First a disclaimer. I know the author. We’re Facebook friends and we’ve even met in unpixellated life. We worked on a common project without knowing each other, and met subsequently. Her coffee is great, and was it pecan pie? Something magnificent. Aotearoa New Zealand is a small country.
So small. Years ago I worked in Rust Ave, Whangarei. I don’t suppose it ever occurred to me that it was named after someone (Alexander Rust) or that his descendant would be the subject of a book that I
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Yvonne Rust, QSM, was more than a painter and a pioneering potter. She had the gift of human connection, so much so, that people invariably felt that she was their special friend, and this made them open to her.
Once a student was open, Rust could create the space for extraordinary learning, and it was in this way that she inspired so many of today's artists, potters, jewellers, architects, theatre directors, arts educators, sculptors, and many other creatives, many of
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“Art is the collective dream of a culture, and when understood as such, makes both all the more sublime, and at the same time, coherent,” says Peter Geekie. “A culture deprived of artistic expression is short-lived. An individual deprived of dreams soon becomes insane.”
Peter Millington, aka Geekie, emigrated from England to Australia in 1964, then to New Zealand in 1966. He qualified as a psychiatric nurse in 1970. His 15 year nursing career included, among many roles, recreation
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In 2004, Michael Rowland and his wife, Jan, abandoned Mt Eden where their lives had been centred for many years, and moved to Oratia on Auckland’s West Coast. For Michael the move constituted a shift to full-time painting, while Jan, who worked as a primary school teacher, supported him, and continues to provide the emotional sustenance supplied by a muse. Rowland hasn’t looked back, though he notes ruefully that as a painter, an earlier era might have been more financially rewarding.
“I
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Yvonne Rust, QSM - An introduction - New Zealand's influential pioneering potter, artist, arts teacher, with an unmatched gift for inspiring motivation.
Yvonne Rust, QSM, was born in 1922 in Whangarei while her parents were living at Awarua in Northland, where her father had a few weeks earlier been posted as the native school headmaster.
Yvonne Rust Early Years
When Yvonne was six, her father, Gordon, was posted to Te Hapua, the northernmost community in New Zealand, as the headmaster
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