The first word that came to mind when I was painting this kohatu was mangopare – the hammerhead shark. A symbol of strength and tenacity. Just as I had finished putting the final touches to this kohatu, I received a phone call from Todd with some sad news. I have no words at this time […]

I hold the earth in the palm of my hand. I am 100% responsible for my actions. I take responsibility for myself, to treat myself with respect and love. I take responsibility to care for the earth. I have the ability to bring about change. Change begins with me – right now. Arohanui, Jo x

Don’t you just love a bloody good laugh! You know that deep belly laugh that hurts your puku and you just can’t stop laughing for ages! Now I’m not going to tell you what we were laughing about tonight (it’s a surprise and you’ll hear about it in a book later!) but oh my goodness […]

We’ve had heaps of birds around lately including the tui who are out in full force – I was delighted the other day to see a tui land on our harakeke plant to eat the kōrari (flax flowers) and that was after it had a feed on the neighbours kōwhai tree – my goodness! There […]

I started painting this rock today and then I said to myself, stuff it, I’m going to paint this rock with my right hand! And so I carried on, painfully at times lol painting this rock with my right hand. I’m left-handed, but there are sports that I can play right-handed such as golf. And […]

When I think of red and yellow I remember my assignments I used to do in primary school. Yellow borders of koru and wriggly squiggles surrounding words telling stories that I can’t remember. But I remember the colour and the patterns. When I think of red and yellow I remember the waiata (song) – red […]