“I was born on the north side of Brisbane and my childhood was really difficult. I guess that really affected my life until I was about 40 where I made a whole bunch of bad decisions. I grew up in a home that was full of domestic violence and child sexual abuse so it was really horrible. It wasn’t an easy start to life.…It wasn’t much fun. Dad was a gambler and a drinker and Mum was brow beaten down so there was a lot of people pleasing. Watching Mum, I kind of took that on a bit. I’m still like that and will do anything to avoid an argument. It is what it is and everyone has their story. It wasn’t until I was much older that I realised, that was the reason that I made those bad decisions but it’s not an excuse to continue. It took me a long time to grow out of that.
I’m 60 and in those days we were expected to grow up, get married, have kids. I was married at 18, had my daughter at 21 and my son at 24. That relationship didn’t last so I did the single mother thing for a long time. You just get by. We’ve had nothing. There’s been times when I’ve sent the kids to school and gone down the river to catch some fish for tea…old catfish, skinned them and cooked them up. We lived out in the bush for a long time in a caravan with no power or water. We would bring the water up from the creek. I look back though and I think that was pretty cool. The kids had so much freedom to play in nature. They had dams to swim in and cubbies to build. It was a really nice time for them. My son still embraces that lifestyle but my daughter’s a city kid.
I really wanted to go to Seven Hills Art College when I left school but I wasn’t allowed. In those days you had to do typing or secretarial school. I went to typing college and those skills have come in handy now doing books. It had a value but it’s not what my passion was. It wasn’t until the kids were teenagers that I went to Lismore Tafe to finally study Art.
I moved to Drake with the kids. I was pretty wild back then. I was riding motor bikes and singing in a band. That was in the days when people would go to pubs to see live music. No-one had a mobile, you’d catch up with all your mates and dance. It was really good. I remember if you had a thousand people there it was a quiet night. Loved those days in Lismore.
I met my husband Derek when I moved here 25 years ago. I was in a backyard theatre group and they had a band of local musos who needed someone to sing a song. I put my hand up. I got talking to the bass player Donny who has since passed away and he asked me to be in a band they were starting up. Derek was the drummer, we hit it off and we were great mates for 4 years. It wasn’t until later that we got together and we are still together.
We moved to Lismore when I decided to open the shop. I was studying Fine Arts at Tafe, we’d stopped playing with the band and we were at a bit of a loose end. Derek went and saw James Waldron who now has Lizzies Furniture which used to be a picture framing shop. Derek volunteered there for 18 months with no pay to learn how to do the framing to help me out. That was pretty special.
In about 2001 I was in my 3rd year at Tafe doing printmaking and we decided to open the shop. I finally started making my living in the Arts industry which is no mean feat. In the beginning I worked washing dishes at The Italo Club as well for extra income. Now everyone knows where we are so we’re always busy. We lived above the shop all those years till Covid hit. Ten years ago we bought a house in Lismore but rented it out. Now we live in it and have a garden instead of a carpark in the back yard.
I guess I’m like every other artist. You never stop learning, growing or exploring. I’ve got a very inquisitive mind so I want to paint one of everything in every style which isn’t possible. Now I do bodies of work towards exhibitions. They can be wildly different. The last one was about old homes, ruins, old barns and sheds….those magic places you see when you’re driving. The exhibition before that was in Melbourne and that was all birds. In 2012 I won the Caldera Arts Fellowship for Biodiversity Art. I painted all the waterfalls in this area. I did a lino cut series of all the endangered species that live in those habitats and I wrote a kids book on saving water.
A few years ago I did a portrait of Clare from the Knitting Nannas which I entered into the Portrait Prize. That was the year Rene Bolton won. Philip Bacon from the Bacon galleries purchased the painting and donated it back to the Lismore Regional Gallery. That was pretty special. He said it was because of it’s historical significance to the area. To me that was like winning a really big prize. It will always remind people how hard we fought for this area from the gas-fields.
My Mother was 84, suffering with mild dementia and living in a retirement resort. We talked about moving her to a different place where they had supported living, which she was all for. Out of the blue she told us she’d met a lovely man. Initially we were a little surprised but excited for her that she had found some happiness at such an advanced age. She was so happy. It didn’t take long until he’d whisked her off, married her with promises of taking care of her and moving into her place. Alarm bells were ringing for our family but she seemed so happy so we put it all aside knowing her health was failing pretty quickly. I had organised meals on wheels for her, cleaning services and a carer who took her shopping as she didn’t drive. He cancelled all of them saying he was fine to do it all. Shortly after I started getting calls from the carer and manager of the retirement resort about his behaviour. One day she rang and told me she had noticed mums will and paperwork laying on the table and she mentioned that he was sorting it all out for her. He had taken her to his solicitor and changed it all.
Mum started getting really sick and ended up in hospital. They said she had turned up in a filthy condition. She had malnutrition and a urinary tract infection from not being clean and cared for. Mum was in Brisbane but I visited often and noticed a decline. So began the battle of my life to get her away from him and to be taken care of properly. The care providers were completely behind me as was the Elder Abuse Dept. One day they rang quite distressed because they noticed the man had installed a padlock on the outside of Mum’s bedroom door. He was locking her in for days at a time, not even letting her out to go to the toilet while emptying her bank accounts and other things as her husband. I had to call the police as I was too far away to get there quickly. They turned up and made him remove the lock but said there was not much they could do as they were legally married. I was furious.”
I’m 60 and in those days we were expected to grow up, get married, have kids. I was married at 18, had my daughter at 21 and my son at 24. That relationship didn’t last so I did the single mother thing for a long time. You just get by. We’ve had nothing. There’s been times when I’ve sent the kids to school and gone down the river to catch some fish for tea…old catfish, skinned them and cooked them up. We lived out in the bush for a long time in a caravan with no power or water. We would bring the water up from the creek. I look back though and I think that was pretty cool. The kids had so much freedom to play in nature. They had dams to swim in and cubbies to build. It was a really nice time for them. My son still embraces that lifestyle but my daughter’s a city kid.
I really wanted to go to Seven Hills Art College when I left school but I wasn’t allowed. In those days you had to do typing or secretarial school. I went to typing college and those skills have come in handy now doing books. It had a value but it’s not what my passion was. It wasn’t until the kids were teenagers that I went to Lismore Tafe to finally study Art.
I moved to Drake with the kids. I was pretty wild back then. I was riding motor bikes and singing in a band. That was in the days when people would go to pubs to see live music. No-one had a mobile, you’d catch up with all your mates and dance. It was really good. I remember if you had a thousand people there it was a quiet night. Loved those days in Lismore.
I met my husband Derek when I moved here 25 years ago. I was in a backyard theatre group and they had a band of local musos who needed someone to sing a song. I put my hand up. I got talking to the bass player Donny who has since passed away and he asked me to be in a band they were starting up. Derek was the drummer, we hit it off and we were great mates for 4 years. It wasn’t until later that we got together and we are still together.
We moved to Lismore when I decided to open the shop. I was studying Fine Arts at Tafe, we’d stopped playing with the band and we were at a bit of a loose end. Derek went and saw James Waldron who now has Lizzies Furniture which used to be a picture framing shop. Derek volunteered there for 18 months with no pay to learn how to do the framing to help me out. That was pretty special.
In about 2001 I was in my 3rd year at Tafe doing printmaking and we decided to open the shop. I finally started making my living in the Arts industry which is no mean feat. In the beginning I worked washing dishes at The Italo Club as well for extra income. Now everyone knows where we are so we’re always busy. We lived above the shop all those years till Covid hit. Ten years ago we bought a house in Lismore but rented it out. Now we live in it and have a garden instead of a carpark in the back yard.
I guess I’m like every other artist. You never stop learning, growing or exploring. I’ve got a very inquisitive mind so I want to paint one of everything in every style which isn’t possible. Now I do bodies of work towards exhibitions. They can be wildly different. The last one was about old homes, ruins, old barns and sheds….those magic places you see when you’re driving. The exhibition before that was in Melbourne and that was all birds. In 2012 I won the Caldera Arts Fellowship for Biodiversity Art. I painted all the waterfalls in this area. I did a lino cut series of all the endangered species that live in those habitats and I wrote a kids book on saving water.
A few years ago I did a portrait of Clare from the Knitting Nannas which I entered into the Portrait Prize. That was the year Rene Bolton won. Philip Bacon from the Bacon galleries purchased the painting and donated it back to the Lismore Regional Gallery. That was pretty special. He said it was because of it’s historical significance to the area. To me that was like winning a really big prize. It will always remind people how hard we fought for this area from the gas-fields.
My Mother was 84, suffering with mild dementia and living in a retirement resort. We talked about moving her to a different place where they had supported living, which she was all for. Out of the blue she told us she’d met a lovely man. Initially we were a little surprised but excited for her that she had found some happiness at such an advanced age. She was so happy. It didn’t take long until he’d whisked her off, married her with promises of taking care of her and moving into her place. Alarm bells were ringing for our family but she seemed so happy so we put it all aside knowing her health was failing pretty quickly. I had organised meals on wheels for her, cleaning services and a carer who took her shopping as she didn’t drive. He cancelled all of them saying he was fine to do it all. Shortly after I started getting calls from the carer and manager of the retirement resort about his behaviour. One day she rang and told me she had noticed mums will and paperwork laying on the table and she mentioned that he was sorting it all out for her. He had taken her to his solicitor and changed it all.
Mum started getting really sick and ended up in hospital. They said she had turned up in a filthy condition. She had malnutrition and a urinary tract infection from not being clean and cared for. Mum was in Brisbane but I visited often and noticed a decline. So began the battle of my life to get her away from him and to be taken care of properly. The care providers were completely behind me as was the Elder Abuse Dept. One day they rang quite distressed because they noticed the man had installed a padlock on the outside of Mum’s bedroom door. He was locking her in for days at a time, not even letting her out to go to the toilet while emptying her bank accounts and other things as her husband. I had to call the police as I was too far away to get there quickly. They turned up and made him remove the lock but said there was not much they could do as they were legally married. I was furious.”