February 1967, Bonegilla Migrant Camp: the dawn of my first day as a newly-arrived immigrant to Australia. I awake to the vibrancy of Australian birdsong, and immediately feel all my senses come alive. I reach for my sketchbook and my pen dances over the page, recording, exploring.
For over fifty years self-portraiture has formed a ground for self-enquiry, a way of making sense of my displaced presence such a world away from my North-African roots.
Since establishing a studio in the Noosa Hinterland I feel a re-awakening of my initial feelings of vibrancy and aliveness in the natural world, a sense of connectedness and mutual holding which has found it’s way into my art.