The Heartworks Creative

Australian born of Italian heritage, artist, speaker, writer and teacher Maree Tambasco-Roche, describes herself as a multi-passionate creative inspired to use every one of her single bipolar brain cells, experiences and talents to assist and empower others on their own personal mental health recovery journey locally and further afield.

In 2013 she was awarded the Arts Access Australia Cultivate professional development grant to develop and inform her work as an emerging artist.

She has exhibited with ADEC (Action on Disability within Ethnic Communities) Artability exhibition in Federation Square, Melbourne and has won four awards including two ADEC awards in 2013 and 2016, the Sculpture Prize in 2015 for her ceramic piece “Mind and Spirit” and an award in 2014 from the Victorian Mental Health Complaints Commissioner for her painting “Abstract Sunset”.

She was commissioned by the Victorian Government Office of the Public Advocate to create artworks to be awarded to recipients and champions in disability advocacy. The first award, a painting titled “Serenity” was awarded to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation for the program #Mental As. Serenity is also featured on the cover of the OPA’ Annual Report that was tabled in the Victorian Parliament in August 2015. The second award, a painting titled “Hope” to VICSERV in 2016 by the OPA’s Colleen Pearce and Victorian Government minister Hon. Martin Foley.

She was one of the first educators to teach at the Mind Recovery College Bendigo Campus and has written a course titled ‘Developing you own creative self care space”. She has continued her research into mental health recovery education as a scholarship recipient as part of the Deakin Funded University Program to study the Masters of Education with a focus on inclusive education. She is currently developing new creative recovery materials under the guidance of inclusive education academic Dr. Ben Whitburn.

Her public speaking engagements include participation in the beyondblue Speakers and Ambassadors Bureau and SANE Australia Speakers. She also shares her story of hope and recovery as The Heartworks Creative.

She has written articles and guest blog posts for SANE Australia and ABC Open and her article “Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Bipolar” was featured in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Mental As program in 2015.

Her mandate is:

To remember our inner power and wholehearted beauty through self worth.
To acknowledge, validate and respect our individual mental health recovery quest.
To embrace our authenticity through sharing and honouring our lived experience.
To create a meaning filled, engaging life.