced in her dreams. I wondered about the psychological and philosophical significance of these dreams Val experienced after the attack—an event she later described as a journey into a “parallel universe” — and how they may have contributed to her rethinking of the human-nature relationship.

While my current work in mental health takes place within a clinical setting, I saw this residency as an opportunity to be guided by artistic impulse – a space to explore how my dual practices, psychoanalysis and art, can speak to and inform one another, enriching my understanding of both.

With this question in mind, during my one-week residency, I worked on a series of twelve charcoal drawings, each a variation on the same subject. The scene which held my attention was a quiet patch of the grounds near Val’s cabin, where three trees were beginning to re-establish themselves after a bushfire swept through the area, a couple of years earlier.

Over the course of each day, as the sun travelled overhead from east to west, the shadows cast on and by the trees would change, and it was these shadows which I drew. The task I set myself was to the capture the perceptible effects of the sun at different times of the day. Now, when I look at this series, I see how they reflect the shift in temporality I experienced during my time on the mountain, where slowness prevailed. By repeating the same subject, the drawings also explore how close observation over time can draw attention to minimal differences between forms, which at first seem alike.

I undertook this residency after a two-year break in my art practice. My time at Plumwood provided me with a chance to look at the world – to re-encounter the difficult and overwhelming urge to respond.

My deepest thanks to Val and to the dedicated committee for this opportunity.

See more of Julia’s work over on her website: https://juliamcinerney.com/