Maggie Fletcher
Maggie is passionate about people’s stories, and expresses this in her art and writing. A dual national, Kiwi by birth and an Australian citizen, she has lived in USA, Canada, Sweden and Australia, and followed various career paths, from research librarian with Tasman Pulp and Paper, hairdresser with her own salon on Auckland’s North Shore, and bookseller in Mangawhai, until she moved to Australia in 1996. For several years she lived in the extreme climate of the Central Tablelands of NSW in a stone cabin without power, with kangaroos and wallabies for neighbours, and worked many different jobs from kitchen hand to Parks and Wildlife Ranger and tour guide. There she befriended members of the Australian Post-Modernist art set. This was the catalyst that set her on her art journey.
Maggie went on to study art in Launceston, Tasmania, where she graduated with Dip. Art Craft and Design in 2005, was a finalist in the Australian Tertiary Art Awards then studied Cert. Arts Administration. Maggie has had work shown in several Australia-wide exhibitions, been a Sate finalist numbers of times with Tasmanian Regional Arts touring exhibitions, and with the Australian Society of Miniature Artists has work hanging in several public buildings in Tasmania and has had illustrative work published. For several years she ran creative workshops for rural women impacted by drought and for people with mental health issues and disabilities, and their carers.
She now lives at Baylys beach, and is a member of both Dargaville Arts and Mangawhai Artists Inc. Now that she has returned to New Zealand to be closer to her family she sees her art journey as one that will continue to develop as she explores her life through art.
Contact Maggie by email ruthieduck@gmail.com
