Mayor James Dooley, Frankston City Council, Frankston Arts Board, Andrew Moon – Manager of Arts & Culture, Councillors.  What an exciting moment it is, to see The Bonfire, all lit up and larger than life here in Frankston.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Andrew Moon, Manager of Arts and Culture, for noticing and considering my work for such a wonderful project.  I feel quite honoured to be the first artist selected for this ongoing external exhibition that has now become a feature of the Frankston Arts Centre. 

I generally work to very large scales but I must admit that this was the first time I’d been asked to make a work even larger than the original.  The actual painting is 4 mts x 6 mts, a quadriptych… so in order to create this large scale image, very high resolution images of each section had to be taken and digitally stitched together.

And here I thank Darryl Whitaker, my good friend and professional photographer who took on that crucial role.

Darryl is here to celebrate with us tonight, along with his wife Karen Whitaker-Taylor, Cultural Development Officer at the Baw Baw Shire Council.  Also my husband Chris and our very dear friends and great supporters Gail and Neil.

Many years ago, when I was ‘5’, my parents built a house only ten minutes away from here in Corowa Place… my father had a painting studio upstairs and one of my most vivid memories of that period was when I was caught finger painting in one of the beautiful wet oils that he had nearly finished.  But I survived… and here I am today, nearly in the same spot, and still making my mark in paint…  

Thank you again to Andrew Moon, the Frankston Arts Board and the City of Frankston.