Bio - Behind The Art

I was born into a large Italian family, my parents migrating to Australia in search of opportunity and a better way of life.  Born in Melbourne, I spent my youth immersed in drawing, ink rendering and painting. 

I aspired to go to university to study commercial art and turn my hobby into a career that I now knew I would love. Unfortunately family pressure deemed this an unfit path for an Italian girl of my standing.  So instead I was led into a career in hairdressing as an appropriate path that would lead to marriage, security and raising a family.

And so it did! My creative desire not forgotten but placed on hold.

Now with my husband, we created two beautiful children. My son was born when I was thirty years old and my daughter arrived three years later. It was fulfilling in so many ways and every time I look at my beautiful children I am reminded that, “This is the ultimate act of creation”. 


An Interest Evolves

Even so, lurking in the background remained the desire to explore the other creative side in me placed on hold years earlier. So I dabbled here and there creating with needlepoint and other crafts before undertaking night classes titled, Exploring text with ink”. So now I began again to walk a path of my choice and life was at its most rewarding in all aspects.


Continuing with night classes in other mediums and when my children started school, I began work in a local art shop that ran classes by professional artists. I did whatever I could to immerse myself in art but it never felt enough. I knew that my confidence in life drawing was lacking and if I wanted to continue this path, then mastering the physical form was necessary.

Appropriate Pathways

So I undertook a certificate course in illustration.  After twenty years of self guidance and aspiration my first formal class had begun.  The first day was a class on rendering. I could barely sit still as inside I was bubbling with joy, so overwhelmed knowing that I had finally reached the day of sitting in a college course for the arts.

The next year I signed up for the Two Year Diploma. I was fortunate to receive a scholarship for the first year and, with the support of my supervisor, who saw my potential, I was encouraged to continue.

At this time my husband and I were parting ways, so now I was doing a full time course as a single mother. After graduating, the journey on my chosen path was disrupted yet again as I began working full time to provide for the family, making it hard to find the time to promote myself as an artist. However, I managed to obtain the odd commission here and there.

A Spiritual Understanding

Meanwhile a different path called me & I started practicing yoga with teachers who shared the deeper knowledge and wisdoms of yoga. My interest in yoga thus stimulated continued and I gravitated towards a yoga school where I started a regular practice.  

There I found a place where I could ask the difficult questions and obtain answers on a spiritual level.I graduated as a yoga teacher in 2005.

This is when my art world turned from commercial work to images presented to me in my quiet times of meditation and in my dreams.  As I was discovering myself through my yoga, these images were representing my struggles in my own personal development. These were to become my inspirations.

The Future

Now I move straight to my canvas without preparation and transport those images, allowing them to evolve and take form.

These are the introductory Images depicting my journey to date. I still enjoy illustration and would love to continue work in that field. I trust that will manifest if need be.

In the meantime I will keep projecting onto canvas what my inner world
wants to express. 

Mary Caia.