Murmur II, from the series Murmur

Patsy Payne was born in London and arrived in Sydney with her family in 1960. She was awarded a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Sydney (Archaeology and Education) in 1976, and studied printmaking at Sydney College of the Arts , graduating with a Postgraduate Diploma in 1983. She has made lithographs with Fred Genis in Sydney. Payne has exhibited prints since 1982, and has taught printmaking since that time, principally at Sydney College of the Arts and the Canberra School of Art.

The 'Murmur' series was exhibited at Australian Girls' Own Galleries, Canberra in October - November 1994, and was made while she was teaching at the Sydney College of the Arts. In addition to the woodcuts, a cloth-bound book 'Murmur' was published, with nine wood-engravings and photo-etched text, and was displayed with seven computer-generated cibachrome prints.

"The 'murmur' of the title refers to the sounds of a live body and also the sounds of not quite clearly heard speech. These sounds are left as traces of experience and memory. The computer was used as a tool for exploring fragmentation and superimposition as a metaphor for the way in which memory accumulates on or in the body". (Letter from the artist, AGNSW files)

Hendrik Kolenberg and Anne Ryan, 'Australian prints from the Gallery's collection', AGNSW, 1998