Using art to tell her story since she was 6 years old has given Clarence Valley artist Minyungbal woman, Ramona Cavanagh the opportunity to live a life of her choosing while at the same time raising her six children. “I have been a professional artist since 2000 however when I was younger I tried to work out how to use my gift to create an income. I started doing conferences and received international recognition and this was fantastic because I am a self taught artists. Knowing my culture and what I could and couldn’t do and what I was permitted to do by lore helped me to translate everyone’s stories so they could have it on there walls. This was achieved by either putting their story into the picture or using colours that would suit the decor of the everyday person. I was approached to represent the saltwater people at the 2000 olympics which gave me an enormous lift and from there little things would come in. From there I ended up working for an organisation called ‘Flying Arts’ who would send me out to remote areas to teach how to story tell visually using murals, mosaics and of course art. I have been to university twice because there was an expectation when you applied for a job you had a piece of paper that said you had an artistic background. My work wasn’t enough, even though I was interested in what they were teaching it took away from the connection of the spirit so the artwork became more structured from the mind rather than the heart. I found that I was losing connection to my own artistic ability so I stopped because all I really needed was better technique to express what I have to say”. Yamba Museum will be hosting an art exhibition by Ramona Cavanagh starting this Friday night, June 10 with the exhibition opening from 6pm and then for three weeks.