As a small child the family visited my grandparents on Sundays in Yorkshire, England. My grandfather was someone who liked to oil paint and this passion was shared with me.
The house my grand parents lived in was filled with pieces that depicted popular local places of interest. Personally knowing the places he painted I was always amazed with his colourful paintings. It had a profound effect on me and always gave me that ‘wow’ feeling. This developed into something I wanted to pursue as an adult.
Primary school was all about painting and drawing for me. In secondary school I spent most of my time in the art room.
After school I traveled the world as a teenager, and spent some six months in the states with a couple of friends, (1978) along with a multitude of other countries.
Whilst in the states, I met a gentleman by the name of ‘T-shirt bob’ who at the time was struggling to get artwork done for his screen printing business.
This presented an opportunity for me and I worked for him for a while.
During this time I was stunned when I came across two strangers, two men came walking towards me, wearing t-shirts I had designed a couple of weeks earlier.
This experience was the first time I had seen others enjoying something I had created. Shortly after this I came into Australia as a twenty year old.
I arrived in Western Australia and traveled over to Melbourne a year later. There I started my own screen printing business. I enjoyed the design aspect the most and that go me some major events for the local area.
I managed to get some t-shirts as far as South Africa and San Francisco.
The demand and working to a timeline became a stressful but enjoyable experience, although it could take away from the creativity I so enjoyed.
This was successful enough to provide a happy lifestyle for myself and my family for over 25 years. Now that I have decided to end that part of my life, I am able to pursue the core elements of my love of being creative, solely for the enjoyment of a passion I first discovered as a child.
