“Hi! Yoh! Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.” A message from Tori Stowe. “We’re joining American veteran volunteers while they fix the fence at a crèche in Nolukhanyo. The Rotary Club of Port Alfred is meeting me at my art gallery to donate garden equipment for the clinic, and we are also visiting private gardens in the township. Then, homeward for coffee!”
This is a normal day for Tori. Sometimes she also drives 40km from Bathurst to Makhanda, where her son Noah (13) goes to school, all while juggling a huge vegetable garden, 64 chickens, four dogs and her real job.
“I’m a full-time freelance artist, which means I don’t only have to do my job but I also have to make it up first!”
If she’s not designing for Woolworths and other homeware stockists, she is illustrating children’s books and producing ceramics, sketches and fabrics with her team at Stowe & So at The Corner Gallery in Bathurst.
Her talents and time management are impressive, but Tori constantly shifts the focus from herself and her art to a project called GROW Nolukhanyo, which she
