Ruby Ball Cactus

Born in New Zealand in 1946, Claudia Pond-Eyley spent her early years in Canada and USA. After returning home she studied fine art at Elam, graduating in 1968, and later graduating as a secondary school teacher in 1969. She has been an active member of the Womens Artists Association in Auckland and has regularly contributed posters and prints in support of antinuclear protests, women's issues in law and the workplace and environmental causes. Her images have appeared in numerous publications, and with Robin White she wrote and illustrated 28 days in Kiribati. She has had many public commissions, from community murals in Mount Eden to a major series of paintings for the Auckland High Court in 1990, which tell the Maori and Pakeha histories of the Auckland isthmus. Pond-Eyley lectures in free hand drawing at the School of Architecture, Auckland University and has recently completed her Masters of Fine Arts at Auckland University.