Thandi Sliepen is a self taught painter, sculptor, poet and gardener living in Ladybrand in the Free State with her two children. Born in 1971 in Mowbray, Cape Town, she left South Africa in 1976 and eventually settled with her family in New Zealand. Thandi returned to South Africa in 1991 and has been based predominantly in the Free state ever since. Recently Thandi has opened an small art gallery in her home in Ladybrand and built a cob house in her garden 'the Mill', an earthen abode where she grinds wheat for herself and locals and which also doubles as an unusual Air B&B experience. Though involved in many art forms Thandi says poetry was her first love.