I am very honest about the fact that I have had no formal training except in the school of 'Life'. Everything I have learned over the last eleven years when I began to walk a creative path, and the last eight years since I began to paint again has come from reading countless books on technique, from the dissection and scrutiny of other artist's work, and finally, by painting and experimenting on a daily basis. Practise is the key to improvement and refinement, and I, being a perfectionist, hone my skills with a dedication which borders on *laughs* the obsessive.

I work with many different media - mixed media, acrylics, watercolours, gouache, coloured pencil and ink. I also paint digitally using Corel Painter, and am highly proficient with both pen and graphite. Although, with that being said, my preference is to work with acrylics.

In the past, I loved the idea that we cannot see everything and that there are different planes of existance and reality. Fantasy allowed me to peer into those hidden worlds and bring them to life within the hearts and minds of others. This I believe to be a very important key to healthy emotional and psychological development. To imagine is to create, and to create is why we exist. For me personally, to paint something from one's imagination is both challenging and stimulating and to make a creature or character real for another is an experience worth repeating.However, much of what I paint now in the present is not 'fantasy' but are instead visions or dreams that come to me.

I am deeply in love with and eternally committed to my partner and soulmate of 20 years, and father of my two beautiful children.

I paint because I must. As a child, when I was not dreaming of wandering distant shores, I was painting pictures in my mind, in my books and on my walls. All available pieces of paper were covered in drawings. Drawing and painting has always been second nature. The only other passion that I had as a child was reading, and if the book had beautiful illustrations then I was doubly blessed.

During my teen years, I allowed myself to believe that I had no talent, so my pens and papers were put away in the drawer. My dreams of becoming an artist, illustrating fairy tales, and painting fantasy realms were forgotten. I moved out into the '9 to 5' world and took on several different roles - secretary, accounts clerk, personal assistant, receptionist. I even studied hairdressing for several years.

I was not happy. In fact, I became very ill. I suffered from acute depression for over a decade. It was only when I was reintroduced to art as a form of therapy, that I began to understand the source of my illness. I had denied the creative essence of me. I had allowed my fear of failure to cage me. Many weeks and months later, I no longer suffer from anything more than an occassional low; my depression, the illness from which I suffer, will never be something I am free of, but now it is that comes and goes and painting speeds its departure. I am a poor, struggling artist, who is now at peace and the happiest I have ever been. By reawakening my dreams, and placing my feet upon this path of colour and magick, I believe I am fulfilling my destiny.

I have always loved the idea that we cannot see everything and that there are different plains of existance and reality. Painting mythological, dragon, and goddess art allows me to peer into those hidden and ancient worlds and bring them to life in the hearts and minds of others. It is my magic, and without magic there would be naught but greyness.In truth, what I paint is my spirituality ... I paint my visions, my dreams, and my faith.

I have been painting professionally for since mid 2003. During this time, my style has evolved and changed in many ways. With every new artwork I grow in confidence, and with the growing confidence I allow myself to dream bigger dreams.

Over the next few years, I will focus on illustrating and writing my Dreams of Gaia Tarot, and publishing my Messenger Oracle.

Everything and nothing - life, nature, dreams, my family, my pets, my faith. My favourite artists are Thomas Canty, Stephanie Law, Linda Bergkvist, Larry Elmore, Clyde Caldwell, Keith Parkinson, and Michael Whelan. They sustained me through my teenage years, and inspired me to chase my dreams.

*laughs* My house is a zoo! I have two kids, who are beautiful pets. I love them dearly. Pets of the non-human variety are in abundance also. I have two cats, one blue-tongue lizard, one dog, two pythons, a galah who thinks he's a currawong, and two currawongs who think they are galahs.

I wish. After being an artist, wife, lover, mother, cook, housewife, zoo-keeper, so on and so forth, there is not much time left over for hobbies. I collect crystals, read books on esoteric symbology, spirituality, philosophy and metaphysics, I take photos, I write poetry and slightly better fantasy fiction, and I listen to music, and when I need to turn off and shut the world out and let the spirit world in, I sleep.

My lover. *grins* I love looking at the moon, and sitting in the sun. I love walking around in bare feet, and jumping in puddles. I love nature, animals, and the smell of the ocean. I admire loyalty, and respect those who are wiser when their knowledge and wisdom comes from experience and practise as opposed to theory alone.

Arrogance, rudeness, and religious and racial intolerance are my number one dislikes. I dislike teachers who use ridicule to enforce a lesson, and being told that I cannot do or be something simply because it does not fit another's idea of who or what I am. Another thing that irk me is false modesty; I have more respect for those who own their power and shine bright with confidence and pride. I have no patience for people who refuse to be responsible for their choices and actions.

Not a one. The choices, actions and mistakes made in my past have made me the person I am today. I like who I am, so why would I regret something which has helped forge my 'self'.

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