“It’s been 4 years of recovery. It’s not like cancer, there’s nothing really wrong and it doesn’t have a diagnosis but at the same time I couldn’t buy a bottle of milk. That was challenging. I couldn’t drive a car.I did find the group therapy in Adult Children of Dysfunctional Families in Lismore helped. It’s for kids who grow up and aren’t alcoholics but perhaps have alcoholic parents. It was real community and grass roots therapy which was so valuable. It was so crucial to me to find people’s recovery stories so I haven’t had a chance to tell this so I’m super happy that I can. I definitely want to go on the record and say- It get’s better.
So with these sculptures I’ve been making, I’m excited to be moving into these figures and heads which are positioned on a base. The name of the studio here is Basso which is about the base or the community or the support structures that enable you to overcome. (tears flow)
I needed to be somewhere warm during the pregnancy so I clawed my way to Brisbane and thought..this is not home. I had my baby there and left. I didn’t find community or connection but I’m sure it’s all there in Brisbane. The lovely Chris has witnessed everything and held my hand through profound trauma.
After travelling for a short time to Asia, Melbourne and Sydney I finally came back to find the middle ground in Lismore. I lived out of town in Dorroughby for a while then moved into town and found a supportive community and place. There was actually a stand out moment when I walked out of my house with a jumper on because it was cold. I got to the end of my street and it was boiling hot. I wanted to strip off but didn’t have a shirt on. I saw Kate Stroud in the street and said OMG I’m sooo hot. She took the shirt off her back because she had a singlet on and she gave it to me. I thought, I’ll call this place home. I’d had a gaping hole from leaving Tasmania. I did go back last month and it was blissful and I saw the importance of people that make a place. I came back here and Strummer’s in the Living School which is so supportive and holds him so beautifully and so is Rudi with his tutoring. I find myself to be incredibly lucky to be held by the people who are involved in the cultural precinct that’s here in Lismore…from Liz Stopps and Ray Cavill at the Tafe and the way the Regional Gallery has supported me here. I wouldn’t walk away from that.
I was at Tafe one morning. I had entered numerous prizes and I don’t even get into the exhibiting round, let alone a place. To enter any prize is big for me. To enter the Hurford I was delighted to be an entrant who would be exhibiting. It was cool to feel like I belonged with the other entrants to make it into the finals. It was like, I’m in this gang now. It was a lovely feeling. To meet Claudie at the back door to drop your piece off. It was just nice parts of your day. I had texted in the morning saying – Why do I do this? And then I got the phone call to say I won the prize of $10,000. Winning the prize was incredible. Meeting the judge Abdul Abdullah was amazing. He was so authentic and genuine.
To have my work in the gallery at the same time as Karla Dickens was so incredible and special. As a consequence my work will be in a publication and I have a solo show in the gallery in August which I call ‘Kids that were banned from the Square’ When I first came her that demographic stood out for me. I wanted to draw attention to the lack of infrastructure for kids. My work is often about support, psychological, community or physical support. The very basic support of having housing and how that supports a person…or not. I called it The Kids who are banned from the Square because they are a really valuable demographic in this town to me and they are like the burning centre. They are seen and perhaps judged too quickly.
One of the perks of winning the Hurford Prize was meeting Troy Cassar Daley. They asked me about the prize and what Helen the subject was like? The interviewer said, Helen must have been an extraordinary woman! I said No, she wasn’t actually. She was very ordinary and that’s what it’s about. There’s ordinary people in our lives that play extraordinary roles and convey love…that’s incredibly significant. Then they turned the camera on and said, So can you tell us about the art prize? I said nothing, I couldn’t repeat what I’d said. Troy Cassar Daley played this song for me and I absolutely swooned. He said, this is a gift for you from one artist to another. I said, ‘This is the most incredible language and gift you can give a person and it was your story that you sang to me but it was so personal I feel like it was about me.’ Then they turned the camera on and filmed me. Troy finished the song and looked at me expecting me to repeat what I’d just said off camera and I looked at him and said..Thanks! (laughs) It’s the bloody camera.“