The First Job 68'

I've got to get hold of a suit, my second appointment with Revlon will determine if I will get a job, I have to do a make-up for the Directors and I don't have a suit to wear.
 
 The last 5 years have been so hard, I had packed my bags at 17 from my home in a small country Town in mid NSW to find my fortune in the City. Two years at Art School taught me little of the craft I was so hungry to learn, there were no Masters there, the teachers were mostly frustrated Pop Artists, I wanted to paint like Dali and the great Painters of the renaissance, within a year I knew there was nobody to teach me these techniques so my days were spent drinking and discovering drugs. I had managed to obtain  numerous jobs in Men's clothing stores and there had begun to acquire a taste for elegance and fashion. Everything fascinated me, Art, Fashion, Music, Theatre, it was the 60's, a new beginning, a time of  experimentation.
 
 I found the suit, dolled myself up and headed to the head offices of Revlon Australia. my model was their top Cosmetic Consultant, Revlon not only wanted a great make-up but they wanted to know how it felt going on. I was so nervous but they loved it and asked me to call back in few days.
 
 The allotted time had passed and I called Revlon, I was told that they wanted to employ me and would set a contract up for me to begin working in the next few months, I decided to throw caution to the wind (I was practically starving) and said if they were not prepared to employ me immediately I would approach Elizabeth Arden. They took the bait and said to begin work on the following Monday. At last a job which would employ my artistic skills.
 
 The next year took me around Australia to every major City where I found myself working in department stores. This was my foundation, my training as a make-up artist, I made up the public and every shape face imaginable was my canvas.
 
 The most amazing experience that has never left me was a young girl who scouted the Revlon counter in Adelaide, I first saw her in profile, a pretty girl with long dark hair but as she turned she revealed a birthmark that covered half her face. I called her over and asked her if she would like a makeup, she seemed to be in a daze but I grabbed her quickly and put her in my chair. For the next hour and a half I worked to conceal this purple map on her face, then as it started to disappear I proceeded to make-up her eyes and lips. I handed her a mirror and will never forget the look on her face as she saw herself for the first time without that mark, her eyes welled with moisture and she thanked me. As she left the counter I had to hold back the tears, I could see she never knew her own beauty and for the first time I understood that what I did was not just for vanity.

Glossy Magazine 71'
 
 Robyn Batey approached me sometime in 1971 about a new magazine that was starting up, she thought that I would be the right person for the job as a Photographic/Fashion Editor. A friend of hers Helen Boyd was setting up the magazine, I wasn't doing much and thought why not give it a try.
 
 Helen Boyd and I were instantly in harmony, I was a long haired hippy and she looked quite corporate. still there was a wonderful understanding shared, she was very warm and I felt that we could work together. There was a little madness there which was part of attraction.
 
 Glossy, a pun on all the glossy magazines was doomed from the beginning. Helen wanted to break new ground, she was years ahead of her time and refused to have the magazine farmed out for printing. I asked her about distribution and she said that we would do it ourselves.
 
 Guy Fields was hired to do the printing and within a week he flipped out and attacked the printing machine with an axe and threatened to do the same to Helen. Here we go I thought to myself, another crazy but I was to find out that poor Guy had a metabolic cellular imbalance which caused his personality to be schizophrenic.
 
 I worked hard on that first issue, Paul Muller was on the cover, nude except for a skull of a bull between his legs. Helen and I drove around the City late at night with a pile of cover posters and a bucket of glue, we posted them on every wall and telegraph pole we could find. With Paul nude on the poster saying Glossy is Coming caused a stir, people ripped them off for their collections or because of moral reasons, it was the first nude male to appear on a cover of an Australian magazine.
 
 The fashion images were all dressed in retro cloths and were shot in an unconventional way, through fish eye lenses and everything was in Black and White. We couldn't afford colour and the Black and White images represented a unique style in publications of that time.
 
 Sarah Grant and other well known models, were happy to be part of this new approach to fashion and Grant Mudford, Brett Hilder, Jon Waddy and Trevor Kyle were happy to have a magazine that was so nonconformist to exhibit their work in without any fees for their effort.