About
Janelle
Welcome to a little window into how I see the world. Full of interesting creatures, adventures, mysteries and complexity. It may seem a bit odd to have children’s books, artworks and corporate books all together. That’s just how I roll. I work in mainstream corporate and spend too many nights to count working with IT teams rolling out new features and applications. But my passion is creating ... well anything.
​
I have never walked the easy normal path. I have no driveway to my home, you have to have a boat to visit. If you are lucky you will catch me out on the open roads with Puggles and Rose on the back of my motorbike. And you’re just as likely to find a laptop in my hands as a paintbrush.
The children’s book/s (more in the pipeline) is from the adventures I have had with my most awesome mates, my dogs. They remind me every day to laugh and play. With 15kg of love running full tilt into you what are you expected to do except sit down and play tug-a-war?
​
The grown-up books Working and Leading bloomed out of a mate having challenges with his team, years of leading teams and mentoring new leaders, and spearheading a Digital Workplace team as hybrid ways of working became the norm. It is the blooming of workplace style for introverts (finally!) but comes with a whole new challenge of different ways to work. Noticing that I was teaching over and over core digital literacy core competencies I decided to shake the training up and challenged myself to create a reflective educational journal, like I have never seen on the shelves. Enjoy writing your destiny into existence as much as I enjoyed creating the book for you.
The Art
My art is a zoo. It does not matter where you turn, animals are always watching us with curious sideward glances. I love capturing the funny moments that animals present to us. The goofy expressions, the touching, the intimate moments and the awkward tangles.
Growing up in Queensland I was lucky enough to spend many hours lost in the rainforests of the Bunya Mountains. Down by the creek racing leaf boats over the waterfalls where I would boil noodles in my billy can. Coming home with cuts and scratches from running my motorbike into another tree stump, but I was never alone. The soaring wedgetail eagles, the wallabies and even snakes were always with me in my hours of play. Now I am woken by the kookaburras laughing, Goannas so large they would not fit on a canvas and lyrebirds strolling across the grass. What better inspiration?
For me, the happiest moments are to see the smiles and giggles on people's faces as they are surrounded by colour and animals being, well animals.
You may be wondering why so colourful? Many artists have inspired me but the two who stand out are Albert Namatjira - who through his breathtaking watercolours of Australian landscapes showed me the blues, pinks and reds of this land which you see in a glimpse as the light changes. What was green can turn pink in the space of heartbeats. The second is Gina Davey – an incredible artist from Queensland who’s blue and orange elephant in “Kicking up the Dust” inspires me to see the shadows and light over the colour of the animal and to play with motion.
Simply enjoy.