Вали Майерс: Австралиялық суретші, биші және богемия өмірі

Australian artist, dancer, bohemian and muse

Vali Myers (2 August 1930 – 12 February 2003) was an Australian artist, dancer, bohemian and muse whose coverage by the media was mostly in 1950s and 1960s in Europe and the United States.

Myers was born in Canterbury, Sydney, on 2 August 1930, to a violinist mother and marine wireless operator father. She displayed a talent for art at an early age. The family moved to Box Hill, Melbourne in 1941 and Myers left home at 14. After working in factories to support her dance lessons, she became immersed in dance and later became the leading dancer for the Melbourne Modern Ballet Company. In 1949 at age 19 Myers travelled to impoverished post war Paris to pursue a dance career but found herself living on the streets of the Saint Germain des Prés Quarter on the Left Bank.

Myers was a flamboyant fantasy artist who worked in pen and ink and watercolour as well as being a nightclub dancer. She divided her life between her adopted home of Melbourne, the Hotel Chelsea in New York City, a 14th century cottage at Il Porto, near Positano and a residence in Paris. Her art works developed from early detailed monochromes to a full range of vibrant colours and tones extending to watercolour and gold leaf, displaying a "fastidiously rendered depiction of a personal spirit world".

While in Europe she married Rudi Rappold, an Austrian from Vienna, and moved to Positano. The marriage ended, and later her lover, Italian artist Gianni Menichetti moved in and helped turn the property into a wildlife sanctuary that was endorsed by the World Wildlife Fund. Later, after she began having seizures, she returned to Melbourne in 1993, and opened a studio in the Nicholas Building; only returning to Positano occasionally.