“I have really loved making the artwork for my exhibition at Muse Contemporary Gallery. Spending time in the studio is a point of difference to a lot of my other work, in that it’s a really quiet, reflective, solitary space and. But it was also really lovely to share my finished work and show another aspect of myself. So many people may have only seen me being Peggy Popart, the cheery, slightly bossy, absurd lady with the big hair.
I’m both an extrovert introvert, so I need to spend time alone in my studio to recharge my batteries for more community based work.I have a little studio now in my house in North Lismore that I bought with my sister Virginia which is lovely. My works are small enough to not take up space. I have done big works but I’m more interested in working in the small at the moment. One of the things I like is even though my artworks in the Muse Contemporary Gallery show are small there’s something very expansive about the abstracted landscapes made on small paper tags. My friend Claire who did the opening for my show said… They were like looking at faith through a cathedral window, or the universe through a telescope, I really liked that.
I have been with my darling René for almost 7 years, It’s amazing for me as I’ve not been a long term relationship gal. He’s just such a beautiful man, so special. We met when we were both doing work for REDinc. Actually the first time I ever saw him at the organic markets..this is so cheesy… but the sun was behind him and he was kind of glowing. I said, Who is that man? He’s amazing! He looked like someone out of a Jacque Tati film. I thought he was awesome. and then we met. He has the spirit of a clown with a gentleness and a cheeky sparkle in his eye. I had a crush on René, but I thought ‘I’m not good enough for him’ I’d had previous relationships where things had not worked out and at times I hadn’t known what it was like to be treated well and maybe I hadn’t been the most secure or aware person. I hadn’t always made the best decisions. I felt like I needed to spend time on myself, finding the joy for myself so I didn’t depend on others to bring the joy. I thought if I can do that for myself, then perhaps at sometime maybe I would meet a partner and we could match each other. I did that before I met René. He can be very shy and he had lost his wife of 32 years, Elly passed away from cancer and was the love of his life. I was concerned about that too when I realised I had feelings for him. When we got together it was 4 years after had Elly had passed. I was conscious that I had to be the best person that I could be because he was a really one of a kind wonderful human being and I wanted to make sure that I was a good person for hRené is a very secure person and has made me feel more secure. He has taught me lots about relationships, like when you have a fight it’s not over, you work through it. We had an amazing courtship, but I did have to pursue him. We became friends and we made art together. We drew these little postcards that we sent off to each other and sometimes to random people. I would start a postcard then give it to him to work on and we would pass it back and forth. Then we would go to the phone book and blindly pick an address to send it to. We would open it again and blindly pick another address and that would be the sender. We would then send them off into the world. No idea if they got it or if they ever talked to the other person. That was fun. We started sending postcards to each other even though René lived in Georgica and I lived in Lismore. Little by little we got to know each other better. We did that for a year and I would say to my friends “I’m so in love with René” and I eventually wrote him a letter and told him… It was a very sweet and poetic old fashioned love letter and just like in the olden days, I sent the letter and had to wait 3 days to hear back! I was nervous, but he called me back and we met up at my flat and sat on the couch and he said he knew there was a feeling, but he didn’t want to suppose that I was in love with him. He had been alone for quite sometime. Then we held hands and had a kiss and we were together from then on. It was very sweet and old fashioned which is what I needed. Prior to that I’d had dramatic, tense, amazing, beautiful but tumultuous relationships.
We love each other and we like each other. We laugh and we dance together and I call him my Giraffe. All my friends and family love him and his family in Australia and Holland are very loving to me too.
Lismore has such a great sense of community. I mean we saw that through the flood stuff. People look out for each other and now we have the new Gallery and the Quad which is this fantastic gathering place, so lovely for families and community to come together. I have to say I’m very grateful for the work I get to do in this community and for the life and opportunities I’ve had. My father passed away 4 months ago which has been a very sad and challenging time. It’s also made me reflect on my life and how grateful I for the opportunities I have been given in life and I’m especially thankful to my Mum for encouraging me towards education and learning. As the Learning officer at Lismore Regional Gallery, I love that I get to work with children and young people and the broader community, providing opportunities for them to see the work of local, national or international artists, allowing people from our region to see artists whose work makes them think critically, see beyond themselves or explore similar feelings or conditions they are experiencing.
We do a lot of free activities and programs at the gallery for kids and families, access to free public programs for kids and family is so important, because not everyone in the community always has the money to pay for certain activities but I think it’s important that the arts can be accessible to everyone, and that people can feel the gallery is a place for everyone to visit.
I’m going to continue working at the Gallery, I will continue being Peggy Popart because she’s so fun to perform I am very proud of creating her as a character, she brings together many aspects of my life experience, study, art love and knowledge. She is smart, funny absurd mix of science fiction meets art and I love using Peggy as a vehicle to encourage kids to use their senses to experience art and empower them to explore the world, cultural diversity and and communicate their ideas around art.
I’m going to continue to develop more art works like the ones in my recent art exhibition. And another exhibition is in the pipeline with my good friends and artists that I studied with at SCU, Heather Jessup, Heidi Tansey and Leona Debolt; we all just went away on a trip to Bald Rock National Park to get inspired for our exhibition we are working towards next year.
And I’m very much looking forward to the end of the year when René and I will take my mum Marianne to meet his family in Holland, I’m looking forward to bringing the 2 families together.”
I’m both an extrovert introvert, so I need to spend time alone in my studio to recharge my batteries for more community based work.I have a little studio now in my house in North Lismore that I bought with my sister Virginia which is lovely. My works are small enough to not take up space. I have done big works but I’m more interested in working in the small at the moment. One of the things I like is even though my artworks in the Muse Contemporary Gallery show are small there’s something very expansive about the abstracted landscapes made on small paper tags. My friend Claire who did the opening for my show said… They were like looking at faith through a cathedral window, or the universe through a telescope, I really liked that.
I have been with my darling René for almost 7 years, It’s amazing for me as I’ve not been a long term relationship gal. He’s just such a beautiful man, so special. We met when we were both doing work for REDinc. Actually the first time I ever saw him at the organic markets..this is so cheesy… but the sun was behind him and he was kind of glowing. I said, Who is that man? He’s amazing! He looked like someone out of a Jacque Tati film. I thought he was awesome. and then we met. He has the spirit of a clown with a gentleness and a cheeky sparkle in his eye. I had a crush on René, but I thought ‘I’m not good enough for him’ I’d had previous relationships where things had not worked out and at times I hadn’t known what it was like to be treated well and maybe I hadn’t been the most secure or aware person. I hadn’t always made the best decisions. I felt like I needed to spend time on myself, finding the joy for myself so I didn’t depend on others to bring the joy. I thought if I can do that for myself, then perhaps at sometime maybe I would meet a partner and we could match each other. I did that before I met René. He can be very shy and he had lost his wife of 32 years, Elly passed away from cancer and was the love of his life. I was concerned about that too when I realised I had feelings for him. When we got together it was 4 years after had Elly had passed. I was conscious that I had to be the best person that I could be because he was a really one of a kind wonderful human being and I wanted to make sure that I was a good person for hRené is a very secure person and has made me feel more secure. He has taught me lots about relationships, like when you have a fight it’s not over, you work through it. We had an amazing courtship, but I did have to pursue him. We became friends and we made art together. We drew these little postcards that we sent off to each other and sometimes to random people. I would start a postcard then give it to him to work on and we would pass it back and forth. Then we would go to the phone book and blindly pick an address to send it to. We would open it again and blindly pick another address and that would be the sender. We would then send them off into the world. No idea if they got it or if they ever talked to the other person. That was fun. We started sending postcards to each other even though René lived in Georgica and I lived in Lismore. Little by little we got to know each other better. We did that for a year and I would say to my friends “I’m so in love with René” and I eventually wrote him a letter and told him… It was a very sweet and poetic old fashioned love letter and just like in the olden days, I sent the letter and had to wait 3 days to hear back! I was nervous, but he called me back and we met up at my flat and sat on the couch and he said he knew there was a feeling, but he didn’t want to suppose that I was in love with him. He had been alone for quite sometime. Then we held hands and had a kiss and we were together from then on. It was very sweet and old fashioned which is what I needed. Prior to that I’d had dramatic, tense, amazing, beautiful but tumultuous relationships.
We love each other and we like each other. We laugh and we dance together and I call him my Giraffe. All my friends and family love him and his family in Australia and Holland are very loving to me too.
Lismore has such a great sense of community. I mean we saw that through the flood stuff. People look out for each other and now we have the new Gallery and the Quad which is this fantastic gathering place, so lovely for families and community to come together. I have to say I’m very grateful for the work I get to do in this community and for the life and opportunities I’ve had. My father passed away 4 months ago which has been a very sad and challenging time. It’s also made me reflect on my life and how grateful I for the opportunities I have been given in life and I’m especially thankful to my Mum for encouraging me towards education and learning. As the Learning officer at Lismore Regional Gallery, I love that I get to work with children and young people and the broader community, providing opportunities for them to see the work of local, national or international artists, allowing people from our region to see artists whose work makes them think critically, see beyond themselves or explore similar feelings or conditions they are experiencing.
We do a lot of free activities and programs at the gallery for kids and families, access to free public programs for kids and family is so important, because not everyone in the community always has the money to pay for certain activities but I think it’s important that the arts can be accessible to everyone, and that people can feel the gallery is a place for everyone to visit.
I’m going to continue working at the Gallery, I will continue being Peggy Popart because she’s so fun to perform I am very proud of creating her as a character, she brings together many aspects of my life experience, study, art love and knowledge. She is smart, funny absurd mix of science fiction meets art and I love using Peggy as a vehicle to encourage kids to use their senses to experience art and empower them to explore the world, cultural diversity and and communicate their ideas around art.
I’m going to continue to develop more art works like the ones in my recent art exhibition. And another exhibition is in the pipeline with my good friends and artists that I studied with at SCU, Heather Jessup, Heidi Tansey and Leona Debolt; we all just went away on a trip to Bald Rock National Park to get inspired for our exhibition we are working towards next year.
And I’m very much looking forward to the end of the year when René and I will take my mum Marianne to meet his family in Holland, I’m looking forward to bringing the 2 families together.”