Painting has become more of my practice, but the thing that people seem to connect with is the floral portraits. In creating these I am always working against time; sometimes I’ll get some flowers, but they die before I get to arrange and photograph them, which is tragic. But for me, the floral portraits are kind of about life and death – there is a beauty within it all.

You started out as a nurse. What was the genesis of that career choice?

I grew up around hospitals because my father was a cardiologist in Auckland. My childhood was going on ward rounds with him. The natural trajectory for me was either to go to art school because I was always interested in art, or nursing. Nursing allowed me to travel and was a practical job. I felt at home in hospitals, they felt familiar to me. My father brought me up to always help others.

I watched him selflessly give himself for years and years to the public system. I found nursing hugely satisfying. I found, as a young person, being able to care for somebody who is vulnerable gave me a profound sense of meaning. It was an incredibly worthwhile thing to be doing.

You’re still giving back, but now as an artist.

Yes! Once a nurse, always a nurse. Becoming an artist in my later years, I am able to give back in a different way. Through creating the imagery that I do I feel like I’m still caring for people, but now it’s through my art. I offered to do this because it is something I feel I have to do. I have to help with my work. I want it to have some meaning. I hope the scarves bring joy and that the people who wear them feel that they are wrapped up in some beauty. I hope it will uplift them, make them feel wonderful.

It’s not the first time you have given your work to a good cause.

I have donated my work to hospitals, hospices, places where women are having their chemotherapy where they can look at these images that bring them hope and beauty. I get a lot of anecdotal feedback about how my work somehow uplifts people. I had a message recently from a woman who was sitting in a cancer treatment waiting room who said she was looking at a picture of my dahlias and that it never failed to bring her joy. She said ‘thank you for bringing joy and colour and nature and deliciousness at times that seemed devoid of these things’. For me to have a profound impact on somebody as they are going through something like chemotherapy is pretty amazing.

What can flowers do to lift our spirits?

There is growing empirical research that flowers enhance mental health. I saw this when I was 10 and my father asked me to come and paint something on the glass windows of the patients’ rooms when they were stuck in hospital at Christmas time. I painted big flowers and Christmas trees and I saw their faces light up. Having worked in hospitals and been a patient myself I’ve seen the importance of having something really beautiful to look at. I do think we need beauty for survival.

Did you have a garden growing up?

Yes. Both my parents had gardens. My father would go out and buy 10 varieties of camellia and rhododendron and he’d plant them all together. Now he’s 87 and he is obsessed with roses. My mother was a beautiful gardener. She made it full of colour, planting geraniums, daisies. It was a mad, rambling place. Like the forgotten garden.

Originally, my garden was mostly just green. But in 2024 I had a hysterectomy and was out of action for quite a while and I needed something that would make me feel good, so I created a garden that would be a haven, a place I could look out at when I was recovering. It brought me so much joy and beauty.

Bass’ wool and silk scarves can be bought from breastcancercure.org.nz from April 21. Scarf and artwork available at 52 Tyler St, Britomart 29th April - 4th May.