Tanja Gacic by Peter Van Alphen.

Your home feels incredibly layered and personal. When did collecting art first become important to you, and how has your relationship with it evolved over time?

Thank you! Ever since I was a little girl, I would have little collections of things. First it was homemade Barbie clothes, my cousin Dijana kindly sewed Dynasty level glitz dresses and accessories to my specific instructions and wishes. Later it was books, drawings, vintage shoes, jewellery and pictures, then woodblock prints, lithographs, taxidermy and mid century glassware of all sorts. Starting to suspect I’m a magpie stuck in a woman’s body.

Looking around your home today, which artwork feels most significant to you and what is the story behind how it found its way into your collection?

The two artworks that tie the living room together are definitely the grand desert Australian landscape by Jo Bertini and on the other side of the room a complimentary hued work by Beryl Miles, my partner Craig Miles’ mother, an accomplished artist in her own right. The framing they bring to the home is like a warm summer’s day hug tying the colour palette of the living room together.

Your collection feels instinctive rather than trend-driven. What is it that you’re responding to when you fall in love with a work?

For me, art is about energy. How it makes your nervous system feel, whether it makes you exhale or hold your breath. You know how flowers have a measurable effect on the brain? I think art has that capability too.

When I met my partner he had a massive imposing David Fairbairn painting in his living room. It was incredible, the brush strokes and artistry was next level beautiful, but also dark and chaotic. Even though I found the artwork absolutely stunning, I had to exile it once we found our place because it was too intense for the energy I was trying to create in our home. I’m a big believer in Feng Shui, within those principles art has a huge energetic impact.

Many of the works in your home feel as though they’ve been collected over time rather than acquired all at once. Do you approach collecting with a plan, or do you prefer to let it unfold naturally?

I definitely have either an emotional or an impulsive pull and sentiment is everything to me. I think collecting is all about creating memories, like a passport of our life reflected in images and objects we get to remember through..

Has there been a particular artwork that has stayed with you through different chapters of your life? What makes it so enduring?

I got into vintage Japanese woodblock prints over two decades ago and still have some of those prints. I think they’re such a beautiful process of creation and make me so happy to look at.

Do you find yourself drawn to recurring themes, colours or emotions in the works you collect, or does each piece stand entirely on its own?

I find myself drawn to colour, mid century aesthetics , uniqueness, craft, patterns and tongue in cheek references. I like tying patterns and themes together in unexpected ways.

Art has the ability to completely transform a room. Can you think of a work in your home that changed the way a space felt the moment it was installed?

I think for me it was the combination of all of them together because this home is the first time my partner and I blended our collections. Somehow we managed to incorporate both our art and my glassware collection into something that gels together . Since we had to put away half of both our art, every piece chosen for the house was a collaboration of taste – in the end I loved seeing how our symbiosis worked out.

Are there any artists in your collection whose work continues to reveal something new to you each time you live with it?

I think it’s more a case of how a personal art collection shapes various spaces through energy. I’ve moved quite a lot in the last decade and really noticed how combining pieces in different ways set the atmosphere of a home. My Tanya Linney piece for example has been styled in many different ways on many different walls and always brings a new energy. I would love to have the wall space to have my partner’s Imants Tillers pieces (the boy with the flute in the hallway) and the Mike Parr (the one opposite the stairwell) more prominent in our space too, rather than hanging in the hallway. Maybe our next place we do a complete reshuffle!

If you could add one dream acquisition to your collection tomorrow, what would it be, and where would it live within your home?

I wouldn’t say no to a Jeffrey Smart ‘The Bather, Bondi” 1962 painting, Hilma af Klint Group X Altarpiece no 1 2015, anything colourful by my friend Marisa Purcell or a massive piece of crystal. I think all of these would easily join the family anywhere.

Are there pieces in your home that hold a story or memory that visitors might not immediately realise?

The lightbox piece is by photographer Raegan Glazner and represents the bottom of a chandelier. One day we must install it on a ceiling so it makes sense!

What do you think all of the objects you’ve surrounded yourself with say about you?

My blog is called my ww.empirical life.com and I think my possessions also reflect the ethos of empirical thinking – they too were discovered or acquired through discovery and experimentation, whether by 3 am bidding at an overseas auction, a rummage through vintage markets around the world, a dear friend’s gift or an emotional pull.

Is there a piece in your home that you could never part with?

I’m not sure I want to part with any of them, I’m a hoarder. Minimalism is so passé !

Do you find yourself collecting works that reflect where you are in life at a particular moment?

Maybe it’s my Venus in Taurus but I must be surrounded by beauty, comfort and sensuality to be happy. I think beauty is so underrated in today’s society – we create for productivity and efficiency but beauty, that surplus of energy above and beyond basic survival is what makes life worth living, aspirational and joyful. I’m always trying to surround myself with more beauty and joy. Life hits you hard sometimes but revelling in beauty is the silver lining that makes it all better.

The nook where you couch sits is so inviting….What corner of your home are you most drawn to right now, and why?

I love doing everything in this nook! It’s the best for reading books, working on my laptop and naps. I’m not much of a desk and chair kinda girl.

If your home could tell a story about this chapter of your life, what would it say?

My daughter is 19 now, has a well paying job and wants to move out. This may be the last home she lives with me in. It’s exciting for her and melancholy for me because it’s the end of a chapter. This home saw her grow from a girl into a young woman. I get teared up every time I think about it.

Looking around your home today, what are you most grateful for?

My favourite quote by Henry Miller is “The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware” . I think that about sums up what makes me grateful about our space.