Sue, My Art, My Life

 Rod and I taken at Jupiter's Casino when we visited to see a Christmas show.

Profile Info

My husband Rodney and I met when I was 45 years old so, after being single until then, life became a huge and happy adjustment from full-time hairdressing/salon ownership and missionary endeavours to retirement, home, art and travel.  We moved from our hometown of Tauranga NZ to Brisbane in 2006 and simply love the Aussie lifestyle with its wide-open spaces, fabulous hinterlands, gorgeous wildlife and wonderful climate.  Whenever we can, we take “photo adventures” near and far to appreciate all that our adopted country has to offer us.  We also love to travel – train, ship, plane, car – any mode that will take us to interesting places.

Poppies - a recent mixed media textile project, my own design based on a QLD Quilters workshop.

Between us Rod and I have three adult daughters – Christine, a lawyer; Alison, a computer whiz and Rachel, a photography retailer.  We also have three beautiful grandies – Mary-Rose [13] who lives in Darwin, and Brookelyn [12] & Kaleb [10] who live in Oamaru, in NZ’s South Island.  We do not see any of them nearly often enough!

.  Stocking - I love both embroidery and Christmas - my own design.

I have always loved crafts.  My first attempts at around 4 years of age saw me making ‘clothes’ for my dolly and the family kitten.  Since then my craft has led me through sewing [clothing, accessories, soft furnishings, quilts]; into painting with acrylics & watercolour; home décor; embroidery; writing; calligraphy; cloth doll making & teaching; designing Christmas decorations; and since moving to Australia into textile & mixed media art.  My current fascination is the challenge of designing and making inchies, ATCs and textile postcards.  I love the ‘sharing’ aspect.  As for the future – amongst other ideas I am planning to learn how to produce interesting DVD videos using the photos and movies from our travel and personal collections.

I would describe my work as intuitive and fussy.  My beautiful studio [a ‘gift’ from my beloved!] is neat & well organised – I like it that way so I can quickly find what I need – everything has a ‘home’!  I am way past big ‘major’ productions, preferring to work on smaller projects that I can complete in very few sessions.  Even then, I love to read widely, try new skills, experiment, relax, enjoy and above all, share the fruits of my labours.

Mushrooms - a cloth 'doll' project made for a club challenge from a Suzette Glastonbury Rugolo design.

Like most homemakers however, I also enjoy cooking; my garden [planted to attract parrots]; the various art groups to which I belong [was co-ordinator for our recent SMART ARTs textile art exhibition]; garage sale, opshop & market fossicking;  collecting and writing about my antique button collection; digital photography & manipulation; and maintaining contact with friends and family via Skype and emails.

 Passion - a watercolour painting, my own design.