I stumbled into Lae Oldmeadow by chance on a Saturday afternoon while walking around Bangalow.

Lae had an art exhibition running at the Ninbella Gallery and after admiring his work, I was introduced to Lae and we got chatting. I found his life just like his artwork, extremely interesting so asked him if we could have a coffee and put together a Sunday Profile. This is the result.

I was born in Ipswich (Queensland) in 1956.

My father was an engine driver, he first started driving steam trains. So, in those days fathers used to take their sons on the steam trains with them and then they became diesel locomotives and he got a transfer to Julia Creek from Ipswich. Julia Creek is way out west of Queensland, up from Mt Isa, in the desert basically.

I was there until about three or four. I had my tonsils out in Julia Creek in the little hospital there. When I went to the ear, nose and throat specialist in my later years, he couldn't believe what happened to my throat. He said it was an abortion, they took too much away.

That's why I find it a little bit hard to project my voice now. Dad always said to me that I said to him, I thought you said I would feel better after this. But I was a mess. I think those doctors, in those days, were the first years out of medical school.

After the stint in Julia Creek, we went back to Ipswich where dad was still driving trains. We were there for a few years until I reached grade four. I was kept down a year too because I'm highly dyslexic. In those days, they put the dunce's cap on and stuck you at the back of the room.

(Nell Scofield and Lae giving an artist talk recently)

So, I learnt to visualise to remember what I needed to. Dyslexics observe, at least that's what I've found. That's why a lot of artists are dyslexic or on the spectrum or something because we observe rather than talk. Because when you are told you're dumb you grow up with a terrible stigma. You know, you're not good enough.

I don't see it as a negative, it's just in those days, they didn't recognise it.

It was hard. When I got to high school I had extra tuition and I passed English in junior high school. And because I had that tuition I read Shakespeare and wrote poetry in those days which got into the school magazine. They knew I was trying and I did pass English. That was in Emerald, I started in Grade 4.

Dad was driving coal trains back then, it was just the beginning of coalfields. It was a real rural town, beautiful but then it became a coal mining town.

I just couldn't wait to leave school. The problem was there were only two apprenticeships available, one was a plumber and one was upholstery.

I didn't even know what an upholsterer was but I said to dad I want to leave school after my junior year. The headmaster wanted me to go on to senior high school but I didn't want to, I didn't like school.

So, I became an apprentice upholsterer for four years and then I stayed one extra year after my apprenticeship. Then I left and moved to the Gold Coast with my sister and I started working out of my carport in Southport as an upholsterer. I went around to all the interior decorators and showed them what I could do.

That was my own business, Old Meadow Upholstery. I never advertised or anything but we just got bigger and bigger and bigger.

(Lae's house interior was featured in Belle magazine in 1991)

I bought my first house on Main Beach when I was 21. That was hard because I was self-employed, 21 and single. The banks in those days wouldn't lend young people money. So, it was only who I knew again and this interior designer friend, who is still my friend today, she rang her bank manager and said 'give this guy a loan'.

He said right, well he has to put all his money into our bank. So, I had that huge break then for 12 years I lived and worked in the carport there just two houses back from the beach and then the developers moved in and bought everyone out. I stayed working for a few more years.

Then the financial crisis hit in the late '80s and a lot of people, my clients, went into receivership, so I thought it was a good chance to get out of upholstery. That was 20 years of upholstery. I would have had to get a huge overdraft to keep going as well. My father worked for me at that time, for 12 years and I had to retire him and look after six staff. We worked for a year to pay all our bills and then rented my house out which was on the Isle of Capri at Surfers Paradise.

That was my freedom in a way, I had a break that changed my life. I bought an around-the-world ticket and just took off.

I lived in London for six months and just discovered the place because I had enough money to not have to worry.

I met all these Australian people that were living over there and I met this Greek Australian girl and she wanted to go to Greece to this little village where her father was born. I hadn't been to Greece by stage so I said, yeah, I'll come with you.

(Lae in the little Greek village of Galaxidi)

So, I met Ariadne, who was a retired Greek philosopher at a university in this little village and she inherited this land from her grandfather just outside the village of Galaxidi and she turned it into a spiritual centre and a foundation. It wasn't religious or anything but anyone could go there and have seminars and stay.

Eric, a Swiss architect there got involved and built these self-contained dwellings. It was all joined into one roof but there were four of them and only one person can stay each time. It was all about getting to know yourself, to be in the quiet, in the beauty. So that was a good mood for me because that was the start of my spiritual journey as well.

I was there for five years and had a vegetable garden. I was renting in the village and this lovely old lady on a donkey used to bring me goat manure and sheep manure and I would collect the seaweed from the shoreline. You can't grow vegetables like that here. They were so good over there, maybe it was the climate I think.

(Galaxidi with snow on the mountain tops)

The landlord used to lower the basket down from third story house and I'd put all the tomatoes, lettuce and everything and she would pull it up in the morning with the goodies. It was a lovely lifestyle.

You could travel so easily too, so I travelled all around. I loved the earthy countries like Spain, Italy and Greece where they're passionate about their culture, their food, there's that passion there. I found that Europeans like things that are different while here in Australia I found that we follow people, a little bit too much, rather than just going out and trying new things. A little bit like sheep.

The end of my relationship saw me leave Greece and I thought I may as well just go home. I didn't have to but in my head, I thought I might as well go home and I moved to Byron Bay. That's where I actually started my art.

I picked up a Banksia leaf on the way to the beach and just saw the beauty in it and so every time I walked to the beach I collected Banksia leaves then came back and started sewing them onto canvas.

My art has always been natural fibres. I started with the coastal Banksia leaves and they still look good today, I've done a lot of leaf work. They won't deteriorate if you get them inside out of the elements but even on the ground, they stay perfect for years.

One of my first exhibitions was at the Lismore Art Gallery and one of my works was bought by the CEO of Sotheby's at the time. He's still my friend and he's bought quite a few of my works. There have been collectors in New York that have bought a couple of pieces.

It was through opportunities that I sold my art. These people came to visit Robert (Robert Bleakley the CEO of Sotheby's) and he showed them his artwork of mine and then they want pieces as well. It's mainly been word of mouth.

I realised at the time that I could use my upholsterer techniques in my artwork because that was nearly twenty years of upholstery. I didn't want to waste that knowledge so that's why a lot of my work is padded and sewn on the canvas.

I'm an outsider artist in the art world. I haven't had that training in the art world but I've had that training as an upholsterer. They call us 'outsider art' which is a big movement in the world today because there are a lot of autism people, mentally ill people that do art and are encouraged to do art. Some of the most purist art comes out of them, not what somebody is telling them to do. There's a guy in London that's set up the Museum of Everything and he deals with outsider artists all around the world.

When I was living in Byron I bought a property with a 100-year-old farmhouse at Tyagarah and started growing my own food. I ended up with another person so I ended up selling it to him and I moved to Currumbin Valley at the top of the mountain on a property owned by an architect friend of mine and built a little dwelling on it. I lived there for seven or eight years.

(Lae's studio in Blue Knob)

Then I had the opportunity to move to Blue Knob where I met Gerrard who is my companion now. He is a musician and music teacher. He had his share on a community called Blue Springs. 16 years ago now, we started building a garden on two and a half acres, it took me ten years to do because of the rocks.

For some reason, I ended up with rocks everywhere so to grow a garden you have to remove the rocks first to make enough soil and that reminded me a lot of Greece too.

The soil was washed away earlier this year. That's why it is so important now to give back to mother earth, not take from it. It's time to really give back now.

Lee Arnold owns the old Broom Factory in Engine Street (South Lismore) and I was looking after that house and creating my art there when the February flood occurred.

I was sleeping in the loft when the water entered the kitchen and woke me up. It just rose so quickly.

A young man in his tinnie rescued me from the top of the roof after waiting there for about five hours. We had to tie ourselves to a stronger boat because the current was too strong for his little motor.

There were a few boats coming by but I told them to rescue other people that are in a worse situation than me because I knew I could get onto a tree as well if I had to.

We lost most of the artwork which saddened me because this is his whole life. It took me two days with a friend to get his work off the ground, up higher but it wasn't high enough. Lee couldn't get back from Melbourne for ages. Then the clean-out happened and a lot of things were thrown out that could have been saved. They should have waited until the owner got home because I was at the university for four nights in the emergency accommodation.

We just weren't given the right warning by the SES. They were walking down the street tying ribbons on all the gates so I went out in the pouring rain and said what's happening before any flooding happened and the guy just said if you get into any trouble just ring. So, we left our cars in the street and lost them through wrong information.

I felt like I was an observer because I didn't own the house, I didn't lose everything, apart from my car, and it was the same when I was in an earthquake in Greece, I didn't own anything either.

I will have time off now until early January then start work on the next project. I have a few ideas in mind already.

It usually take me about a year to create an exhibition, working every day. My goal is to bring awareness back to the natural environment, to see the beauty that surrounds it. That's why at the moment I've been doing totems trying to create this more of a sacred object. I didn't see the beauty of Hoop Pine bark until we came across this fallen Hoop Pine tree hit by lightning and the bark was lying on the ground and we just peeled the bark off.

So, the whole idea is to bring awareness to the beauty of natural fibres. It's all discarded material and we bring it back to life, giving it another life which a lot of artists do.