Last weekend Stageman appeared on The Block on the Nine Network. The show's segment was on hallways, and Stageman was delivering two artworks commissioned by contestant Georgia (Ronnie & Georgia Caceres).

Every artwork that Stageman makes, she writes a story to go with it. Her description brought emotional tears to Georgia, and an embrace between Lizzy and Georgia, who loved the artwork and story.

Since the appearance, sales of prints of the two artworks listed The Block online shop have hit the roof. Each work is listed at $1250 for an unframed print.

As of Wednesday, morning than 130 of Stageman's prints had sold through The Block store.

"It's all quite a blur at the moment," Stageman says during our interview on Wednesday afternoon.

Stageman and her husband Duncan moved from Dubbo to Highfields in October 2020, and bought a home they are renovating. The windfall from sale of the artworks will help them complete the work.

Her journey as an artist began long ago.

"I was quite good at art in school," she says. "I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to Newcastle Art College. Due to family reasons, I couldn't go. It was 35 years before I picked it up again."

Beset by health problems - a stroke in 2017 and breast cancer in 2018 - Stageman was still recovering when her family bought her some art supplies about three years ago.

A new fire of desire started to burn.

"I began with still life, then animals, and creating stories about animals," she says. "My colleagues and friends would say 'you are an amazing storyteller. I would say, 'they need to have a story. You can't just paint.'

"Twelve months later I did my first indigenous piece, for fun. I put it on Facebook and my friend jumped up and said 'I have to have that'.

Stageman is a proud descendant of the Wiradjuri Ngiyampaa and Barkindji nations. She is a self-taught artist, who picked up some technique from a cousin who lived with the family for a while.

"I learnt from watching and sharing with him how to carve emu eggs, how to leatherwork, draw animals, even sculpt horses out of mud," she says.

Stageman was encouraged by the positive response to her work. Her inner spirit was telling her "you need to go down this path".

"My culture was calling me to start doing my Indigenous work. In a way, I could heal myself and others in the process. Everyone has gone through the pain and emotions I had saved up inside me for 35 years and I had to get out," she says.

She started showing with a friend at a pop-up gallery in Dubbo, Creative Fusions, with great success.

But everything changed when she reached out to The Block Shop. She was a long-time fan of the show.

"It's been lifechanging in so many ways," she says as she explains the sequence of events.

It began with a conversation with one of her sons, who asked her what she thought was in store for her future.

"I responded to him, that 'My goal is one day feature on The Block!' That afternoon I sent an email to The Block Shop asking how I could sell my artwork through the online store, not thinking I would get a reply. Five days later I got a reply, saying that a contestant had seen my work and wanted to commission me to paint some artwork for hallway week."

Unbeknown to Stageman, Georgia had been searching for a particular Indigenous artist to put in her hallway. "It was just freaky timing that I sent an email. Georgia had given up hope of finding that person. I popped into her life," she says.

The Block Shop put them in touch with each other. Stageman had a sketch, Georgia had a colour palette. A deal was done. Over a crazy week, Stageman produced two paintings, her son framed the work and Stageman and her husband delivered the paintings to the set of The Block in Melbourne.

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