I Started uni here at SCU and was living in Bangalow. I couldn’t afford the trip into Lismore every day so in 1997 I moved here. I did an exchange program through SCU and I went to Brooklyn in New York. It was fantastic. Going to all the galleries, meeting all the people I met for that 6 months was brilliant. I made such a good friend I went back for her wedding and I got a job in a gallery. It was so cool. At the end of the 6 months I went back to Sweden and stayed in an apartment. I decided use the last of my money and bought a one way ticket back to Australia. This was the in days before emails. The day after I bought my ticket I received a letter from the gallery offering me a green card. I c couldn’t take it as I’d used my last money to come back here.
So here I am. I had to make a living so I did another year and became a teacher. I taught in Casino at the Catholic School for a couple of years. I went back to NY, came home again and worked as a Special Ed teacher. Meanwhile I started working as a youth worker. I really like it and the money was good. I quit teaching and stayed on with my youth work. I ended up working very hard and didn’t have the time to do my art. Work was hectic and I was pretty exhausted, overworked and I quit. I moved to Murwillumbah where a friend had a studio I could use. I stayed for a while, came back here to the same company and they offered me a position to work with one girl only. I was to have my set shifts and I said YES!
I started the job and I knew something was not right. It was weird and I voiced my concerns. They said, it’s just because you’ve been away for so long..you don’t know. I knew something was terribly wrong.
My client ended up committing suicide in front of me under really horrible circumstances and everything went wrong. She was only 17. The whole circumstances surrounding her behaviour leading up to it….How the work place behaved..it was all strange. She actually hadn’t done it when I found her. She was waiting for me to arrive so she could do it in front of me. I had to hold her, trying desperately to hold her with a mobile phone for half an hour. In my panic I said the house number wrong to the emergency number. The operator was saying the ambulance is here but all along it was next door. Everything was so weird and devastating. I ended up with acute PTSD. I completely lost my brain. I walked around, not knowing where I was, tears streaming down my face without realising I was crying. It went on forever.
In 2017 I got my studio and have since done heaps of work. At first I couldn’t concentrate. I tried to paint a picture for my sister’s 50th and I realised my concentration was no longer than 2 minutes. I lost my feelings. I didn’t know when I was happy, when I was tired. Anyway in 2017 I had enough work to do a show. It was all about what I had gone through but hidden in titles. Before that I had exhibited in Byron and here in Retrospect. I have always been invited to exhibit which is nice.
I had an exhibition in Ballina in the Northern Rivers Community Gallery and then I kept working. I was at Silver Cloud Studios when the 2017 flood came. The water came all the way up to the ceiling. A friend saved my work and my computer as I couldn’t get back in. I lost everything else. I never want to go through that again. It’s not water, you are wading around in sewer. I was picking up dirty disposable nappies. It was so gross.
I really wanted to start an art centre, everyone was keen. Jo and Darren who are printmakers had the Lismore Art Space for years and I lived up the road. I would drive past it everyday then I heard that the Lismore Art Space was up for rent. Joanna said..it’s yours Anna! That was August 2018. I love this space. We have our studios here, we run workshops and I love it. After the Biennale I have been so busy.
Last year I got an email from The Biennale asking me to come which was an honour. It actually costs to be in theses big art shows and I said …No, I can’t afford it. My friends said..’Are you mad Anna? Of course you’re bloody going’ so they all threw in. I applied for an Arts Grant, didn’t get it, took money out of my Super but it was so worth it. I networked while I was over there. I took 2 of my works and I won 3rd prize which I didn’t expect. Getting artworks in and out of Italy is tricky so while I was there I showed my work in another gallery in Florence and travelled for 3 weeks down to Sicily. The gallery was so impressed with the feedback from my work she offered me to show again. I just sent some pieces over and I’m learning more about Customs. I am sending work to Lake Como as well. I want George Clooney to buy my work (laughs). To have a show in such a prestigious gallery is exciting so I will be there this May and it’s right on my 60th birthday. Lake Como on my birthday…Woohoo!”