The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out. Sydney-based painter Leah Fraser depicts 'ocular poetry' through her latest exhibition In the beginning there were stars - a visual exploration of memory, time, and the unfurling of the individual human experience. Fraser effortlessly fuses human with nature, mystic with mortal and chaos with calm by layering symbolic iconography with elements of the earth in a series of works that are as striking to the viewer alone as they are in a group, compelling audiences to pause and question why we are living, what is deemed vital in this life and how the 'dust of the universe' will shift to form our future selves. In the beginning there were stars launches at Arthouse Gallery, Sydney, from August 23 and will run through September 15.