I am in such an exciting time of my life (aged 71) as I welcome my next business venture.
Art and dance have been my signature passions for the last thirty or so years, and I am extremely lucky to be able to marry the two together. One of my biggest thrills is painting dancers in action. Once a painting is completed—usually within two songs—I then get to dance as well, albeit covered in paint!
Yes, it’s hard to believe how I can capture moving dancers, but it’s the essence that I manage to convey in that fleeting moment—the joy and bliss I also know as a dancer—that I am able to translate onto the canvas. I have never had a formal art lesson in my life, so what I create is raw and unfiltered.
Another exciting series I love to paint is nightclub scenes. These are my fantasies of the clubs I never attended when I was younger. I’m somewhat of a late bloomer, but I now have the privilege of dancing Brazilian Forró here in Sydney, as well as on my recent trip to Brazil.
I also love painting Burlesque and have returned to my desire to paint live at classical concerts—especially with one particular artist, Abel Selaocoe. He is South African, with a passion that equals mine, and that combination would be amazing.
Now, back to the story of my latest venture: Ink & Ora.
For the last two years, I explored my art on clothing under the name Pink Caramel, which was both exciting and fulfilling. However, when my manufacturer closed down, I had to take a break.
I thought, “Well, that’s the end of that career,” until a friend visited me recently. She is an organiser for some of the top homes in Sydney, and over lunch she spotted my own vibrant laptop bag made by my previous manufacturer.
It was then that the penny dropped—this would be my next venture! She herself had been searching for months for a suitable laptop bag and had resorted to keeping her laptop in a blanket.
And so, Ink & Ora was born, with its first product: a vibrant range of laptop bags.
The second product I have added are my books. Written over the space of many years, they cover the hard topic of Eating Disorders in the book Emotional Fat. My journeys across various countries and my training with Hawaiian Kahunas in the book Naked Soul. My adventures with a film company in Romania in Puppets on Strings. And finally my journey with a Kitchen Therapist in the book Finding my Delicious.
And another win is that i have been nominated as a script writer for New Media Film Festival 3rd June 2026