Sometimes, the profoundness of a friendship is not fully realised until that friend is lost. We all know this. Today for Blak and Blak, for me personally, it is the loss of one of our earliest supporters, the diabolical Kim Foale, who we are left to mourn today.

Kim was one of those people who walks into your life quietly, settles herself on the couch and never quite leaves. Like the cat that decides to turn up, wrap itself through your legs and wander out again, re-appearing at just the right time, just the right place. That’s not to say that Kim was not loyal – god help you if you attacked someone she cared about – Kim just seemed to know when to call.

I first met Kim virtually through the blogging community, before my own blog went into mothballs. I was soon connected to a range of others who shared their journeys and learnings with each other. Frogpondsrock was Kim’s domain and although it’s no longer in operation, her ceramics and artwork remain in the hands and hearts of many.

Kim chose the path less travelled. Some would say she was thrown onto it – a fitting analogy for a ceramicist – but the reality is, she did not simply accept the place into which she found herself born, but endeavoured her entire life to experience and learn as much as she could. Money was never abundant; Kim and her husband Jeff built their own home from whatever they could source, a sanctuary away from the city lights and noise that they preferred. Later, when Kim discovered that she was on the spectrum, the significance of the locale made sense.

Perhaps driven by tight finances, Kim and Jeff made the effort to grow some of their own food, including raising two pigs. Kim wanted to understand the process of raising livestock and to not be detached from the process of how one takes a living, breathing creature that you have tended, hand raised, to table. It was an exercise in honesty, understanding where meat comes from and how to honour the life of the being you ultimately slaughter. It was through reading and exchanging thoughts with Kim about this experience of hers, over a couple of years, that made me realise the uniqueness of her way of living – to be involved, to not only read, see and talk about things, but to experience them herself, first-hand so that there could be no excuses for choices she later made.

It was 2012 when I finally met Kim in person at the inaugural Australian Bloggers Conference with Bakchos. She welcomed me into the circle of her family and friends, a welcome that never dissipated. She was vivacious, happy, lively and fun. We bonded over blogging, talked about craft, she showed interest in others and appreciated my love of music. Some time later, she asked me to make a mix CD of music for her to listen to in her studio. The Frodpondsrock Mix CD was born, just for her. She most enjoyed the pieces with strings, particularly the violins.

When Bakchos was charged and the blog went into its hiatus, it was Kim who occasionally called, realising that something was not right. It was Kim who understood the necessary distance. It was Kim who was still there when the trial was finished and the truth of the fit-up was finally able to be explained. It was Kim who suspended her judgement and remained steadfast to Blak and Black in her friendship throughout. Some very hard decisions needed to be made through that time by those at Blak and Black; to protect others, about who to trust, who could visit. It is to my great shame that it was during this time that I found myself unable to properly welcome her into my home and I wish it had not been so.

The loss of her mother affected Kim deeply. Finding herself widowed when Kim was just 13 years old, she had raised Kim and her brother as best she could. Kim’s beautiful personality and that of her daughter, Veronica, are a testament to a line of women who strive to live ethically, to withhold judgement, to look beyond the obvious for the deeper truth. My own mother passed suddenly with an explosion that still marks my memories with an immovable barrier, during the period in which Bakchos was still awaiting trial. It was Kim who called, not just in the weeks after, but on the first anniversary. “I just had the feeling I really needed to call you today. I’m not sure why. I just felt it was important.” And when I told her that it was a year since Mum had passed, we both understood. She had felt and heard her mother’s spirit around for some time after she passed, as I had and still do mine. Connections. One daughter to another, regardless of distance and time, she understood.

Kim’s love was ceramics and she made numerous thoughtful and controversial pieces that challenged the viewer to think critically about what they represented. She was involved with the Tasmanian Off Centre Gallery in Salamanca for several years. Later, with the proceeds of her mother’s small estate, she was able to setup her own studio at home and buy her own kiln. Sometimes she sourced her own clay, digging from Tasmania’s soil to create something that spoke of that island’s often dark history. She was a supporter of Indigenous rights, especially in Tasmania. She advocated for those who were neurodivergent, for the disabled, for the underprivileged. She saw the gaps in humanity and protested vocally for the maltreated. She was so disgusted by Peter Garrett’s approval of expansion of uranium mining when he was Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts that she divested her collection of music of all her Midnight Oil albums, mailing them to his electoral office. All these experiences, all her feelings, went into her clay creations.

A few years ago, Kim was diagnosed with and treated for breast cancer. It took a toll on her personally and physically. Then Jeff had an accident, breaking his ankle and enduring extensive treatment as it failed to heal as it should. A few days ago, Kim found herself in hospital following a minor heart attack. She was treated and was due to be discharged on Friday, but collapsed before the promised return to her home with her husband. Despite being in hospital with all the supports available, she was unable to be revived. She was 60 years old and quite frankly, she was robbed. Those abhorred shears were too eager. She was robbed.

I was gifted a plate by Kim a few years ago and I bought a set of cups. Both have been used and one cup remains, now set aside as a fond mark of friendship across distance and time. Despite the unspoken challenges faced by Blak and Black, the infrequent phone calls and conversations, I felt the reassurance of Kim’s friendship like I do few others. Kim understood grief, it’s long path and its weight. She would understand now as I and many others reckon with her loss.

Kim counted among her friends the cartoonist and artist Jon Kudelka. I have no doubt that he will find her wherever she’s gone and they will share a good laugh as they engage in their art together again. Meanwhile her family and friends will be remembering Kim’s laugh, her smile, her welcome embrace. Veronica has advised that, as per Kim’s wishes, there will be no funeral, although a wake will be held at some later date. So it is up to us, those who knew Kim, to in some way remember her and offer some final words that mark the transition to whatever lies next. I am a strong believer in the recognition of the ending of a life so that it can pass freely into the next. I hope this brief account of the person I knew is enough.

Farewell for now, my friend. May the final arbiter be kind to you. I hope we again.

Kim Foale

Frogpondsrock

Diabolical clay

2 February 1966 – 5 June 1960

Kim leaves behind the broken hearts of her husband Jeff, daughter and son-in-law, Veronica and Nathan, son and daughter-in-law, David and Sammie and their families. From those of us at Blak and Black, most especially me,  we send our heartfelt condolences.

Postscript:

Kim’s daughter Veronica has built a successful cottage business making soaps and hand creams from ethically sourced products. No palm oil and whenever possible, products sourced from Tasmania. Veronica, has had her own traumas in the last couple of years. Most recently, a few weeks before Christmas 2024, her home was consumed by fire in the dark of rural Tasmania at 4:00 am. Started by a faulty new power board, bought at the same time as a brand new fridge, not a stick remained standing by the time the fire was extinguished. They were left with what they stood in as they had all scrambled out of bed.

Fortunately, the soap making studio, a little separated, was able to be saved and Veronica was able to resume making soap after only a short break. Nevertheless she, her husband and their three children remain living in a converted bus as they rebuild. Yes, they were insured, but as with many others, they could not afford the cost of coverage for the very worst possibility. Kim’s passing will place strain on this family again. If you can, visit Veronica Foale Essentials and order something. Alternately, if you simply wish to help a good family who work hard and give back to the community, without needing anything in return yourself, there is a Gofundme to help with the rebuilding of their home, to which any donations made they would be enormously grateful.