Murder jolted artist's career
By Elizabeth Fortescue, The Daily Telegraph
October 7, 2005
"As an ex-worker, I know only too well the 'time out' periods are the most hellish, when you are confronted with yourself and the mess of your life," Connolly said.
New Life...artist Camilla Connolly yesterday
Camilla Connolly and Rebecca Bernauer were great friends and fellow street workers when 18 year-old Rebecca was murdered and her body wedged behind a fridge in a Darlinghurst alley in 1997.
If Rebecca could see her old pal now, she would be proud of how far she has come.
Last night, an exhibition of Connolly's powerful oil paintings, drawing on her decade on the streets, opened in the Barrack Gallery.
If not for Rebecca's death, who knows what might have become of Connolly, now 43. Trawling Darlinghurst and Kings Cross, on heroin and pills, living in bedsits and refuges, she was in the gutter with seemingly nowhere to go.
"I worked very closely with her, so that jolted me," Connolly said.
She fled to northern NSW where she conquered her addiction at a detox centre. She now lives in Murwillumbah with her partner John Leighton and their son Elliot, 3.
Elliot's birth reconnected Connolly with her early love of art.
She had studied art at university but never finished her degree.
"You don't finish things when you use drugs," she said.
Now she paints prolifically and this is her second solo Sydney show.
The theme is a conflation of Connolly's life story and that of Tilly Devine, who employed many prostitutes.
Devine used to "rest" her girls on Scotland Island, north of Sydney.
She saw Devine's house last year while working with a printmaker on the island and the seed of her exhibition was planted.
The exhibition, Camilla Connolly, New Works, runs until October 20 at 16-20 Barrack St.
Click here to view all works in Camilla's exhibition.