Vanessa Keenan, Nat Ord draw on bushfires experience with Mid Stories II exhibition at Wagga gallery

Mid Stories II is a multi-art form, collaborative effort by artists Vanessa Keenan and Natalie Ord, who both have lived experiences with bushfires - the former cut off from family in the Black Summer fires, and the latter through her work as a professional firefighter at the turn of the century.

The artists hope their works, which opens to the public on Friday in Wagga Art Gallery's E3 Art Space, captures the stories of the impact of bushfire on the landscape and local communities.

For Ms Keenan, the trauma was raw. During the Dunns Road fire in 2019, she was trapped in the Maragle Valley and forced to hide in a bunker for several hours on New Year's Eve, cut off from her family.

"Horrific is probably a good word...our family didn't know if we were alive or dead for almost two days," she said.

"We knew that they didn't know because we couldn't tell them that we were okay."

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Ms Ord's experience with the destruction caused by the 2003 bushfires during her time as professional forest firefighter proved the catalyst for her to explore art.

"Just seeing the absolute level of destruction and having seen that back in 2003 and for me - knowing that things would come - so that naturally the environment would recover, but never be the same," Ms Ord said.

The exhibition opens on Thursday evening with a free celebration event from 5.30pm, and both artists will share their stories openly in a public discussion at the gallery on October 7.

"This exhibition is the next step in my three years of examining the impacts of the fires on our landscape and communities through an artistic lens," Ms Keenan said.

The exhibition focuses on the feelings of solastalgia - which is a feeling of sudden loss and grief - from the sudden destruction of the land and how both artists process their thoughts and trauma of the catastrophic event.

"Being able to bring my experience as an ecologist and artist together, observing the power of both ecological and social recovery is a privilege," Ms Ord said.

Both artists hope the audience will look at the artwork closely, as the exhibition presents a variety of perspectives and views.

The project, which took 18 months to complete, was funded through a grant from Eastern Riverina Arts.

Mid Stories II is on exhibition until October 15.

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