My Education Journey

I have had so many wonderful teachers and opportunities to explore my painting/creative passions.

Bert Visser, my year 12 art teacher, suggested I try the art course at Tafe for a year to see if it was something I wanted to pursue. Thank God he did because when I finished school I would look at the job section in the paper and be frightened because it was like reading a foreign language. I had no idea what 'career path' to take.

Tafe was perfect, great teachers, relaxed, less pressure than uni. By the end of it I felt like a big fish in a small pond. Sydney would cut me down to size......

COFA / The College Of Fine Arts did just that. A roller coaster of highs and lows. The university experience broke my heart literally and figuratively. I can't believe how much I packed into three years.

It began at Baxter College which kept me drunkenly occupied at night.

However a weekend trip away on a meditation, yoga retreat saw me change tack. Suddenly I was consumed in this new world of mindfulness and deep exploration of my unconscious. It resulted in an ill fated trip to India. Here I found that my fiercely independent, creative, free spirit clashed in a major way with the gurus.

It was the dark night of my soul, a crash course in psychic development.

I came back to Australia forever changed, ultimately for the better.

" Someone I loved once gave me a box of darkness- it took me years to realize that this too was a gift "