About Sue
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I’m often asked how long I’ve been an artist. Truthfully, I can’t remember when I wasn’t drawing, painting or sculpting. As a young child I won numerous art competitions and by my early teens I was actively selling charcoal sketches of peoples pet dogs.
On leaving school at 17, I stepped straight into a highly desired position in the art department of John Martins, one of Australia’s leading department stores. Formal art training was replaced by ‘on the job experience’. I was doubly excited as it also gave me the opportunity to take part in their world renowned Christmas pageant which was my childhood dream.
Three years later I was invited to take the position of head artist in the progressive graphic design studios of Golden Breed. I thrived in this position as it fuelled my natural curiosity and desire to explore new techniques and potentials.
At 21, I created many changes, I married my high school sweetheart and we brought our own home. I also joined the Army Reserves and found my place in the Infantry. I enjoyed learning many skills not readily available to the public and the physical and mental challenge of weapon handling, truck driving, parades, signals and navigation. While it satisfied my ‘tomboy’ nature, I found it was also an interesting contrast and balance to my free flowing artistic side.
By age 24, we started a family. After my son was born I decided to be a stay at home mum and took on a small amount of freelance work in the graphic design field. A few years later my daughter was born and I chose to focus on family rather than art. In that time I’d left the Army and became a Girl Guide leader. I enjoyed those 6 years with the girls immensely as it gave me a very different creative outlet and unlocked a desire to one day work with children.
As my children grew and went off to school, we built an art studio and meditation room onto our home. I looked for freelance work and set up several meditation groups. I found that my creative nature presented me with a natural ability to facilitate meditations which benefited people both mentally and physically. On the art side, I took the position of head artist illustrating children’s stories for Contagious Magazine which was a publication directed at primary schools. I also ran specialized art classes in schools which included painting murals with the students both in schools and community centres.
In my late 20’s I wrote and illustrated a book “Bungy and the Bunyips.” While it wasn’t published, the story and characters came to life on stage at the Festival theatre through the Junior South Australian Ballet. Hungry Jacks also took on the Bunyips and they became the first Australian characters to become a nationwide Hungry Jacks kids meal.
By 30 I decided to try my hand at watercolours. I loved the medium as it was free flowing and had no room for error. My works were mainly of Australian rainforests and birdlife and sold well nationally. I loved focusing my attention to detail and painted with photographic accuracy. In regularly immersing myself in the rainforests of the Otways, I found I was beginning to see nature and myself in a whole new way. It was an important moment in my life. Later I began to blend my graphic design skills with my watercolour accuracy and that took me once more to a new experience.
By my late 40’s, my Marriage ended and I was exploring life in a new way once again. I began to feel into more abstract realms. It was as if I was painting from what was going on inside of me instead of what I saw outside. It was quite challenging at first to allow myself the total freedom to just allow a creation to form rather than the need to create ‘something’. It was an exciting change.
I realised my art had became more about knowing self through self-expression. I enjoyed understanding myself more clearly and this led me to gain my diploma in counselling. Again my creative side blended with the mental and I found it all very balancing. It’s not surprising that I soon found myself combining my counselling skills with my art and working in schools as an Art Therapist.
At 56 I felt I wanted a total change. I was never one to stay in one pattern for too long when life offered so many opportunities. I took a big ‘leap’, sold everything and moved to New Zealand. As I immersed in a whole new, exciting world and lifestyle, I seemed to be on an artistic sabbatical. Two years later the urge to paint returned, as did the desire to assist others through art therapy. My art had again changed dramatically. It was bold and raw. It was exciting to paint again and to have the public acceptance of such a different, new ‘me’.
At 60, I returned to Australia feeling very different to when I’d left. I chose to live by the beach at Brighton. It was soothing for the soul when I wasn’t sure what was next. Each day, for the first few weeks, I lay on the beach watching the tides recede and leave large areas of smooth, glistening sand. It finally occurred to me it was like a huge, blank canvas. I felt that ‘artistic rush’ and I began doodling in the sand with a stick. Surprisingly, what emerged were symmetrical mandalas. Just before leaving New Zealand I’d begun to doodle with such designs but they were small on canvas and rocks. But on the beach those doodles took flight and became 14 meter works of art that fed my creative spirit.
I was astounded by the joyful and abundant energy I felt while creating them. Pictures of my mandalas soon went viral worldwide on social media and all the local papers and television channels wanted an interview. Larger crowds gathered to watch me create them and from chatting with many of them, I realised they were feeling the same joy I felt in the creation process. I began receiving messages daily from around the world from people expressing the joy they felt when looking at the mandalas and how they had started drawing their own. I began creating mandala workshops on the beach for families and adult classes to open creativity and manage stress. I started working in schools again, this time using the mandalas as my main art therapy tool. I also began painting again, and again it was different. I found I was also creating mandalas on canvas and people were buying them because once again, they felt the joy in them.
Two years later, I was presented with an Australia Day award. I was so surprised. It never occurred to me that my ‘Sandalas’ were seen to be bringing a community together.
COVID:-
With the arrival of covid, like many people I found my income from workshops no longer forthcoming and there was no government support.
For 4 years I created sandalas weekly gifting them to both myself and the community. Suddenly, with people unable to be with their loved ones overseas or interstate, my sandalas became the unique gift to send for special occasions. Requests came from all over the world and the ‘gift’ was videoed and sent to the recipient.
I was creating up to 5 Sandala gifts a week. The donations I received from these gift Sandalas literally kept a roof over my head for 3 years. This is my heart warming gratitude story.
Currently, I’ve created more than 600 Sandalas over the past 8 years. I never plan the design or use measuring tools. I just breathe, feel the joy in the moment and let them evolve naturally in a walking meditation. Each is different and has its own feel because life is different from moment to moment and is full of wonderful gifts and surprises… we just have to allow them. As long as people feel joy in the Sandalas, I’ll keep creating them.
I hope you enjoy my art as much as I’ve enjoyed creating it and presenting it to you… but most of all I hope it ignites your passion to explore your own inner artist, for in all my years teaching, regardless of their denials, I’ve never met a person who couldn’t paint or create… enjoy.