Heavy harmony: Nell plays guitar in her studio. Photo: Penny Lane

Nell does not, at first, seem anything like a rock chick. Daily Zen meditation, committed yoga practice and a heartfelt email sign-off that reads "forever joy" are integral, telling parts of her life, personality and art-making.

Yet there she is in a video from this year's Mona Foma music festival in Hobart, riding along on the back of a truck, ripping into an electric guitar, down on her knees and throwing her head of tussled blond hair around to AC/DC's It's a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock 'n' Roll).

She's there with a whole bunch of other pretty tough-looking rock chicks as well as the original bagpipers who did it for AC/DC's legendary film clip of the classic anthem in 1975.

Nell's imagery for Romance Was Born at NGV.

Nell reveals that she is actually such a bone-fide rock chick that she went to the trouble of tracking down those bagpipers for the Hobart performance. They were thrilled, and it shows in their playing just as the thrill Nell gets from hard rock cannot be denied as she thrashes away on her guitar.

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It seems, at first, impossible to connect these two parts of Nell who does not use a surname yet here she is, bright, calm and besotted with rock 'n' roll as much as she is by being in the moment with her breathing and being. She's a visual artist whose work is not only made to the sound of rock music (she has three iPods full of the stuff),but is also deeply informed with and reflective of that music scene.

Here in her South Sydney studio, Nell pulls out catalogues from some of her past exhibitions and they look for all the world like the covers of AC/DC vinyl albums from the 1970s and 80s. There's even the worn circular outline of the album showing through the sleeve thanks to her clever artistry.

How does she bridge her two worlds? Aren't they galaxies apart? "Not for me," she laughs. "I'm just making work about what I love and what I do. The possibility for not feeling that egotistical sense of self is there when you're meditating or when you are rocking out or truly listening to music. That's what I love. It slows down the tide of mental garbage.

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Rock-chick artist loves meditation, Zen and AC/DC