Your occupation, job title, artistic discipline (or very brief description of what you do):

I work in the mental health sector as a clinical arts therapist. Arts therapists are trained in the use of creative processes (drawing, writing, sculpting, clay) to find new pathways to healing and improving mental wellbeing.  Non verbal expression can be key for some people when words are hard to find.

Mostly I work with young people and adults who have mental health challenges caused by difficult life events. I also work with creatives who are stuck and are unable to identify or dismantle the blocks keeping them from their creative expression.

What cities/towns have you lived in (or spent more than a few months in) beginning with the place of your birth?

Born in Tauranga, to Palmerston North for tertiary study, then London, Chicago for more study, Laingholm (West Auckland), and back to Tauranga – full circle!

What’s your favourite Bay of Plenty landscape, park, building, location, suburb, or side street? Why?

The ocean – ideally with the sun lighting up the water and Mauao in the view somehow.

 

What’s an average day in your life at present?  

An average-ish day would be an early beach walk, grabbing an excellent coffee from one of my 3 favourite places (Kindred, Folk, Lloyds), then onto my day working with clients, trying to get in a (quick) ocean swim at some stage if I can swing it.

What music was present and still memorable from your youth/adolescence? 

There was one radio station in Tauranga growing up so access to music was pretty limited as evidenced by my first ever, quite memorable LP –  The Partridge Family! But by high school I’d had my horizons broadened and I clearly remember thrashing Stevie Wonder – Innervisions & David Bowie – Young Americans.  Evidence that change is possible!

For you as a creative person, who are three influential artists or thinkers?  

This is such a hard question to limit. But right now in the world what is on my mind is art that promotes tolerance and resistance to all forms of dehumanisation. So, Jane Campion – her inquiry and interest in people’s inner worlds and her restraint and precision with cinematic form always blows my mind. Her first 3 short films (particularly “Passionless Moments”) have stayed with me over the years. Janet Frame – “Owls Do Cry” taught me about the lived experience of mental distress so poetically and with such tenderness. It really fostered empathy and compassion at a time in our past when poor mental health was very misunderstood and stigmatised. And the music and political resistance of Nina Simone is so courageous to me. At her best she was an eloquent and defiant truth teller in her music – refusing to stay quiet about the evils of slavery, segregation and racism.

If you went away from the Bay of Plenty for a long time and then came back, what are the first three things you would do or visit?  

Run into the ocean, walk around Mauao (if possible), and visit one of my 3 favourite places for the best coffee anywhere.

Looking back at your teen-age self: what one sentence describes that person?

Outspoken, hot mess, gender norm defiant, both bewitched and saved by the arts.

In one sentence, can you define creativity?

Creativity enlivens and is an antidote to hopelessness – it contacts our life force, or mauri, and offers possibility for seeing ourselves, seeing others and speaking to our shared humanity.

Where would you like to live, but have yet to?

Many places but this week, sunny Spain, probably Barcelona.

What word of advice would you offer an aspiring creative person? 

Be curious about your blocks, see what they might have to offer and surround yourself with people who completely back you.

Has there been a particular moment where you surprised yourself by using creativity to solve, express, or connect?

Last year I started a singing group for women in recovery from trauma. The extent of the change that was possible for most participants (many of whom have never been able to join a public group) in just 4 weeks was something of a surprise to me. And I have been working in this field for 13 years. It was quite profound and a real privilege to be part of.

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