March 14th, 2023 8:29 pm

Here and There, art exhibition at Queenscliff Gallery

By |2023-03-14T20:29:28+11:00March 14th, 2023|Categories: About, Blog, Creativity|Tags: , , |

Here and There exhibition: paintings, drawings and etchings of Venice by me at Queenscliff Gallery. It's thrilling to be writing this post. To my friends and followers further afield than Melbourne, I will have a virtual tour of the exhibition published on the Queenscliff Gallery (QG) website where you can view the works forming the exhibition and some of my other available artworks. Here and There is a culmination of my recent trip to Venice... to date!

April 24th, 2022 1:38 pm

Report from ISO

By |2022-04-24T21:00:08+10:00April 24th, 2022|Categories: About, Blog, Creativity, Living|Tags: , , , , |

Well, hello, COVID. After all the care, caution and staying in, Omicron finally caught us from no idea where. After all the fear of catching this virus, considering my Inflammasome gene and my chronic health issue, I'm happy to report that I breezed through it! I was abundant with the usual energy that comes to me when social obligation falls away. In addition, the pain levels fell away as they have done with previous colds – can the brain not manage two signals or is a virus some distraction? I went with it. I got stuck into my studio!

October 15th, 2014 11:05 am

Semi Finalist for the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize 2014

By |2017-12-11T13:40:37+11:00October 15th, 2014|Categories: Blog, Creativity|Tags: , |

Very chuffed to be selected as a semi finalist regardless of the outcome. The portrait was flown up to Sydney for a second round of judging. She didn't make the final cut of 30 finalists but I feel so content that Ms Soula is going to great lengths to create awareness for invisible pain.

August 9th, 2014 8:46 am

Cathartic collage, my self portraits

By |2024-01-21T15:26:16+11:00August 9th, 2014|Categories: About, Blog, Creativity|Tags: , |

Collage has been a little more therapeutic for me than my usual art forms. I think it must have been finding a technique that I could manage and one that didn't add to the fatigue and pain. Cutting small pieces of paper and glueing, drawing, attaching was just so light and easy. The painting of small pieces of paper and the careful ripping and tearing was like rocking. So gentle, so calming and at the same time feeling like I was handling my pain, expressing it and getting it out of my body and onto the art piece.

January 4th, 2014 9:31 am

Visual Pursuits book review on Art & Chronic Pain – A Self Portrait

By |2021-02-24T10:32:28+11:00January 4th, 2014|Categories: Advocacy, Creativity|Tags: , , , |

In Art and Chronic Pain – A Self Portrait, artist Soula Mantalvanos shares her experience with chronic pain, which has been a debilitating presence in her life for almost seven years. Soula suffers from Pudendal Neuralgia, a painful nerve condition that developed following an accident where a fit ball that she was sitting on burst, causing her to drop violently to the concrete floor beneath. Early on in the book Soula describes that split-second, and the devastating effects that followed. A highly active yoga-loving woman before the accident, throughout the book Soula gives a deeply personal account of the psychological, emotional and physical impacts of living with chronic pain for so many years. These negative effects were compounded by the fact that her condition Pudendal Neuralgia baffled her doctors, and took four and a half years to even diagnose.

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