First encounters with artists can be memorable,and they tend to colour subsequent relationships. And it goes without saying that my first visit to meet up with Elaine still lives in my memory as one of the most memorable. Elaine and her family were living in a top floor flat in Leichhardt and I found Elaine in the process of raising baby mice so that she could feed them to a kookaburra and her family that she had befriended. The kookaburra coming each morning to receive Elaine's offering of a dead mouse. The batch of mice had to be euthanized and then kept in the fridge.
So,as I said, this was so far removed from the traditional artist surrounded by the tools of the trade. But then again, Elaine was one of a kind. And over the following years I was a confidant and friend able to watch her passion for the environment, for social justice,for her drive to make the world a better place. It did not come easy for her. She battled many health issues and she carried many scars from earlier years. She would never let her artistic sensibility be driven off track . It was often a battle and she was able to remain focused. Never one to follow fashion or to pander to fame or fortune,she was often at a loss to appreciate the significance when her works became collected by the National gallery of Australia. Self doubt one of the bogey men that often came to trouble and haunt her. With each passing body of work she was slowly building up a strong fan base. She just got better and better. But she was always the Elaine that I knew and cherished as a friend and an artist of singular accomplishment.
Elaine was a wonderful Mother to her boys, a loving partner to her husband ,and a dear dear friend to so many. She nurtured ,putting others first,and herself last. That kookaburra and its young family lucked out when it alighted on Elaine's balcony....maybe it knew something,picking up on the vibes that so many of us were to experience as her career developed.