I enjoyed having my shop and gallery but found I
had zero time left for my own creativity. I was going
through a particularly diffi cult period of my life and felt
like my whole world was falling apart. At that point, I
realized I had forgotten the whole reason I had started
my business. I had become completely distracted from
my true passion which was to create and share my art.
While looking for other ways to fi nancially support
myself while doing what I love, I spent a great deal of
time reading books and researching successful artists.
I found one practical book that was extremely helpful.
It suggested getting focused on one style or theme in
your work and gave an example of someone painting
10,000 Buddhas. I thought to myself, “That is a lot of
paintings!” But it got me thinking about what I would
choose to do if I were doing 10,000 of something.
I had just fi nished reading a wonderful book called
THE HIDDEN LIFE OF TREES by Peter Wohlleben. It
made me even more fascinated with trees and forests.
I love bushwalking and spend as much time as I can
out in the wilderness of my home state Tasmania,
which is that little island at the bottom of Australia.
The mountains and forest are my favorite places and
this book made me see them in a different light and“Forest Raven” • 31½ " x 15¾ "
In Tasmania, we have only one type of raven. The Forest Raven has piercing light blue eyes. They are super smart and extremely shy.
Freestyle stitched on hand-dyed silk and cotton.