Well here i am, coming up to my 58th birthday, the kids have nearly all left home and the time is right. I'm standing back from teaching metalwork, woodwork, design and sculpture and heading full-time back into the Arts.
I have been a maker all my life and a teacher for much of it. I didn't need to pack shelves as a kid because I sold my enamelled jewellery and later silver jewellery, mainly to my mother's friends at first then to the wider public. I have journeyed through and around photography, community arts, theatre, installations, blacksmithing, silverwork, junk work, furniture, visual arts coordinator for major arts events, sculpture and many exhibitions.
After my workshop burnt to the ground in 2011 and a lot of angst and soul searching I was invited by a friend ( thank you Ruth) to attend the Australian Collaboration, something i had never heard of. It was mainly wood based, and I was asked to help build up the metalwork area with a couple of other metal artists. This collaboration changed my life. It picked me up, dusted me off and set me back on my creative journey. I have rebuilt my workshop and a website (shed was more fun)
I have been to the amazing New Zealand Collaboration twice and have been invited back in 2017 as international artist; an honour and a compliment. This year I also received an invitation to the collaboration that started them all, EMMA Collaboration, at Ness Lakes in Saskatchewan. I will catch up with old friends, make new ones and live the creative life.
CollaboratioNZ 2015 Whangarei New Zealand. the Mental Tent
I would like to thank the Saskatchewan Craft Council and Veolia Mulwaree Trust for support to attend the Emma Collaboration 2016 in Canada.