MISERONLEVI

Before the Rails, There Was Rugby League

Long before the railway tracks and long before Sea My Culture, there was another great passion in Misi's life. Rugby League.

As a young man fresh out of high school, Misi's football journey took him south to Redcliffe, north of Brisbane, where he played with the Redcliffe Dolphins during the early 1990s.

For a young island man away from home, Rugby League became much more than a game. It was a time of hard training, competition, discipline, mateship and discovering just how far determination could take him.
Then came a special year 1994.

Misi was part of the Redcliffe District Rugby League Football Club's BRL South East Division Open Grade Premiership team, an achievement proudly captured in an old team photograph that remains part of his story today.

There are photographs of the young Misi from those years — wearing the red and white, running onto the field with the football tucked firmly under his arm, and standing alongside the teammates with whom he shared that chapter of his life.

Years have passed since those playing days, but some things have remained.
The friendships. The memories. The laughter when old teammates meet again.

For Misi, Rugby League became another part of the journey that helped shape the man he would become — teaching him about commitment, teamwork, resilience and getting back up and carrying on.

The games eventually finish.The friendships don't.

When Misi's Rugby League days eventually came to an end, another journey was waiting for him.
Misi built a career as a professional rail welder, developing a highly skilled trade that would take him far beyond home and across many parts of Australia.

Over the years, his work has taken him to different states around the country, working on Australia's rail networks and spending long periods away from family, community and the island life he knows so well.
Today, Misi continues that journey in Western Australia, working full-time welding rail tracks.
It's demanding work.

Long days, remote locations and the harsh Australian conditions are simply part of the job. But Misi has always understood the value of hard work, something carried with him from his younger days and strengthened through years of Rugby League, travel and life experience.
There is an interesting contrast in Misi's world.

Much of his working life is spent surrounded by steel, sparks, machinery and railway tracks.
Yet the place where he feels most at home couldn't be more different.
It is surrounded by salt water, boats, reefs, family and the sea.

And whenever the opportunity comes to leave the railway tracks behind and return home to Zenadth Kes, Misi knows exactly where he wants to be.
Back on the water.

No matter how far Misi's work has taken him across Australia, there is one place that will always call him home.

Zenadth Kes.

For Misi, returning to the islands means returning to family, culture, community, and to the sea that has been part of his life since childhood.
Misi is a mad fisherman.

Whenever he gets the chance to return home to St Pauls Community on Moa Island, it doesn't take long before he's back on the water.

Fishing, diving and spearfishing are more than ways to pass the time. They reconnect Misi with the environment he grew up around, the salt water, reefs and marine life of his island home.
But for Misi, one of the best parts of a successful day on the water comes after the fishing is finished.
It's coming home with a good catch.
And sharing it.

Misi has always enjoyed sharing what he catches with family. There is something simple and beautiful about returning from the sea with enough to put food on other people's tables as well as his own.
There doesn't need to be a big announcement.
You catch.
You bring it home.
You share.

It's simply part of the person Misi is.
And perhaps this is where another part of Misi's story begins to make sense.

Because when you look at the colourful marine life, ocean imagery and cultural influences appearing throughout his digital artwork, you begin to see that the sea isn't simply somewhere Misi goes fishing.
It's part of the world that inspires him.

And eventually, that connection between sea, culture and creativity would find a name of its own.
Sea My Culture.

There is another side to Misi that you might never guess from seeing him working beside a railway track.
Misi is an artist.

Away from the steel, sparks and machinery of his working life, Misi has developed a passion for digital art — a creative world where colour, imagination, culture and his connection to the sea come together.
His creations are bold and vibrant.

Fish, turtles, octopus and other marine life appear throughout his work, alongside cultural influences and imagery connected to the world Misi knows and loves.
For Misi, inspiration isn't something he has to search very far to find.
It comes from home.

It comes from the ocean he grew up around, the creatures beneath its surface, the colours and memories of island life, and his connection to Zenadth Kes.
And perhaps that is what makes his artwork so personal.

Misi isn't simply creating pictures of the sea.
He is creating from a life shaped by it.

Over time, what began as a personal passion grew into something more. Misi's digital creations needed a home of their own — somewhere they could be shared, seen and celebrated.

And from that passion came a name that seems to capture everything beautifully:

SEA MY CULTURE

The creative world of Miseron “Misi” Levi.

Sea My Culture brings together two things that have remained deeply connected throughout Misi's life — his culture and the sea.

Through his art, Misi has found another way to carry a little piece of home with him, even when his work takes him thousands of kilometres away.

And then something happened that marked an important new chapter in his journey as an artist.

Someone saw Misi's work, and asked him to create something especially for them.
His first commissioned artwork.

Every artist has milestones.

For Misi, one of those moments came when his digital artwork moved beyond something he created for himself and became something another person wanted him to create especially for them.

Misi received his first commissioned artwork from Dennis Fay, founder and owner of Salty Monkeys.
The brief resulted in Misi creating an original anchor design in his own distinctive digital style.
For someone who had been developing his creativity through Sea My Culture, this was an important moment.

Someone had seen what Misi could do.
And they trusted him to create.

Misi took that opportunity and turned it into an artwork that would eventually leave the digital screen altogether.

His anchor design was reproduced on Salty Monkeys apparel, allowing Misi to see something that had begun as an idea in his imagination become a finished design that another person could actually wear.
For Misi, it was his first taste of something different.

See The Anchor design

His art wasn't only being seen anymore.

It was being chosen.

And that first commission opened another possibility for Sea My Culture, that Misi's creativity could one day become more than a personal passion.

It could become something he shares with other people.
Something created for individuals, businesses and collaborations.
Something that carries a little of Misi's artistic fingerprint into the world.
The rail welder who spends his working days joining steel had quietly discovered another way of making connections.

This time, through art.

Misi's journey has taken him a long way from the shores of Moa Island.

From the football fields of Redcliffe to railway tracks stretching across Australia, from welding steel in remote parts of the country to sitting quietly creating digital art, Misi has experienced many different chapters in his life.

But none of those chapters has changed where he comes from.

Home is still home.

It is St Pauls Community. (Senpol)It is Moa Island.It is Zenadth Kes.It is family and community.

It is the smell of the salt water, getting back into the boat, diving beneath the surface, spearfishing, bringing home a catch and sharing it with the people he loves.

Those things aren't simply memories of where Misi grew up.
They are part of who he is.

Perhaps that is why the sea continues to find its way into his artwork.

The fish.The turtles.The marine life.The colours.The cultural influences.

Through Sea My Culture, pieces of the world that shaped Misi are finding their way into something new — expressed through the eyes and imagination of the man he has become.

Misi may spend much of his working life thousands of kilometres from his island home, but distance has never been able to take home away from him.

Because home isn't only a place Misi returns to.

It's something he carries within him.

And whether he's standing beside a railway track in Western Australia, holding a football from another chapter of his life, diving into the waters of Zenadth Kes, sharing his catch with family, or sitting quietly creating his next piece of digital art...

He is still the same island boy from St Pauls.

Still connected to his people.Still connected to his culture.Still connected to the sea.