For Port Adelaide artist Annalise Rees, choosing an easel over an office was more a decision made for her than by her.

Growing up on Kangaroo Island, Annalise said she was always inquisitive and happy to get her hands dirty.

Through school she excelled in art, and after spending seven years working in shearing sheds around the world had saved enough money to put herself through art school.

From there, the choice was easy.

"Art is my life, it's my entire life" Annalise said from her studio-come-apartment in Port Adelaide.

"It's what I have chosen to do.

"It's not my job, it is what I have chosen to make my life."

Annalise said she goes into an almost trance like state when she takes hold of a pen and starts to draw.

"Everything else shuts off and I am not really aware of time.

"I can spend eight hours in the studio and I haven't got up to get a drink or go to the toilet or had anything to eat and I am just doing it and quite happy."

She finds moments of solace creating with a favoured pen and paper, sketching artworks or plans for what may become her next display.

One recent project that has taken two years to complete is a public sculpture to commemorate the Gepps Cross Sale Yards.

The sculpture has been erected at the soon to be opened Unity Park on Main North Road, part of a stormwater recycling wetlands by the City of Salisbury Council, where the saleyards once were.

"The work was designed to tell some of the story of the site and the people and why it was a place of significance for South Australia."

The piece is a combination of a windmill and weathervane, with figures of a stockman and cattledog, a sheep and a beast travelling along a rail line, and the processed carcasses hanging below signifying the workings of the abattoir.

Upon approaching the sculpture, an audio description of the saleyards begins, with actualities from staff on the closure of the yard.

The opportunity to take her art out of the studio is an exciting prospect for Annalise.

"I'm really interested in public art because I think it presents your work to a whole new audience that won't necessarily see it otherwise.

"It's not just about putting it into a gallery that someone with a large enough credit card can go and buy it and take home."

The choice to be a fulltime artist has not come without compromise for Annalise, but going without and finding other means of employment to help fund her fulltime dream is all part of her journey.

"My hope is that I can just make good work and sustain a practice long term, until I carc it basically because there is no retiring at 65 as an artist.

"You do what you have to to ensure that you can do what you love."

Annalise Rees will be hosting a Junk Art and Recycled Sculpture workshop as part of the Barossa Arts and Culture Workshops, with details available from Maz McGann on 0438 807 973.