The Connies
Roberto, Liz and I at a school environment day
Edwina in action
Little Amara with the first two of many Connies Card series - the Waterbirds and Western districts lakes series and our first Aquatic Invertebrate series - both painted by the wonderfully talented Imogen Hall.
The Connies are collective of tram conductors, ecologists, actors and social historians. We perform, entertain and educate at shows, festivals, conferences, school events, landcare field days, etc.
We continue the proud Melbourne tram conducting traditions of yarning and public service, spiced with a love for nature and social history.
We produce beautiful swap-cards depicting themes of environmental, social and historical importance and distribute them along with our yarns, encouraging people to share their own stories, to mingle, to laugh and to celebrate our shared heritage.
Since we began four years ago we have created many series of swap-cards and used them as a medium for environmental education among communities throughout Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Other card series have been devoted to themes such as multiculturalism, social history and Aboriginal heritage. We've produced over three hundred cards now in dozens of series, and have given away over 1.2 million - every one hand-to-hand with a yarn and a smile.
My roles with the connies
I'm involved in all aspects of the Connies enterprise, including the street performances, and the research, design and production of the cards. I do a lot of the art and graphics, and some of the photography that goes into producing the cards. (The various series also include the wonderful art of Imogen Hall and others, graphics by Linn Tobias, and a host of photographers including the beautiful bird photography of Tony Wilson and Robert Graner). And of course Roberto keeps the whole thing running like a well oiled W-class tram, keeps the customers smiling, and writes most of the text on the cards.
For more details see the Connies website
>> www.connies.com.au
You can see some of the cards on my Art and Graphics pages. There are over 500 different cards now and more all the time.