Next week, I’ll be launching Incandescence, my first EP and solo art exhibition* at Australian Bronze Sculpture House, North Head Reserve in Manly. It will be something of a Creative Rebirth Party for me: I’m performing songs from the EP, two of which won the Lyrics Only Category of the UK Songwriting Contest in 2012 […]
Silver Storm was the first of my songs to win a lyric-writing award – at the 2009 Australian Songwriters’s Association (ASA) conference in Ettalong NSW. I was so thrilled!!! No Oscar-winning moment could ever equal the feeling of standing on the podium that day in the distinguished company of so many great songwriters – from […]
Aqua, baby, Aqua! Colour is joy to me. And blue is … the hottest flame lol. It’s my signature colour and I wear it whenever I can. For years, my studio door was aqua. I have aqua shoes. I wear aqua nail polish (especially on my toes). I love the fire in it – that […]
I held the hand of a butterfly today. I was walking along the beach … and there on the sand, lying flat and folded and very still, lay an exquisite pair of golden caramel wings, black veined and streaked with creamy white. Something about their perfect shape – their delicacy, the lightness in those impossibly […]
I love October 31 – it‘s the eve of my own birthday on November 1, but it’s also Halloween and I delight in its symbolism. Traditionally, it was the day after the end of the Autumn harvest in the old celtic calendar when people got together to exorcise all the angst of the previous 12 […]
Caption: A very happy photo of the sculptor (centre) with Michael Heysen (Nora’s brother) and Jane Hylton, trustee of the National Gallery of Australia and the State Gallery of SA, who unveiled the bronze portrait sculpture of Nora Heysen. Last Sunday (October 20) I had the delightful experience of attending the unveiling of my bronze […]
I live on Scotland Island, in one of the wildest urban environments in Sydney. It is boat-access only, the roads are either disintegrating or partially unsealed and the residents collect their own water. There is no such thing as kerbing or guttering – and there are no shops. The dogs are free, the children are […]
UnConquered Sun is my tribute to the triumph of light over darkness. Ahead of its release on iTunes this week (how exciting!), I’ve been thinking about exactly what the sun represents to me as the teller of this ancient tale. I have a special love of the Rider-Waite tarot cards – the artwork is […]
Making the film clip for UnConquered Sun is, without doubt, two of the best days I’ve had in my creative life so far. I just loved every bit of it. Not only were Director Paul Stefanadis and Producer Irene Pannas the essence of flexibility and good cheer throughout the entire shoot – there wasn’t a […]
UnConquered Sun began life as a simple non-denominational Christmas song based on the legend of the Yuletide. The old sun dies at the darkest part of winter and is buried for three days before being reborn as the “prince of winter” – the newborn solstice child who grows throughout the spring to be crowned king […]