Hiroe Swen is 90 years old, and still remembers the shock of arriving in Canberra for the first time in the early 1970s.
There was air, space and room to move - and nothing to weigh her down.
The Japanese artist realised she'd felt crushed by the weight of her own country's history and traditions. Living far away meant she could see her culture in a different light.
It filled her with inspiration.
"It's wonderful - I can have opportunity here. And then my life starts here," she says of that time.
"So I don't want look back Japan now - I had a very strong feeling.
"No one pressed me, no one telling me what to do. And so, almost like I'm feeling truly free. Freedom. That was wonderful."
By then, she had been married for four years. He was a tall and lanky Dutch graphic designer, and she was a five-foot-nothing Japanese ceramicist.
When they met, they were both established artists with distinct creative visions.
Hiroe and Cornel Swen became a celebrated creative duo, from two very different worlds binding them together.
Their 1967 wedding invitation - small and exquisitely illustrated - announced the couple would be "fusing pen and pottery art in marriage".
And they were true to their word, as two artists who worked side-by-side in near-perfect harmony until Cornel's death in 2022.
Their lifelong creative partnership is the subject of a new exhibition at Canberra Museum and Gallery, exploring their connection across two different disciplines, heralding from two distinct backgrounds.
Cornel Swen emigrated to Australia from the Netherlands in 1951, and worked in Sydney as an artist and graphic designer.
Later that decade, in Japan, 23-year-old Hiroe began learning ceramics with a master craftsman of contemporary ceramic art in Kyoto.
In 1966, the two met when Cornel stopped over in Kyoto on his way to Singapore, where he was to be employed as an art director.
They married just six months later in Kyoto, where they lived another two years before moving to Sydney.
In 1970, the Swens moved to a rural property near Canberra, where they established the Pastoral Gallery in 1973.
There they continued to work in parallel, creating their own work while running the gallery together.
Hiroe went on to become one of Australia's most respected ceramic artists and influenced generations of artists through teaching at workshops and institutions, including the Australian National University School of Art.
The exhibition includes a range of ceramics by Hiroe, shown alongside Cornel's batik paintings to emphasise their artistic dialogue.
On being appointed as a member of the order of Australia last year, Hiroe said making things from clay still contained a sense of mystery, even after working in ceramics for six decades.
When she met Cornel in 1966, she was in her early 30s and one of only a small handful of Japanese women working with a master craftsman.
Included in the exhibition, side by side, are her pottery wheel and Cornel's artist trolley, considered cutting edge at the time.
The wheel is the same one she has used throughout her career, and spun for the last time earlier this year.
She has fired her last piece of work and is preparing to leave Australia and return to Japan.
The pain in her back and arms is starting to bother her, and she's decided she's not suited to a retirement home here.
Both her parents lived with her in Australia in their final years; her mother had dementia and lost any ability to speak English. By the end, she spoke only Japanese.
Hiroe is worried this may happen to her, although she's showing no signs. But she would rather be in Japan if her language deserts her. She plans to live independently but with her niece nearby, and teach ceramics again.
She has two pieces of advice for young artists, and especially young women.
The first is that to better understand your own country properly, you need to leave.
Her decades living in and around Canberra has given her a deep appreciation for her own Japanese culture, and how it has shaped her work.
The other is that passion is essential. A family, friends and children are all very well, but a full life needs more.
"I understand that happiness is your choice," she says.
"You have a more something aiming your passion, then your life will have a more meaning, and the more happiness you'll get."
- Hiroe and Cornel Swen: Making a Creative Life is showing at Canberra Museum and Gallery until March 16. It has been launched as part of the Craft + Design Canberra Festival, on until November 10. craftanddesigncanberrafestival.org
