‘I’m on the hunt for awesome beauty. In nature it’s everywhere of course, but mankind is also ingenious with creativity. Well-designed gardens have aesthetic appeal, but a quirky garden with a crazy collection of plants and tchotchkes can be fun. There you’ll find beauty in the owner’s heart.
Somehow this journey, with kinks and chasms and clifftop vistas, has lead me to become a photojournalist. I get to photograph and write about some of the most beautiful gardens in Australia and overseas. Funny, because I thought I’d just be a painter, but now I’m illustrating with words and photos. One day I’ll paint canvases again, but just now I enjoy sharing stories through print media, through my blog and Instagram ‘Our Australian Gardens’, which is a pretty amazing way to connect with people all over the world.
In my ideal world:
- TV news coverage gives as much (or more) emphasis to the arts (architecture, landscape design, music, sculpture, installation, painting, theatre, dance, performance,) as it does to sport. Imagine that.
- Every resident takes pride in how their property appears from the road. (Tall, solid unfriendly front fences would be discouraged unless along freeways) When out walking you get to see your neighbour’s gardens and say hello if they’re about.
- Brisbane summer temperatures are reduced because every street is lined with trees, as are many in Buenos Aires and Barcelona, and in other stunning cities.
- Brisbane City Council employs dozens more qualified horticulturists and arborists.
- No child suffers from Nature Deficit Syndrome because parents aren’t obsessed with having a ‘low maintenance garden’ – they actually dig gardening.
- When some kids are asked what they want to be when they grow up they reply: ‘a gardener’, because it’s a well-regarded, professional and honourable job. (Just like in the UK and Europe.
Brisbane too is a wonderful city. We have passionate home gardeners, excellent designers, and a handful of lovely public gardens including Roma Street Parklands and two Botanic Gardens. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if visitors were drawn to Brisbane because, as well as gardens, our civic landscaping was so awesomely beautiful?’
