Kirsten

I wasn’t the best high school student so I did a 2 year Associate Diploma of Fine Arts at Newcastle TAFE which was amazing. It taught me how I wanted to paint and exposed me to every kind of genre. I learned so much, met a great group of friends and it really improved my confidence using different materials.

 

I went back to uni and did my honours. As part of my research for my thesis which was ‘Women as Body as Ritual’ I went on my first journey to Greece and Turkey for 6 weeks. The exotic is something I’m incredibly attracted to.

 

When I lived in Newcastle I was very lucky to be friends with the Macedonian Community and they shaped my feelings of wanting to travel and my love of history and old Western society. Even though we are multi cultural in Australia, they were the first group of people to really embrace me as their friend.

 

After graduating I decided I wanted to do teaching which I loved but I really missed Art, I missed making. I realised that I felt too young to be teaching high school students. I was 21 and event though I had done some travelling I didn’t really have any life experience. I went off to Korea to work. I had the option to go to Japan or Korea and chose Korea because it was different. I loved the people there and stayed for 4 months.

I returned to Lismore for a while and decided to go to Japan to teach English. I stayed for 3 years and still travelled while living in Japan. I really needed a holiday. I was still young and had no plans to settle down. This was before we had the internet at our disposal. I sent away for a catalogue and Morocco screamed at me. My favourite song ever is Golden Brown by The Stranglers and even though that’s set in Egypt the love of exotic happened. I had two weeks in Morocco and just loved it. I fell in love.

I’ve always felt a connection with birds and in the city of Fez in Morocco there are swallows everywhere. When the swallows fly in those beautiful patterns together it is so majestic and that is how I see Morocco, majestic!

I returned to Japan and moved cities. I had lived in beautiful places. Places like Gifu where I lived under a mountain, the mountain had a castle, there was snow and cherry blossoms. It was just how you imagine Japan. I then moved to Osaka to experience a big city. I taught 3 – 83 year olds and I also trained.

 

I went out one night not knowing many people. I met up with an American friend and his friend Yusef joined us. We were chatting and I asked him where he was from as I couldn’t really pick his accent. With this voice that was straight back to The Stranglers he said,’ I am from Morocco’. We talked for hours in this noisy nightclub and he actually came from Fez. Long story short, we got together and we had a baby. Her name is Aiisha. She’s incredible. She’s been the best journey.

 

We actually lost each other. I moved back to Australia and we lost each other. About 4 years ago we found each other again. The love is still there and we are still very connected. He’s still in Japan due to all the red tape but we are planning for him to come here eventually.

 

I don’t want to be a teacher anymore. 2016 was not a good year for me. I was broken through things that happened in my working life but if that hadn’t happened to me I wouldn’t be here doing what I love now. I’ve had this niggling feeling inside of me about getting back to what I am which is an artist. I had a student come into my shop and she said, Do you know what Miss? I think this is what it must look like inside your head.” It was a beautiful thing.

 

I’m proud of myself. I was broken but I’ve got myself back. I love young people and I think it’s so important that every single one of us in our community encourages and is a role model to our youth. They’re smart and funny and they have given me so much inner strength.

The concept of the shop is everything will change. A different story each time. I’m a 2D artist. I have taught myself ceramics so I do porcelain jewellery. I used to get annoyed when a man I knew used to say, Oh you arty farty person! I found that so insulting because without the arts we don’t have clothes, we don’t have music or books, poetry or furniture, food and so on. It’s insulting.

 

Aiisha’s little umbilical cord is in Fez. I gave that to her Grandmother as I wanted Aiisha to always have a piece of her grounded in Morocco. She is 15 now and so beautiful. I’m 43 and I feel lucky that I can work in something I love. I am very lucky as Yusef has family scattered around the globe. He has a sister in Frankfurt and a sister in the Netherlands. We are in touch and can go there. Aiisha was made in Japan so she has a connectedness there and in Morocco so she has a wonderful journey ahead.

 

Travel is so important to clarify that the world is an amazing, colourful, rich, open welcoming place and that’s exactly how I felt coming back to Lismore here and opening this shop. This shop is about relationships, with myself, with others, the students I’ve taught and relationships with what’s in my head. Using your hands and using your mind, it’s been my saviour.”