From Vanlife to Book Launch

As the months quickly disappear and my book becomes a reality, I am reflecting on the incredible past few years of my life, and the life of 'Watercolour Paper.'

This, my first self-published book, began as a dreamy notion when my husband and I set off with our five boys on a caravan adventure around Australia at the start of 2022. I was already a portrait and fashion photographer (mostly as a hobby, with dreams of making it my career) and as we travelled I started a conversation with the wonderful staff at Morgan Printing to find out if it would be viable to self-publish a book of travel photography and possibly poetry. A coffee table book!

This conversation lasted (on and off) for nearly two years(!) as I changed my ideas and evolved as an artist and personally as a mother. I went from throwing in ideas of travel photography, to ghost towns of Australia, to rural architecture, to a colour-themed photo essay, and finally to expressing my journey of motherhood. 

I'm so thankful for the patience of Tony at Morgan Printing, to believe in my ideas and not rush me through the process. I believe that the timeline had to be this long for me to understand what my heart and soul truly wanted to convey.

When we had travelled from Adelaide up to Far North Queensland and back again, across to Western Australia and then back along the Great Australian Bite, through South Australia, The Limestone Coast and Great Ocean Road and down to Tasmania, we decided to settle in Southeast Tasmania and build a life for our five boys close to my extended family.

For me, our time on the road had always (partly) been about re-discovering my creativity and experiencing different scenes and oceans and smells and breathing in pure air and being enveloped in intensely beautiful sunsets and feeling and thinking in new ways, connecting back in to nature as a family.

I had hoped to be lit by a spark of passion and creativity and to bank all of these memories so that when I came to create again I would have a whole ocean of ideas to pull from. I truly believe that although our travel was harder than we anticipated, it did indeed inspire me in ways that I can't explain, but I can now express through poems and photos. 

The crunch of pure white sand, the sound of the beating ocean at night, the kangaroos hopping along with our car, the mud and the red earth and the rock faces, the rugged coast, the tiny wildflowers, the pearl of the shells, the cliffs and the campfires and the stories and the sun. It all weaves into my creative practice.

Now, two and a half years after we left our home to pursue adventure, I have come to the place where my book is nearing it's launch and my career as a creative is beginning. I feel like my whole life has lead to this moment in time. All my insecurities, passionate creative outbursts, dark days, resilience, frustration at the slowness of time, have all lead to where I am now and I am so content. 

I am content to accept my past and to look forward to my future. I am content to learn from my mistakes and to share these through creative expression so that other women can know that they aren't alone in their journeys. I am content to lean in to the sisterhood of mothers and to walk forward together.

From vanlife to book launch...

...here I come!