BIO
THE ROAD TO ART - MY HISTORY IN BRIEF – on PAPER
In the beginning – I was bed bound for 6 months each year on average for the first 10years of my life (with asthma
bronchial type), it was then that I started to draw birds and gave the drawings to my classmates from year three and
up to year 6.
In Year 6 I was in charge of a team of my classmates to draw (design) a futuristic city. This was photographed and a
piece was highlighted in the Daily News.
In year 7 I was lead in an art project to do a collage of the Beatles.
After my mother died in start of 2nd year High School my brother and I were orphaned. I was sent away to finish my
years 9 and 10. I then ‘left’ school and stayed with a number of people over the years.
I married at 18 yrs had 2 daughters and divorced from a very abusive person (long story). Married at around 30yrs had
2 more daughters and divorced late 1999 (very abusive, whako and heroin addict – even longer story). My next foray
into my art world was as a resident in a Mental Institution on and off over about 3 years and I received Art Therapy –
POW I soaked it all up!!!!! Over the next 10 or so years I began drawing, then both painting and collages and have
been creating and selling ever since.
ART AWARDS ‘A’ grade Art ECU, Highly Recommended Fremantle Mental Health Competition x 1, 3 awards from Ten
Moir in USA – 2 as Honourable Mention and one as a Finalist and 5 pieces were donated to the Wanneroo Mental
Health for exhibiting on their walls (permanently).
THE ACADEMIC on PAPER - 1992 Bachelor Degree of Nursing ECU, Project Management Post Graduate Certificate with
Distinction from WAIT, FSH, PathWest, UWA, SCGH, Curtin Uni, Research Nurse and Study Coordinator and Clinical
Research Associate. ECU (data collection), FSH (Hepatology), Renal Transplant, UWA, PathWest, School of Medicine
and Pharmacology in Geriatric Medicine, RPH set up a Dementia and Delirium Unit after an extensive and intense
study of all staff, some patients and their families. I am also published in Geriatric Journal and reports to WA Health
Department.
Interpersonal skills have always been to the fore. Cold calling prospective participants in the first pre-Bowel Cancer
Screening program in Australia called for tact, compassion, openness and honesty. Many opportunities throughout
my working life for patient, significant other, family, nursing and medical team interaction. I also have extensive
experience in chairing high level meetings between investigators, representatives and the WA Police Force.
As a member of the research team I exercised interpersonal management, change management and conflict
management skills in keeping with my professionalism and ethical guidelines of research and the hospital / university.
THE ARTIST on PAPER – MY STYLE IS - ABSTRACT IMPRESSIONISTIC in ACRYLICS and CLAY
My work (some 140 pieces) celebrates the resilience of the human condition per se. While it can be beautiful (in the
eye of the beholder), at the same time, it can offer up life’s difficulties which is why I paint with acrylic and use acrylic
pens - mainly for the flexibility and to explore the challenges of the moments.
Colour makes me drool (I was also a theatres nurse and I would drool over the most gory sites) but inspires me to use
my brain!! I begin a painting with purpose and direction yet at the same time my imagination can take hold and I find
my work can be a conversation between me and you the viewer/buyer. Whatever I create, I seek to show my inner
self and I see, feel and sense in living – especially with my brain – THE ART OF A LIFE – WELL-LIVED EH!!
In closing, my goal is to draw you – the viewer – in and look more at the world and it’s colors in unusual places (arms
around the trees) and expressions.
DEMENTIA AND ART – My mother, all 3 older sisters 1xFTLD, 1xdied AD, 1xdied AD and one older brother 1xMD
My art can be influenced by producing scanty perceptions of the elements and reside in visual instructions but as my
language deteriorates, my visual creativity blossom - so let's go for it while we still have it!
I’ve heard that my colors and subject matter are said to be ‘spontaneous’ with bright vibrance and distinctive content
with subject matter said to border on the bizarre!!
But it is also said that ‘BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER’ and this fits my art now eh!!
More updates to come from this day 21 April 2026