12 Things (I hope) I learned in 2013

1. Addictions are bad, but mine to books has brought some heart changing stories into my life. TOP of the list? The highly acclaimed, heartbreaking, funny, beautiful Sifting the Dust by Marjorie Rose. The paperback is now available here. Lesson: I’m keeping this addiction, I don’t care what you think. 2. In 2013, anything that I accomplished that was worth anything …

How I Found My Happy Place

Joy is an elusive emotion. It’s far more expansive than happiness and far deeper than feeling good. I love the word JOY. Even saying it or reading it lifts my heart just a little. I’ve been making art for twelve years, and along the way, my practice has been influenced and enriched by many ‘teachers’. Some of them great artists …

Fear Makes Things Magical

“I feel like fear is the secret ingredient that makes things magical. Awesome. I listen to fear. You can be talented and creative and all those pretty things – but it’s a life-changing affair if you feel the fear and you go out to meet it. I love that feeling.” – Kal Barteski Last week, I travelled from Perth, Western Australia, …

My Whole Van in Three Suitcases

If you’re reading this post, you may know that I’m an artist, and that I lead workshops for beginners.  What you may not know is the craziness goes on behind the scenes of each and every one of my one day intensive workshops! Let me preface this by stating that I tend to do most things the hard way around. So instead of …

I’m a Black Bird Singin'

  The other night Greg and I performed a duet again, after a very long time. Back under lights, him with his guitar, me sitting next to him on a stool, holding a microphone, singing to an audience I couldn’t see with my eyes but I could feel with my heart. We sang Blackbird by Paul McCartney. I know McCartney wrote …

The Purple Painting

I spent a lot of time being sick this week. Coughing my heart out, razor blades in my throat, you know the drill. So I took a great big pause from the busy-ness of my life, gave in and stayed in bed. Between the sleeping and waking, my eyes often came to rest on a photo of my father and …

5 Reasons why I should never have become an artist

NOTHING ELSE EVER GETS DONE WHEN I’M PAINTING. It starts off just fine. I long to paint, then I get to paint, then I think “aaaah, this feels SO fine, why did I wait so long to do this?” then I Just. Can’t. Stop. This means the family has dinner at 10pm if they’re lucky and the dogs are beside …

A Lizard at Breakfast, A Snake at my Doorstep and Flowers on My Pillow

                  We Australians could be said to belong to one of two groups of people: Those who’ve been to Bali, and the (six or seven) others who haven’t. For 50 years, I was a proud member of the second group. The ones that secretly considered ourselves superior to the yobbos and bogans in …