Welcome to my online Home,

I hope to keep up with the things I start, make up for the stuff I have forgotten, break bread with new friends, get a picture of what is going on in other lands, and link with other like minds.

For those that I have not introduced myself to personally, or to those whom I have met with one hat on and not the other, I would like to come clean and put it out there that I wear a bunch of hats.

I like to describe myself as having an “Art’s Bent” that permeates all my passions, projects and professions.





Music

I am a singer songwriter, with 4 cds to date. a member of two bands, and collaborator on others' musical projects. I am also a music facilitator, making music happen in my own and others' communities.  Quirky instruments have a place in my heart, and I follow the Muse wherever it leads me.



Current Arts/Music Projects

At present, I am the owner/manager of Tasma House and Gardens, an exclusive group facility that accommodates people and events in a beautiful country town called Daylesford, a little over an hour north of Melbourne, Australia. 

Apart from hosting and facilitating my own events here, Hirers of the facility have held events like Writing/Arts/Music/Song writing/Meditation retreats, as well as weddings, gatherings and significant birthdays.  Every weekend brings together people from all over the world, for different reasons, to share in a beautiful landscape with a “ familiar, like home” environment. At times, I get to play in my own backyard for these events.

I am playing live locally in a Hypnotic Gritty Mississippi Blues Trio called “Shotgun Shack”, and in an Appalachian infused roots act called “Table Hill”. 

I also very much enjoy playing and performing with other local Musicians, like Geoffrey Williams, Cyndi Boste, Richard and Michelle Pleasance, to make more than the sum of our parts.


Past Projects


In the past I have dabbled with combining building, business, arts, and food.  Some of my more memorable projects are:

Fat Bob's Cafe, and Chubbie’s Restaurant and Music House in the 1980’s. Both were dedicated to having live music every night.

Wingspan Artworks in the 1990’s to 2000’s, was a craft based manufacturing/wholesaling business that made butterflies that were sold all over the world, but still all made by hand, employing a bunch of talented people.

The Town Hall Community Centre in Moonee Ponds, was the only “real” job I ever had, where I was employed for 6 years in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. I began as an activities coordinator, and developed the position as I went along to eventually manage training programs for retrenched workers, using the Arts as a medium for change in their lives.

Tasma House and Gardens of Daylesford restoration, renovation and reinvention 1998 - 2000, undertaken as the owner/builder.

Azidene House and Gardens of daylesford restoration, renovation and reinvention 2000-2002, undertaken as the owner/builder. [now sold]

Trentham historic bakery and Scotch oven restoration, renovation and reinvention 2003-2005, undertaken as the owner/builder. I still own the buildings, and the bakery is now leased to the Reid Brothers and known as "Redbeard."