Ingrid Thorpe Designs

	I was born in Rockhampton, Australia. My mother tells me that as a child I used to laugh a lot. When I was still a baby I threw her wedding ring off the back deck and also tried to flush it down the toilet. My mother nicknamed me "el destructo". I'd like to take this moment to personally apologise for breaking your wine glasses mum.		My family moved to Brisbane, when I was still quite small. My sisters and I attended a local catholic primary school. I pretended to be sick alot to try and get out of school. I also broke my arm about 3 times and sprained my ankle when I jumped off the garage roof. The ground looked so close, I thought I could make the jump easily.
In highschool I did lots of sports. Once at a swimming carnival I was in a race with a false start. I didn't hear it and swam the entire race by myself. I thought I had won. No mean feat since I swim like a drowning rat. When I finished the race I got out and realised that the whole school had been laughing and cheering me on. I had to walk back to the start while the crowd giggled madly. The race started over and this time I came dead last. I call this a story that is better to receive. My mates love it.		I went to art school and studied photography, printmaking and painting. In my first year I created an installation consisting of a 3m wide mound of river sand with around 100 hand sculpted clay penises sticking out of the top. Don't ask me why, but I remember feeling very serious about it at the time. Many of the penises were subsequently stolen and personally I don't want to know where they are.
	I've lived in many share houses and generally feel I'm better for the experience. Perhaps the most tragically memorable was when my firends and I inadvertantly moved in to a recent ex-brothel. For the next 6 months we had all manner of people knocking on the door asking if we were "open". We never were.		I'm a saggitarian and my chinese astrology sign is a dragon. All that fiery energy has led me to love adventure and travel. Unfortunately, it has also has got me in trouble. A scary example is when I crashed a motocycle with my mate on the back in Laos. I'd only driven a motorcycle once previous and had crashed that one as well. But somehow I thought I'd be a better rider overseas. We both suffered identical burns to our legs. Next time you drive Penni.
I moved to London. I'd never been there before. Just decided to go. I arrived in November and it was freezing cold. But I was happy to get away from the extreme tropical heat of Australia (telling english people this always makes them laugh in disbelief!). Besides winter fashions are so much more fun. And I love the hats. London and I seem to get along. I love the history and the energy of the place.		The english home office has recently seen fit to award me the title of skilled migrant. So it seems my immediate future lies in the Northern Hemisphere. I guess I'm pretty much a Londoner these days. I rant at the tube shutting down when there are leaves on the track. I despair at shoddy post war buildings built on the cheap. I reminisce about 'that' long hot summer... the usual.