A gentle push in a creative direction

Since I was a little kid, I have been artistic.

From my earliest memories I recall that I was fascinated with Disney cartoons and I would spend hours recreating my favourite characters. I loved everything about visual storytelling, so much so, that when I reached high school I approached my course selections with a career towards animation. My love with drawing evolved into a love of art theory, and I became fascinated with the modern art greats. And just like the hot and cold of a teenager’s mind, I quickly changed to a photography obsession. Soon animation was pushed to the backbench and a desire to become a nature and travel photographer morphed into the career direction I wished to pursue… I even had my first photographic exhibit at the Logan City Art Gallery at the age of 16. But a lure of money, independence and a deep desire to travel, saw me focus on reaching those objectives and heading full steam ahead in to a career of means.

Sometimes when you look back on your life, there are moments when you confront elements of regret. I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t one of my biggest.

As time went on, my imagination became jaded and one could say I lost faith in myself and my capabilities. My inner voice became a “Debbie Downer” and chastised me for thinking I had any hint of creativity within my soul. I would dip my toe in here and there, use travel as an excuse to get my photography hit, devour subscription after subscription of Australian Photography magazines and pull out my charcoals and sketch pad to draw the odd drawing or two, but in all honesty, I never believed I was good enough to own my expressive hobbies.

Then cancer bulldozed through my life for over a decade, and while I carried on living, working, traveling and enjoying second chances, that niggling voice inside told me I had passed by my ‘creative window’ and it was time to get ‘serious about life’.

Boring!!! Right? I 100% agree.

Last year, after almost 7 years without touching my drawing kit… I started playing and I squashed that inner voice down half a notch. I began sharing my joy with my friends and family, and in a turn of events, one beautiful friend took a massive chance on me, believed in me and thus my debut collection “Earth Healing” was born and published by the incredibly generous and gorgeous Dr Mahdi Mason for her book Earth Healing: Healing the earth to heal ourselves.

Mahdi gave me the gentle and encouraging push to take a step towards embracing my creative passions and dulling down that voice that told me that I wasn’t good enough. There definitely have been moments along the way where I could have given up, ended the dream before it even really began, but I have stayed the course.

I am a student of my desires.

There is so much to learn!

This is me… embracing my joy, and I am ecstatic.

I am finally ready to announce the launch and debut of my art shop and my first collection of fine art prints and art apparel dedicated to the gorgeous work of Dr Mahdi Mason.  Thank you for the gentle push my beautiful friend!

Here it is… here is your permission to dream about the world you want to create!

Jump on over and enter my art world, here.