Dad & Granny

As I said in the previous post, it has been a very difficult 6 months. Just before Easter my Granny, (pictured above) died at the age of 88. She had been unwell for quite awhile and her quality of life had been declining, it was with great sadness that we said goodbye to her. Less than 3 months later, in June, her son, my father, went missing in his light plane somewhere on our station. After a massive search lasting 2 and a half days by police, SES, helicopters and many men from our district on motorbikes, he and his plane were found crashed in our lake. It happened just a few days before his 58th birthday. The shock and horror of it has been over-whelming. I have found grief to be like a powerful, uncontrollable animal.

I have thought a lot about whether or not to talk about this on my blog. Their deaths are private and a blog is very public, but how can myself or my art not be affected or changed by this? So I decided to talk a little about it though I cannot say too much because Dad's death is still under investigation.

The photo above is of Granny and Dad. I took it not long after I moved back to Australia from Canada in September 2007. I am so grateful, especially now, that I got to have the year living on the station with my family before moving to Mt Barker in 2009 . I got to spend time with Dad and also Granny who lived an hour and a half away in Broken Hill, our closest town. Lots of people thought I was mad going to live in the outback with my family for a year but a little voice inside me said that it was the right thing for me to do at that time. I am so thankful I listened.

I want to thank all my friends and family for your support, understanding, love and care during this time.

My Mum and brothers wanted me to go ahead with my SALA exhibition which opened just a little over a month after Dad died. It opened on my birthday actually. I will talk more about that in later postings....