I remember realising how personally rewarding it could be to become an artist when I was only 3 years old.
After scribbling oil crayons on the family room wall, the next day, my parents generously supplied me with painting boards and paint. I think it was due to my Irish temperament that I was nicknamed the artist of the school, a title I secretly relished.
At nine, I set an art studio in the old chook house out the back and did my first still life drawing (a bottle of Stone's Green Ginger Wine).
Later, while raising two children by myself, I continued to work in oils, attended painting and ceramics at art school and occasionally exhibited.
In 1992, I joined First Street Artist Studio Inc in Brompton and developed my painting and drawing technique.
I also helped to design and create a number of public artworks with Vaughan Green including murals, sculptures and the mosaic Angel Lounge on Goodwood Road, Unley.
