“I grew up in Western Sydney and lived there till I was 25. I came up to Lismore for a 6 week working holiday 16 years ago, fell in love with the area and never left. I never intended to leave Sydney but I fell in love with the place.
I got some work locally, met a girl and fell in love. My housemate introduced us. Clare lived in Brisbane so I thought, this is never going to work, but it did. We had a long distance relationship for a year. I moved to Brisbane where I stayed for 2 years. Clare was a Lismore girl and always said she wanted to come back so we came back here to raise a family. As soon as we returned we found out she was pregnant. Now we have 2 kids and this area is definitely home.
I was working in IT for a while, enjoying it but felt like I needed a change so I did my Degree at SCU and got into teaching. That was a tough 4 years, raising a family and all the life stuff. I started teaching Primary but now I’m teaching Secondary in Casino. I teach in the support unit out there which is equal parts challenging and rewarding. I feel like I’ve really found my passion.
We live in Goonellabah so having been unaffected by the floods I knew that I wanted to do something in the community. I didn’t lose my job and I still have a house. So many people have lost everything.
I really wanted to do something so about 2 years ago it was a birthday or something and I said to my wife, if you buy me a present I’d love an experience, we have enough stuff, so she got me a voucher to do a beginners Mosaic course at the Lismore Tile and Mosaic store with Joy. I really took to it. I’m never thought of myself as a creative person but I loved it and then I didn’t really do any more for 18 months.
Having seen all the heart banners around town that Rebecca and her team were doing, I had this idea and made a little mosaic based on the heart banner design. It turned out nice so I posted it on-line to some mosaic people and told them the significance behind it. I got some good feedback and someone offered to make one and donate it. That thought had never crossed my mind. It wasn’t an intentional thing to do this, it purely happened one step at a time.
I put the idea out to some facebook groups of mosaic artists to see if anyone else would like to make one. I gave them the basic banner design and then artists were asking if they could do their own designs which was wonderful. So now we have little ones, big ones, some made from bottle tops, necklace pendants, all colours, materials and designs.
We have now received mosaics from every state and territory in Australia. A lady in Alice Springs was going on a road trip offered to make some and drop them here. 3,500kms later she arrived with mosaics. Last week I got one from Karratha, the very top of WA and every place in between. So far we have received 103 beautiful mosaics which blows my mind.
The intention is to support people with a little piece of artwork in their life who have been affected by the floods. I asked the mosaic artists to make them with that in mind and that they would be given out for free. Once I realised it was getting bigger than I expected I chatted to Rebecca Ryan who does the heart banners. Bec and her team have given out over 1300 banners which hang in many homes and businesses in Lismore. Those banners were my inspiration. Rebecca gave me some great advice and what we’ve done is set it up so that we have a draw, free to enter, where anyone who’s business or home in Lismore was affected can enter. We draw names and they can come down and choose a mosaic. I’m not checking to see who is or isn’t flood affected because I want to help people who’ve gone through losses and I need to make it accessible as possible and to empower them by not questioning or asking addresses or how they were impacted. It’s important too that people get to choose the mosaic that they love or one that is significant to them.
I’m happy to keep doing this as long as people are still making them. Some have given feedback to the artist which is great. One lady put hers in her caravan. It’s beautiful and she can take it with her when it’s time. Another said she would put hers in her splash-back when she gets her kitchen done. Some of the artists have a little business, some do it for a hobby. A craft circle group ages 17 to 80 made 20 for us.
Joy and Ray who have the Lismore tile and mosaic shop have been so supportive. We didn’t know each other before and they have been great. They’re rebuilding their business too from flood damage yet have still been amazing. We have lot’s of the mosaics in the shop window here and the box to enter the draw. There are so many stories of where the tiles or materials were sourced and where the artists are from. We have some from Tassie and it’s so cool to see all the different interpretations from the artists all over the country.”