Product Description"Prodigal Daughters affirms what artists have always known, that their work has an inner spiritual source and power. It weaves the arts of music, dance, drama, literature, architecture and visual forms into a living tapestry of sounds, shapes, colours, words and movements as dynamic influences in the bloodstream of society – challenging, enriching and awakening us to beauty and our own potentials.  Written in a lively and engaging style, this innovative book is accessible despite treating profound truths that shape human destiny.  Helen Martineau celebrates artistic expression with an original vision that discloses the nature of the creative process and connects with the deepest layers of the self. The reader is invited to re-imagine themselves and the world through perspectives from the arts by undertaking this journey with a sure guide who has been a practising artist for most of her life."About the Author"Helen Martineau trained in dance and visual art in Australia and as a young mother in England completed a Bachelor of Arts through the Open University. Her love of music led her to learn classical guitar and sing in a choir. She has enjoyed a varied and fruitful career as a performer and choreographer, as well as a creative movement, English and humanities teacher. As a community arts worker she collaborated with musicians, actors, writers and the occasional film maker – reinforcing her open-minded, interdisciplinary approach to the arts. Helen has a keen interest in deep history and the changes in human consciousness. Her investigation of the arts has been driven by an awareness of how the spiritual manifests across time within the world’s diverse cultures. Allied with this has been a personal quest for meaning through metaphysical knowledge that impinges directly on every aspect of her life and work. Becoming an author was a culmination, the re-emergence of youthful talents and a new creative adventure. Helen continues to write both fiction and non-fiction on themes close to her heart.  She has two children from her marriage to theatre director and painter, the late Peter Oyston, and four grandchildren. She lives and works in leafy and cosmopolitan urban Melbourne with her present husband, mathematician and unorthodox theologian Stephen Cugley. They regularly attend the concerts and exhibitions taking place in this culture rich city.      "