Sally Dove

At the age of five, it became apparent to Sally that she would become an artist. It was in Bristol Orthopaedic Hospital in England where she was treated for one and a half years suffering from Perthese hip. It was 1956 during the Mau Mau years, and her parents were relocating from Kenya, to Lesotho. When she eventually joined them in Lesotho, she couldn't be integrated into her twin sister's school and was sent to a French Catholic Convent where all the children suffered from various illnesses or disabilities. “I remember bombing up a dirt road driven by an eccentric nun in a Fiat minibus, veil and dust flying, to play music at a Leper colony. Compassion and spirituality became the bedrock of my life.” In her first year at Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT in Cape Town, she won a National Multiple-Sculpture competition. Her sculpture master, Richard Wake, entered it as she didn't believe in competing. Professor Dubow laid claim to the work on its return and she never got it back. Sculpture seemed to feature strongly in her study years that followed.