Eeeeep! This was exciting! I got to create a single cover for Kate Miller-Heidke’s new album NIGHTFLIGHT! 11 Illustrators worked on the project, and we got a song each to draw from. My song was Fire & Iron, which I eventually fell in love with.

Kate says: “The closing song is told from the perspective of a dead narrator, watching her childhood boyfriend walk his children through a park years later. Fire And Iron is the image of a car crash, but it also refers to her being a spirit and him being material. The two characters are linked throughout the song by smoking. We liked the idea of smoke because it is an ephemeral element.”

Sharni says: “Listening to this song on repeat during the creation of my design became so haunting, I sat at my laptop with iTunes going as I loosely sketched and just fell in love with the story that it tells. In Fire & Iron Kate talks about the sadness of transience, yet celebrates the beauty of memories to overcome this harsh process. I wanted to capture this juxtaposition of sorrow and remembrance in my own art form. I drew the two characters surrounded by short lived things – a delicate butterfly, wilting roses and a crow sitting on a road side grave – but they are very much still depicted alive and connected through the inhaling and exhaling of smoke.

Big shout out to Steph Van Beers, Stubby, Cameron Locklee, Maddison Kitching, Kristie Webster, Montana Kitching, Luke Taylor, Eugene Plotnikov, Lou Lou Kitching and Kaitlyn Linke for working on the project with me! The whole project is published here.