Raised in Sydney, Valentina Jones studied at both Visual Arts and Visual Communications graduating in 1988. Valentina is a Graphic Designer and Illustrator by day and a keen visual artist outside normal working hours.

Valentina is known as an artist who often portrays the beauty in objects and things which may otherwise seem ordinary, drawing inspiration from the everyday. Her work celebrates the world of childhood joy and a world to be embraced. The figures are often distorted and feel lyrical, and suit the layered colour of her canvases.

Valentina has been involved in the arts for as long as she remembers. From an early age she discovered her creative side when winning 1st place in an art prize in kindergarten. Thirty years have passed and she still enjoys art every day. I am inspired by colour, objects and people.

Her paintings are expressions of past and present experiences of everyday realities. A contemporary painter her style is very much expressionistic with an abstract feel. Her style is quirky and whimsical, with a focus on colour. Her subject matter includes figures, objects, landscapes or even a memory. Acrylic is her current medium of choice. Valentina has had many of her illustrations published in a number of various magazines.

The way people see something different in my art, and the bond they feel is what painting is all about for me…

It was nice to see some Lastdrop regulars in attendance. Thank you for your support. Culture is alive and well in the Inner West.

A unique art exhibition exploring the themes around mental health and resilience will open at the Last Drop cafe to help celebrate Mental Health Week.

The theme of Mental Health Week 2009, which runs from Sunday, October 4, to Sunday, October 10, is Building Resilience - Sign up, Link in and Get involved.

Nine consumers from the Therapy and Recovery Service (TARS) of Sydney South West Area Health Service (SSWAHS) will exhibit around 15 over five weeks from October 3.

TARS (Liverpool/Fairfield) Occupational Therapist Libby Waugh said the consumers had been working with two Occupational Therapists as well as three Occupational Therapy students over 10 weeks to produce art work around the Building Resilience theme.

The project became very real for the consumers and everyone experienced a true sense of accomplishment and pride in their involvement in this show of resilience , Ms Waugh said

One participating artist said: Art gives me a voice. It allows me to get out what is happening in my head and my emotions because I am not very good at talking. Painting for this exhibition has allowed me to do something I enjoy while helping the therapeutic process.

Another participating artist said: It’s a good feeling to express myself through art. I feel a little happier after I have been to art group. The resilience theme makes the drawing easier because it contributes to the painting.

Mental health problems can affect anyone at any time. Around 20 per cent or one in five Australians will experience a mental illness at some point in their life, Ms Waugh said. We hope this exhibition will go some way towards dispelling the stigma attached to having a mental illness.

The Mental Health Association NSW is running the Building Resilience campaign - a three year mental health promotion campaign running from 2008-2011.

The campaign aims to increase awareness of people’s own resilience, that is, developing individual strengths and abilities to bounce back from the challenges and setbacks that life presents us all with.

Lisa Hogben is a freelance photojournalist who has travelled across the world photographing the people, places and events of significance for the worlds media for the last two decades. Her work is currently also being shown in the Reportage Photo Festival at the Chauvel Cinema in Paddington.

The exhibition TIMELESS will feature seven photographs that were taken during her six day trek for TIME Magazine down the Snowy River during the Winter of 2007.

Hogben has a special affinity for the Snowy Mountains as she was a professional ski-racer and fully qualified ski-instructor before graduating from COFA with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and becoming an internationally respected photojournalist. She is currently building a house along the Snowy River.

Hogben has walked, ridden horses, snow shoed and skied the famous back-country of the Australian Alps for many years and her photographs depict a rarely seen part of the Australian landscape. While Mt Kosciuszko is the lowest of the seven summits it is rarely accessible during winter and seven people have lost their lives in attempting to climb it during that season.

Each photograph tells a story of the mighty Snowy River at a different point, from its pristine and extraordinarily beautiful beginnings high in the Roof of Australia, to its rugged yet classic crossing of the NSW-Victorian border.

While photographs of the Snowy Mountains region can often be mere postcards of the area, Hogbens images transcend the obvious and lovingly describe the grandeur and beauty of the area.

This exhibition is a must see for anyone who loves the Snowy Mountains High-Country.

Jack Carnegie works as a publications officer for a non-government organisation. He produces photographs for their publications and website. His photos have been published in Sydney newspapers and magazines and he often contributes photos for social justice and environmental causes. His most recent exhibition was Sense of a City, (opened by Greens MP Sylvia Hale) documented Sydney people in public places:- dancing in the streets, protesting at rallies, attending festivals and getting on with Sydney life.

Brett Heath has been working in the Australian theatre, film and television industry for over twenty-five years. In that time he has cultivated his diverse skills, including the use of sound, lighting and camera, providing him with a great understanding of both the technical and artistic process. His most recent technical assignment was that of principal sound recordist on the film Happy Feet, directed by George Miller.

9 Portraits of Women is Brett Heath’s first exhibition solely of women.

Presented at The Last Drop Cafe from May till June 21st, Heath has selected 9 black and white portraits from his extensive and eclectic collection that illustrate this Sydney photographer’s restrained and refined aesthetic. Having previously exhibited in Quebec City and Sydney, the act of viewing Heath’s photographs is an opportunity for quietness, for accessing and exploring one’s feelings and memories of the day to day experiences that combine to form a life.

Friends and patrons of the Lastdrop have enjoyed the works and have commented on the high quality of the portraits, and Brett’s professional production standards.

Come on in and have a look!

I need to Getaway!!!

Mid Winter’s Day - Ah, bitter chill it was!
For Con, with beanie pulled down close, set out
To gather bread and papers for the day
As we remained inside the cafe warm

And opened coats to shed and drape on chairs
Pulled out to give quick access to a place
From which to contemplate impressive food
And warm to jazzy noise and friendly ways.

“Ah, you!” “Good morning, how is your day?”
“Soula, a Long Tall Sally if you please!
Emily, Sia, how’s that ‘pita, any saved for me?”
A man walks in to buy a cup of tea.

He stands and rattles coins in his patient
Pocket as the grub basks in fluorescent display,
Cold, clear and inviting me to partake, to
Select, to remove and to put away.

Pies huddle in a main, lasagne lit
And mezze lie, my Spanikopita sits
Proud on comfy stool. The lettuce footlights
Frame him clear, tumble in accoutrement.

Look up and see it plated and descending
Majestical before me; a warm crisp wedge
From the wheel of life- Spanikopita!
Enjoyin’ it, my oath I am!

I kiss up each crumb from the tip of my fork
I genuflect to its creator and take
A subtle sip while downing song sublime.
It’s Groundhog Day, another moment come and gone
And you just know it’s going to get better
And you just hope it’s going to get better.

A cheerio by Bill Bowie.

The Last Drop

In the final words before the noose
Your neck tautens in apprehension,
The brown milk stirs lazily as the cup rises to your lips,

The barista stands in black behind his altar as
A shock of steam bursts like a denunciation into the air
& a line of customers stand before the chrome expresso machine,
Chaterring, polite & desperate in their sin,

The bliss of the first caffeine hit surpassing
Those more pedestrian stimulants -
(cigars & whiskey & mild mild women).

Here as the last drop falls, the biscuit breaks
Like the body of Christ on the wall in fourteen staccato images
Down through ripples of brown & white caffeine,
Swirling into redemption (until lunchtime

Rae Desmond Jones
3 November 2007

Just under 60 women in the Inner West attended a breakfast hosted by Marrickville MP Carmel Tebbutt to raise money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

October is breast cancer awareness month and statistics released by the NSW Government show that a record number of women are heeding the advice of medical experts and booking themselves in for regular mammograms.

Compared to just 2 years ago, an extra 51,500 women are now having regular mammograms at BreastScreen clinics across the State.

Unfortunately that leaves about 1 in 10 older women continuing to ignore, dismiss or downplay the very real possibility of getting breast cancer.

Breast cancer remains the leading cause of cancer deaths in Australian women and approximately one in eight NSW women will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime.

Ms Tebbutt, Member for Marrickville, said holding the breakfast increases awareness amongst women in the Inner West of the importance of regular breast checks and helps raise funds for breast cancer research.

The response to the breakfast has been fantastic and we have had to turn people away, so strong has been the interest.

Its great to see women in the Inner West are so supportive of raising funds for breast cancer research, said Ms Tebbutt.

The breakfast, a wonderful success, was held on Tuesday 30 October at the Last DropCafe, in Dulwich Hill.

Carmel Tebbutt welcomes the guests

Carmel Tebbutt and guest speaker Gai Grayson

The management and staff of the Lastdrop would like to thank all who attended and supported a very worthy cause.

A special thanks to Carmel’s staff Maria and Litsa, who made the event a most memorable one.