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This exhibition has been very special for me. I was born
in Charters Towers and lived there until I was sixteen.
I returned when I was nineteen and stayed for four years.
There has never been a year when I did not return.
My Mother, Frances Lancaster died
in 2001 and was buried with my Father, Bill Lancaster who
died when I was five in 1959.
My parents are for me the Ultimate
Heavenly Creatures. Painting them has been a joy and a journey
of extreme sadness as I have never painted just them together.
My Aunt Lyall, Matron Gunthorpe has continued to be a great
inspiration and often the catalyst from when and how I begin
my work.
She was wonderful and I do not need
to say any more. Ducksie's painting is nearly always the
first one finished. Her story is so sad . Ducksie has been
a Heavenly Creature from the day the man she loved died.
My thought process for my exhibitions
takes many months. I had many options. I found as usual,
that I needed to follow my heart. In the past I have painted
many Charters Towers stories and personalities but this
time I decided I was too close to home. However, I could
not have an exhibition in Charters Towers and not include
the people I have already mentioned because they are too
important to me.
I then decided to concentrate mostly
on the people and the stories which have affected me from
outside my personal world. And their stories have changed
or influenced my perception of how I should or try to live
my life.
In the exhibition I have tried to
address some issues to which I am strongly adhered. I believe
that stories of fiction and non-fiction influence our lives
every day. Australian history which is so new we can touch
it with our own memories is a continuing aspect of the Australian
psyche.
We have a need to exalt a history
of defeated heroes, flawed personalities and embrace a fondness
for the mischievious, and fallen, tall poppies. After I
decided that Mum, Dad, Auntie and Ducksie came first, I
had to decide which way to think. So the rest of the subjects
found their place through the continuous searching of my
conscience for the souls, victims of injustice, or those
who followed their own true paths and life just wasn't fair.
Therefore I have let Heavenly Creatures
come to me.
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