Kerry’s debut

Manjimup artist Kerry Trease is having her debut exhibition at the Manjimup Library — the first of her artistic career.

Ms Trease overcame childhood meningitis, which saw her stop breathing for a while when being rushed to Perth.

“When we were taking her to Perth, she stopped breathing along the way, by the time they got her to Perth and back on oxygen she had acquired a certain amount of brain damage,” her mother Doreen Trease said.

“She now has epilepsy and she had learning difficulties at school.”

Kerry has been drawing since she was a child and her art focuses on animals and scenes from history, including her most ambitious piece, a line drawing of Deanmill during its mill town heyday.

Doreen said Kerry had only been producing art for a year.

“For quite a while, probably a couple of years, she was having a lot of trouble with double vision and a tremor, and she couldn’t draw,” she said.

“It’s only probably a year or more that she’s got back into doing work and she’s doing brilliant stuff.”