Tootgarook sculptor Dan Thornell has always been a hands-on person, so sculpture was the natural choice when he pivoted to art. A boilermaker by trade, Dan is familiar with how to bend metal to his will. Whether he’s making ribbons of steel representing the sea and sky, carving wooden objects or making furniture, Dan has his hands on art.
For Frankston local Steven Gallop, opera was never part of his grand plan. His singing journey began with school musicals in Brisbane, followed by amateur choruses in Queensland, but it wasn’t until in his mid-20s that singing began to take centre stage.
Mt Martha mum of three, Dayna Fallon, is taking to the stage with a one-woman show at this year’s Melbourne Fringe Festival. The show is centred on a poem she wrote, titled The Manager is Me, and explores invisible labour, caregiving, and the art of keeping it together when it feels like everything is falling apart.
By day, Mark Harvey’s hands are wrapped around the wheel of a truck and trailer, hauling products from quarries from near and far back to Dromana. By night, back home in Hastings, those same hands are bending old spoons and forks into rings, bangles and pendants under the business name Spoontanious.
A local couple’s travelling bookstore has quickly grown into a series of literary events, bringing together the community to gather around books. Bookneck was started in June by Carolyn Watson and David Moore, who began their careers as writers.
Following her first shoot with a mermaid at Rosebud beach, mother, registered nurse and underwater fine art photographer Jaye Selga was obsessed. That obsession grew into a distinct visual language built on breath-hold, fabric, movement and natural light, with portraits that sit somewhere between photography and painting.
Frankston portrait artist, Lorna Wheele of Pop-Up Pawtraits captures the essence of her subjects in just ten minutes. Even more impressive, she does it in the vibrant atmosphere of an outdoor market. The clients who commission Lorna routinely comment on how accurately she conveys the unique personality of their dog, cat or the occasional chicken.
In eighteenth-century Venice, a young girl did something almost unthinkable: she spoke out about sexual abuse. Against the odds, her testimony resulted in a landmark legal victory that challenged the conventions of the day. Centuries later, this extraordinary true story inspired Christine Balint’s fourth novel, A Single Witness.
The Peninsula Light Operatic Society, as it was first known, was born in 1962. Today, the name has changed, the venues have changed, and the repertoire has evolved dramatically, but the DNA remains the same: talented people from across Melbourne and the peninsula, working together to put something extraordinary on stage.