I did this piece when my son was in a very bad place due to his mental illness.
It was a time when I was looking for answers/reasons as to why this was happening to my son. I looked at everything, his young years, his upbringing and his lifestyle choices. Was it how he was brought up by his mother and I? I did all I could to give my children the things I never had and the things they didn’t need.
I ask my son questions about his illness that he didn’t seem to know the answer to and he did not seem at all interested in our conversation. I could not understand his thoughts on his illness. My son seemed like he was on a course of self destruction, it was a battle to keep him out of the justice system as he would strike out at people because of his psychosis from his drug use and behavioural problems. His life centres around his music and still does and he seemed to get lost in this world of rap. At times he was very happy in this place and at other times he would go to the other end of the scale and be very sad, moody, aggressive and not much fun to be around. He eventually had to get his own place which he does not like very much and still spent most of his time at the family home; it’s where he feels comfortable. He continued his addiction which just worstened his condition although he could not see this and was living in a world of psychosis. He was readmitted to hospital again and has been there for quite sometime and he is now aware of his illness. He seems to want to get well and only time will tell on his release back into the community. All the time I’ll be wondering “what’s in your head”
The front of our brochure
The back of our brochure
Bushtucker Dreaming (SOLD)
Time went by and my son has had many more hospital admissions. I have started to accept that maybe my son will never be that person we once knew. Now we are learning to accept our son for him and accept his illness and try to understand the son we know now with all his mental problems and ongoing psychosis. We love our son with all our heart so when I considered maybe this is the Josh that will be here for much longer then we thought I needed to include him in my next family piece.So now we have a family of five around the campfire a complete; family again. Josh is still in hospital as I write this story and seems to be improving but still has a very long way to go. He is moving into Housing in Wagga and being offered help through support services, but it is up to him to stay clean from his addiction and stay focused and until he does that we will never know how good he can recover until we can find a medication, stays clean after hospital release, accepts his illness and starts to manage it. It’s a hard thing to watch your child experience mental illness but life is the only healing I believe in, so if you have a family member suffering like this don’t give up on them keep working and keep your family together and strong.
This piece is about the river and what I observe when Im just sitting on the bank land, watching all the the activities on the great Murrumbidgee River as it flows nearby my home. Its a place I go to let my mind relax. I feel so at ease here like this is where I belong. You can hear the sounds of the river as it slowly flows by, how peaceful it is with all the animals going about their business, the fish swimming the shallows, the magpies protecting their young as the galahs, cockatoos and kookaburra screech and laugh in delight at the old goanna bringing bombed. All this activity yet still so quite and tranquil. I sit here for hours thinking, relaxing, breaking twigs in my hands, rolling balls of river mud in my hands as I watch the sparkling water flow gently by; there is not a better place to reflect than this place. I love this place on the bend, on THE RIVER. It feels right, a place that is spiritual, that I feel totally comfortable being in this place. THE RIVER. The life giver
Our shop front with the sign incorporating one of my paintings
This painting is about 3 rivers in wiradjuri country, the Murrumbidgee, Kalare(Lachlan) and Wamboon(Macquarie). These 3 rivers were a huge food source for the Wiradjuri people who feasted on native fish, yabbies and crays. I love to imagine how idyllic it must have really been for our traditional people, life must have been so care and worry free, no disease, a healthy diet and respect for our elders. All your learning done with your mob, your elders. Who better than to look after your education and future then your own. I imagine this meant spending almost all of your time with family, forming a very tight bond giving them a great connection of family kinship and also through elders teaching a respect and connection to country. These rivers were a great connection for wiradjuri country with its people travelling up and down in small groups interacting and trading with each other, all using much the same dialect and maintaining their close bond and remaining one of the great tribes in Australia.
Woolscours
Woolscours
Murrumbidgee In Flood
This painting is about 3 rivers in wiradjuri country, the Murrumbidgee, Kalare(Lachlan) and Wamboon(Macquarie). These 3 rivers were a huge food source for the Wiradjuri people who feasted on native fish, yabbies and crays. I love to imagine how idyllic it must have really been for our traditional people, life must have been so care and worry free, no disease, a healthy diet and respect for our elders. All your learning done with your mob, your elders. Who better than to look after your education and future then your own. I imagine this meant spending almost all of your time with family, forming a very tight bond giving them a great connection of family kinship and also through elders teaching a respect and connection to country. These rivers were a great connection for wiradjuri country with its people travelling up and down in small groups interacting and trading with each other, all using much the same dialect and maintaining their close bond and remaining one of the great tribes in Australia.
This piece tells the story of drought how dry the land is. The land is so dry it turns to dust and the old kangaroo and emu cross paths as they wander the plains in wiradjuri country looking for food and water but all is to be found is dust. They leave their tracks in the dust as if they have been dancing in the heat of the sun as they wander these vast plains in wiradjuri country
This painting is about 3 rivers in wiradjuri country, the Murrumbidgee, Kalare(Lachlan) and Wamboon(Macquarie). These 3 rivers were a huge food source for the Wiradjuri people who feasted on native fish, yabbies and crays. I love to imagine how idyllic it must have really been for our traditional people, life must have been so care and worry free, no disease, a healthy diet and respect for our elders. All your learning done with your mob, your elders. Who better than to look after your education and future then your own. I imagine this meant spending almost all of your time with family, forming a very tight bond giving them a great connection of family kinship and also through elders teaching a respect and connection to country. These rivers were a great connection for wiradjuri country with its people travelling up and down in small groups interacting and trading with each other, all using much the same dialect and maintaining their close bond and remaining one of the great tribes in Australia.
Goanna Dreaming
Not Afraid (Eminem Tribute)
The Gathering
Wool Scours
Turtle Dreaming
Munyaa (Wiradjuri for Murray Cod)
This piece pays tribute to the Kangaroo. The kangaroo, the symbol of Australia. It was also a food staple of Aboriginal Australia before colonialisation. It was plentiful lean and full of protein. Aboriginal hunters would go out in a hunting group to hunt these beautiful animals, only ever taking what they needed and always making sure of their future food sources. When the grass was dry they would burn it off so when it rained fresh green grass would regrow. This ensured the kangaroos returned and food would be available for the tribal groups. So the aboriginal people took care of the land and kangaroos ensuring their ongoing survival and that of the kangaroo in that area
Belonging
This piece is about my country, the land of the Wiradjuri. This piece shows how big Wiradjuri country is, one of the biggest and most populated tribes in the country due to its rivers and other waterways. This piece lets you see where the source of these waterways come from and the huge area these waterways cover. The wiradjuri country encompasses 3 major rivers the Macquarie, Lachlan and Murrumbidgee. The tribes would navigate these rivers for gatherings and ceremonial reasons which was a huge task given the size of the tribal area. These gatherings were regular and used to consolidate the tribal groups and most of the tribal area spoke the same dialect, not all, but most. So even though we were big in size we made sure we kept our connection with all of our tribal groups. You are standing on the land of the Wiradjuri
