On Feb 7^th 2009 my world changed forever.  Little did I know when I woke up that morning
what was laying in wait and how my comfortable world would no longer
exist.  I loved my life which consisted
of running my Healesville bed and breakfast, enjoying my family and painting
portraits of my beautiful granddaughters.
I loved having mother daughter days with my mum and sister and the
quality days with my amazing friends.
Life sure was grand.

By the end of the day I had lost my mother and brother to
the Victorian Black Saturday Bush Fires.
Ten days later we buried my brother and after his service we took our first
trip back to what was the devastation of the Strathewen community and my mother’s
property.  On Black Saturday 27 people
died in Strathewen and my brother’s funeral was the 1^st of many
funerals I attended the last being my mothers two and half months after the
fires.

In the past three years I have learnt that in extreme times
the basic instinct is to either go into fight or flight and I now know I am a
fighter.  I lost the fight to save my
business and keep my home as a consequence of the fires.  My pain was great but I did not give up and
thanks to the love and support of many was able to put paint to paper and the
series.  “Once upon a time” was born.

I breathed the pain day and night.  I turned the destruction in to beautiful
images and 18 paintings emerged of the wildlife that existed in my mother’s
garden before the fires took it all.  I
used the pain of the last conversation with mum where I told her I was coming
to get her and how much we loved her and I was nearly there as I drove from
Healesville to Strathewen only to stand a the Strathewen hall and watch as
Strathewen was consumed by a monster so fearful I could not comprehend.

I am so grateful to “Once upon a time”. It may only be
paper, watercolour and gouche but for me it is relief and a lesson that I am
not be able to change what happened but I can embrace what is yet to come and
instead of fearing the last conversation with mum I can be grateful that I was
connected to her until the end.  Even to
the end she was fearless, unafraid and chose her destiny.  I am so blessed to be her daughter and for me
“Once upon a time” is like the phoenix from the ashes of Black Saturday.

Mississippi Shakedown is a Band with a minimum
of FUSS and a maximum of EFFECT.

A 4-piece unit led by Blues charged SLIDE GUITAR, with a “Don’t
Bore Us, Get to the Chorus” attitude! With influence from the deep south, these
guys have heart. This band was not created to play in a restaurant.

Fronted by Mississippi Jeff Cripps, three times Australian Blues Music
Awards: Producer Of The Year on slide guitar and vocals, with Wayne Leffler on
Mandolin, Harp, Guitar and Vocals, the Band is driven by John Gannon on bass
with Derek Smith on drums in the engine room!!

With GRAND performances
at the Goulburn, Thredbo, Launceston, Newcastle, Forth Valley, Junee, Gosford,
Davistown and Sydney Blues Festivals, and hundreds of gigs in Sydney, Perth,
Tasmania, Canberra and the East Coast, it has been proven without a shadow of a
doubt, Mississippi Shakedown never fails to please an audience, whether it be an
audience of Blues Aficionados, or Joe Public…

Mississippi Shakedown is the REAL DEAL!!!

http://www.mississippishakedown.com.au/