Art Exhibition(s) for 2018...

Pacific Hibiscus Exhibition painting (Acrylics on canvas, 2017)

Starting to look at applying for a couple of community art exhibition venues for 2018 and it's exciting to be contemplating this.

If you know my back story it's about taking art through high school and passing the Bursary (senior high school marks) and then not getting enough marks to go to Elam Art school at Auckland Uni and instead taking on an academic course to a Masters level.

From there it was then about serving within my local community as a teacher and thinking that my dream had died and I'd have to wait until I retired before ever picking up a paint brush! Instead, a few years ago, I started painting small canvases just as a way of starting painting again and I haven't looked back since.

This year was the first year that I put on a small art exhibition called "Pacific Hibiscus" which showcased the paintings from my books. I hope to be able to repeat it in another community to highlight a variety of artworks and also those of my collaborating artists of whom I've worked with on my books.

I also hope to host an art exhibition with poetry that I've written over the past few years that have been published in a couple of books that have been published. With the exhibition, I hope to host some workshops for local high schools to talk about poetry, my life as a writer and to support youth at school who are contemplating a career in the arts. This is because there are so many more opportunities available than when I left school, way back in the day.

So looking forward to what the new year will hold and more...