I turn 50 today and here’s The Thing. NO ONE LIKES AGEING. Yes, I know…there are cultures where age is venerated. But really and truly, except for maybe some long-robed, lovely bald dudes in Tibet (who, have you noticed, have really good skin anyway!) NONE of us like getting older. The seriously positive amongst you will be saying right …
Ten Books that Made Me
I have a terrible addiction. I buy lots and lots of books. Sometimes I even get so excited about a book that I forget I’ve already bought it and buy it again. Well, that only happened once. Actually twice. Well…never mind. I wrote about this problem elsewhere. The thing about books is that they have been my friends ever since …
Eleven Things I Hate about me (and other irrelevant nonsense)
Here are some incredibly unimportant things that often make it hard, oh-so-hard to be in my head: I can NEVER find anything in my handbag. Unless I tip the whole damn thing out and this is NOT fun when it’s 10pm and dark outside and you can’t find your car keys. I can’t do sums in my head. At all. …
Believe it when someone believes in you
Many years ago I was at a seminar at the Vancouver Arts Centre. I was still an art student, not at all sure of who or how I wanted to ‘be’ in the bewildering art world. I don’t even remember what the seminar was about. But the lady in charge was to become a Very Significant Person in my life. Her …
Exactly Who the Hell Am I?
Some years ago I discovered that I had been saying my name wrong all my life. It was somewhat of a blow to my identity, which had taken, I now realise, several major knocks throughout my life. I’ll get to the story of my mis-pronounced name. For now, let me backtrack a bit. I was raised in a very multicultural …
The one that said,“Aaah,this is where you’re meant to be!”
“There’s one in every class,” he said, shaking his head and looking annoyed. Oh oh. What did I say? Day one, lesson one, and I’ve gotten on the wrong side of the first lecturer, AND the coordinator of the course. This is going to be hard. It was my first day in art school. We had left Perth for the …
The One that Said ‘Just because you CAN doesn’t mean you MUST’
There was an expectant silence as the buzz of the crowd suddenly hushed. This was it. The house lights dimmed, we were in position. Months of rehearsal over. My head was alarmingly blank. My stomach was a mess. There was a full blown war in there – between my nerves and my gastric juices. Just for a few seconds, I felt …
The One that Said You’re Really, Really Lost
“I really don’t can’t do this anymore”. This was my first thought every morning, and frequently, my last thought at night. For five years. I was working for the University of Western Australia’s Dept of Medicine, and studying for my Masters in Medical Science. Here I worked with some of the finest minds in the country, perhaps in the world. …
The Question that Changed Everything
I’d imagine that people become artists because they just know that’s what they have to do – and it’s all passion and talent and skill rolled into a burning desire to do nothing else. Not me. I became an artist by accident. It was a strange journey, via the Medical Sciences, full time motherhood, a long stint in the performing arts followed by a …
