At last – somebody has put together a book celebrating the beauty and diversity of the mountain I love to call home. The adventurous and versatile medico/journalist/artist/photographer Jaap V…

Source: Green Island in the Sky

Dainty flowers of the Blue Lilly Pilly

At last – somebody has put together a book celebrating the beauty and diversity of the mountain I love to call home.

The adventurous and versatile medico/journalist/artist/photographer Jaap Vogel has created a work of great beauty, featuring his own photographs of Tamborine’s natural attractions and the works of several local artists which interpret nature in various ways.  It’s a truly lovely book and the name is perfect – we DO think of ourselves as an island up here, a green and peaceful place inhabited by as rich a mix of artists, musicians and writers as you’d find anywhere outside a major city.  Development and the urban horrors of the Gold Coast creep ever closer to the base of the mountain but still we remain islanders; invaded by tourist hordes each day, it’s true, but all our own between the hours of 4pm to 10 am.

Jaap has been involved in various community organisations in his years of association with Tamborine, and once brought a creative flair to his role as a president of Landcare that showed us how meetings could actually be fun.  He’s unusual in that he combines the role of artist with that of scientist…the very human embodiment of the fractal!…and can talk about sculpture and photography with the same enthusiasm as he brings to any discussion of artificial intelligence.

To learn more about Jaap and his book go to http://www.greenislandinthesky.com.au.