The planners of this project appreciate it is not possible, for reasons of space, to include in a publication every one of the “wonderful women” who have contributed so much to the artistic life of Western Australia. For this reason we are compiling a supplementary list of artists to be included on the website – this list can be added to and brought up-to-date as relevant.  See the News Page for details of how to submit suggestions for this 'Wonderful Women' section.

CECILIA MAY KELLY (nee GIBBS) MBE (1877 – 1969)
Illustrator and writer

May Gibbs would have to be Australia's most loved story-teller and illustrator of children's books. Her famous gum-nut babies Snugglepot and Cuddlepie and their adventures in the Australian bush have captivated many generations of children. While these wonderful stories were created from her home 'Nutcote' in Neutral Bay, Sydney, it was during her formative years in Western Australia that her precocious talent was nurtured, and where it is believed she first gained inspiration for her gumnut stories.

May (nicknamed Mamie) was born on 17 January 1877 at Sydenham, Kent in England. Her father Herbert William Gibbs and mother Cecilia May Rogers had met as art students at the Slade School of art in London. Herbert's real interest was to work on the land and with his brother George, set sail for South Australia in 1881 to begin farming. Cecilia, their son Bertie and May followed later in the year. The farming venture failed and in 1887 the family moved to Harvey in Western Australia to try their luck again. This didn't work either, so they moved to Perth. The family lived in Claremont for a time then finally settled in South Perth. At various times May would visit her uncle's Harvey farm taking her sketching materials with her.

For a time May was educated at Amy Best's girls' school in Perth. However it would have been the home environment that encouraged her artistic talents. Both parents were actively involved in Perth's cultural scene, with her father establishing a reputation as a cartoonist, painter and watercolourist. He was one of the founders, together with Margaret Forrest and other luminaries such as Henry Prinsep and George Temple Poole, of the Wilgie Club (est. 1889). The club was subsequently replaced in 1896 by the WA Society of Arts and Crafts. In 1890, at thirteen years of age, May exhibited her work for the first time with the Wilgie Club. Her Western Australian works were mostly portraits of family and friends, landscapes and flower studies. She also created humorous postcards and cartoons painted and sketched in a variety of mediums.

In 1901 May embarked on the first of three trips to England to further her art.  She attended a number of art schools including the Henry Blackburn Schoo lof Black and White Art.  On her return to WA, she gained employment as an illustrator for the Western Mail.  She also wrote articles and, like her father, enjoyed drawing political cartoons using the pseudonym 'Blob'.  She returned to England in 1909 where she undertook further studies and worked as an illustrator for George G. Harrap & Co.  In 1912 she published a story titled About Us that was based on London chimneys, and produced cartoons for the Common Cause, a suffragette publication.

In 1913 ill health forced May to return to Australia.  She settled at Neutral Bay in Sydney and found employment as an illustrator.  In 1916 the first of her Gumnut books was published,with the immensely successful Snugglepot and Cuddlepie being published in 1918.  Never was the Australian bush with its unique animals and flowers so delightfully and imaginatively captured.  Generations of children would delight in the fairytale world of the gumnut babies, whose little nut-beds could well have been based on Western Australia's Marri tree with its large gumnuts and creamy yellow blossoms.

On a trip to Perth in 1919, May met and married mining agent Bertram James Ossoli Kelly.  The couple returned to Sydney where they built their home 'Nutcote' and May continued her career as an author and illustrator.  Her succerssful long-running cartoon strip 'Bib and Bub' was first published in the Sydney newspaper the Sunday News  in 1924.  In 1955 she was awarded an MBE for her services to Australian literature.

May's marriage had been childless, and when she died a widow in 1969, she willed everything to specific societies and organisations that cared for children.  'Nutcote' was bought by the North Sydney Council in 1990 and the Nutcote Trust formed to operate the house as the May Gibbs Museum.  Many Western Australians made donations to help with the restoration of the house and gardens.  In 2000 the City of South Perth bought the Shand Collection of works that May had produced during her time in Western Australia.  These, together with works by her father, are kept at Heritage House in South Perth.

 Sources:

Australian Dictionary of Biography

Kerr, Joan (ed) Heritage: The National Women's Art Book, Craftsman House, NSW, 1995.

 

PARROTT, Chrissie (1953-)  - dancer, choreographer, artistic director, visual artist

Chrissie Parrott's inventive productions put Western Australia at the forefront of Australian contemporary dance in the 1990s.  She continues to chart new territory by mixing ballet and contemporary dance with contemporary music, the visual arts and technology.  Her choreographic repertoire includes over 80 works for dance, theatre, film and multimedia companies.

Born in Yorkshire, England in 1953 Chrissie arrived in WA at age 10.  She studied ballet with Kira Bousloff and joined the West Australian Ballet, aged 19.  Her first work, Like Hiroshima: Just Another Fallout (1976) won a choreographic fellowship providing a grant to study in Sydney at the Choreo Centre and dance with One Extra Dance Company.

Returning to West Australian Ballet, it was dancing in Leigh Warren's Set Point Love Match in 1977 that confirmed her desire to switch to contemporary dance work.  "I thought, 'this is what I want to do.  I don't want to wear pointe shoes and tutus anymore'." (1)

It took a while to cut her strings to ballet.  Chrissie choreographed the acclaimed Catherine's Wedding (1978), a humerous work for the West Australian Ballet which was also performed at the Sydney Opera House and staged Galah at the Vic (1979) before immersing herself in contemporary dance in France, Germany and Sweden.

Returning to WA in 1986 with her husband, dancer Stefan Karlsson, and their infant son Griffeth, Chrissie set up Dance Collective as a 'pick up company' of freelance dancers to perform Earthworks (1987).  In 1988 she lectured in contemporary dance at the WA Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA), choreographed for 2 Dance Plus, WA Ballet and created and danced in her solo Recycling of a Suburban Angel.

By 1988 Chrissie was a major force in Australian dance, staging Mirror Coda at The Quarry Amphitheatre, Blackbird and Invisible Choirs for WA Ballet and dancing in Sydney as Desdemona opposite Kim Walker in One Extra's Othello, where she was also Assistant Director.  In 1990 she established the Chrissie Parrott Dance Collective (CPDC) and was Associate Choreographer in Barry Moreland's WA Ballet.

Chrissie's partnerships with composers/musicians David Pye and Cathie Travers and designer Andrew Carter delivered consistently high artistic quality and innovation.  CPDC arguably had the strongest, most creative ensemble of dancers of any Australian contemporary dance company.  It won the Sidney Myer Group Award in 1992.

Renamed the Chrissie Parrott Dance Company in 1993, Chrissie continued to choreograph for her company and for major and regional companies around Australia.  CPDC toured many Australian cities, performed in Japan and Korea and held a residency in Indonesia. In 1996 CPDC was wound up and Chrissie took up a Department for the Arts Research Fellowship, spending time at WAAPA and at MEDIALAB in Paris, pursuing her interest in computer technology programs associated with the choreographic process.

In 2001 she held the position of Senior Research Fellow at WAAPA where she founded and directed LINK graduate dance company.  She concurrently held the position of Adjunct Professor at Queensland University of Technology, teaching technology units to dance students.

Chrissie choreograophed Coppelia (1998, 2007) for the WA Ballet, which was filmed for ABC television in 2000, and A Midsummer Night's Dream (2006) which won the WA Dance Award for Outstanding Choreography.

In 2004 Chrissie formed Jambird with composer Jonathan Mustard, creating hybrid and multimedia works.  Productions included cyg.net dis-patch (2004), Barocoda and Metadance in Resonant Light (2008).  In 2009 Jambird enjoyed a sell-out season of The Garden at the Moores Building for Contemporary Arts in Fremantle, while Parrott danced, in the same week, at His Majesty's Theatre in Re-render, a solo directed by choreographer Jo Pollitt.

Chrissie's work is often designed for non-traditional spaces.  Over the past five years, she has traversed the field of visual and performance art, successfully presenting four exhibitions of digital art works.  These are figurative works showing digital lineages, wire frame and fully-rendered hyper realistic replicas of dancers.

She regularly presents as a keynote and motivational speaker at educational conferences and considers herself a "movement scientist".

(1) Communication to the writer, 22 March 2010

AWARDS

WA Citizen of the Year, 200

Centenary Medal, 2001

Further reading

http://www.performinglineswa.org.au/artists/Jambird/

'Why the Chrissie Parrott Company folded', Dance Australia, Issue 84, June 1996, pp32,33

The West Magazine, The West Australian, 18th April, 1992 

 

 

  

 

 

 

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