With the concept of Ma in mind, my response to this project was one of simplicity; An ellipsis, graphically shown as a group of three dots, suggests a pause, an omission, or something left unsaid. Placing a sequence of words within the dots and now they offer the capacity to concisely illustrate thoughts, scenarios and action. Working in a variety of fonts, fabrics, and sizes, I aimed to capture ‘a quiet moment in thought’, grouped within each three dot/three word sequence. read more...
So…WE…SEW
CASM – Contemporary Art Space Mandurah
So…We…Sew 2024
255 x 194 cm, blue and green fabrics, stranded cotton, fusible web, cotton batting, cardboard, plywood.
So…We…Sew [detail]
So…We…Sew [detail]
PATIENCE
My Dad designed and built our family caravan. School holidays meant travelling, exploring and playing.
The cards we played with now cover our much loved van with memories.
Recycled cardboard, playing cards, knitting needles, glue, paint.
40 x 25 x 40 cm
The Promise of a Happy Ending
PROMISE gave me the impetus to explore ‘fairy stories’ – strongly influenced by my recent book purchase of the original Grimm’s Fairy Tales.
Attributes of a good Fairy Tale include the promise of good pitted against evil, triumphing over adversity and living happily ever after. Originally published in 1812, and later added to, these tales are timeless, succinct, and beautifully written.
Distilling an image or symbol from each of my chosen stories, was much more difficult than I anticipated – a challenge that surprised then eventually excited me.
300 x 250 cm
Mill House
Tasked to respond to the title LOCALE for a group exhibition at Lost Eden Gallery, Dwellingup, I decided, in a roundabout way, to celebrate an important part of the town of Dwellingup – the weatherboard Mill Houses. The town was rebuilt after the 1961 bushfires with many Mill Houses relocated replacing those lost.
To me these houses are a constant reminder of our resilient and caring community.
Twelve pieces, sizes variable: largest 40 x 28 cm to smallest 26 x 18 cm
Runaway Talent
wall pieces #1 – #20
My father-in law made his living as a house painter - his brushes a testament to his occupation. The size and heft of these brushes impress me. The imprint of colour and their worn shapes delight me. He will not go down in history as a ‘great’ painter, though perhaps he can now share the title with these famous artists by association?
Materials: old used paintbrushes, cardboard, linen fabric, ink, batting, glue, d-rings.
Technique: digital printing on fabric, mounted on card, glued to a paintbrush
Various dimensions: largest 18 x 59 x 3.5 to smallest 3 x 35.5 x 2 cm
overwhelmed
Years ago in a market in Spain I purchased this old, scratched, and worn etching printed on heavy card stock. It was cut in half to fit in my suitcase as I planned to merely photograph the fine patterning details of the print and to build a ‘library’ of textures for future use. Alas, the print needed a second life.
Deep box frames were constructed around the original prints with copies made to mirror the images on the sides. Dried flowers were glued in position and a taut layer of black tulle was stretched over the boxes, veil-like, to both soften the prints’ disrepair and reference the mourning of the woman and her children.
Materials: An old etching plus mirror copies digitally printed on heavy card stock.
Dried flowers from ‘gifted’ bouquets. Tulle, glue, glass, wooden frame.
Techniques: Line drawing to mute damaged areas.
Photography, digital printing. Floral collage.
Dyptych each panel 37.5 x 55 x 10 cm
The Ferry Vases – series 3 #1 – 3
The Ferry Vases – series 3
#1 – 3
Victorian Art Pottery Co. was established in 1901 in Victoria by a relative, William Ferry. I inherited two ‘family’ vases and whilst they are not fancy, they have been a part of ‘my’ story for a very long time. My homage, my contemporary versions, combine the forms of ‘my V.A.P’ vases but here are covered in fabrics digitally printed from photos.
These photos have an ‘old air’ the colouring of the book that they were sourced from, ‘Wildflowers of Western Australia’ by C.A.Gardiner, published in 1968.
The paintings were the work of Edgar Dell
Materials: Wheel thrown bisque clay vases - made by Robert Hawes.
Cotton batting, glue, digital print fabrics, cotton thread, ribbon
Techniques: Batting glued to vases, fabrics hand stitched to cover.
1. 25 x 14 cm ; 2. 21 x 17 cm ; 3. 21.5 x 11 cm
little by little the bird makes its nest
SERIES #1 – #15
‘Little by little the bird makes its nest’ is a French Proverb.
Our treed yard in Dwellingup is always filled with birds. They regularly gift feathers but various birds also nest here - most of these nests were found on the ground in our backyard. It is one thing to collect and esteem them, yet another thing to be able to regularly view them placed back up high.
Materials: found nests, ceramic mounts (ceramic, paint), twigs, twine & glue, Techniques: hand built ceramic plinths, painted constructed ladders
dimensions are variable from 11 x 19 to 15 x 35cm
armour/amour
I walk the roads and tracks around Dwellingup to immerse myself in the sights and sounds of the bush. I collect feathers on these outings which directs my gaze, viewing in minute detail, exploring with appreciation and respect.
These suits of armour express the need for protection.
#2 wears the V of victory– these ‘twenty-eight’ parrots live without fear of falling numbers in our Jarrah and Marri forest.
#3 wears the breast feathers of female red-tailed black cockatoos which need protection against the impositions of human encroachment.
Materials: Feathers - breast feathers from female red-tailed black cockatoos & from twenty-eight parrots
Silk/satin hemp, thread, batting, interfacing, fusible web, beads., Techniques: Machine stitching, hand stitching, beading.
33 x 39 cm
#1– beating our breasts feathers
#2 – victors
#3 – the straight and narrow
now I lay me – SERIES 1 & 2
I collect feathers on my regular walks in the bush around Dwellingup. Seven years of collecting ‘down’ are held inside these pillows – hundreds of ‘soft, warmth and comfort’ feathers in each. These works tell many stories - of the bush, of birds, of ‘cockies’ making a living on the land, of youth and age, of life and death.
Though a city girl for most of my life my early days were spent on a farm. That experience, whilst non existent in my memory is very much a part of who I am.
Sixteen pillows, filled with down, each carrying words to make up the verse.
Series 1 – Materials: Silk and cotton fabrics, down feathers, thread. Technique: Digital print, hand stitch, machine stitch.
Series 2 – Materials: Linen fabric, down feathers, thread. Technique: Digital print, hand stitch, machine stitch.
SERIES 1
SERIES 2
Now I lay me – Series 3 # 1 – 6
Six stitched mattresses
SERIES #1
Six mattresses, responding to my initial versions of Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep…
Materials: Outer - Silk and cotton fabrics, thread, leather ‘buttoning’,
Inner - five layers of an old woollen blanket, synthetic batting, cotton batting, glue
Techniques: Machine stitch, hand stitch
Pillow sizes variable – approximately 28 x 19 cm
Schools in, in the Deep & Briny Blue
Sardines are amongst the tiddlers of the ocean – ubiquitous. When massing in schools and swirling in the deep their iridescent colour gently glows.
Total size – 1m x 1.2m (wxh) variable
Materials – fabric (silk, linen, cotton), thread, buttons/beads, watercolour paint, coloured pencil. Technique – free machine stitching, painting, hand stitch.
‘Pick up your skirts'
Celebrating the unfashionable and the seemingly insignificant has become, to me, an important honouring – a link to the past with an understanding of the importance of unimportant. Curiosity, my research default, starts with the lure of history, and blooms amongst small, often insignificant, details and tales.
The theme for The December Gallery, 2019, Seeds from Home, pushed me into personal territory to explore three places I call home.
‘Pick up your skirts’ is a specific nod to three dedicated ‘collecting ladies’ – Margaret Forrest, Ellis Rowan and Marianne North - whose expertise with the paintbrush in recording those plants immortalised them.
Tulle, fabrics – silk satin hemp, silk, linen, stiffened cotton, voile. Handstitch, machine stitched detailing.
#1 – Qualup Bell
60 x 155 cm
#2 – Mottlecah
60 x 144 cm
#3 – Macropidia
60 x 170 cm
Fortune favours the makers
Sometimes it is a long road to marry an exhibition theme with the way one works.
The Mysterium theme started with the word’s origin, misterium, meaning craft guild and lead, eventually, to fortune cookies and their positive messages;
You will be fortunate in everything you put your hands to.
You will find an outlet for your creative genius and accomplish a great deal.
Your talents will be recognised and suitably rewarded.
I now had a way to celebrate domestic makers – the undervalued, unrecognised and unofficial craft ‘guilds’.
Photographing and digitally printing my collection of (undervalued ) domestic needlework onto fabric is where my delight in this work resides.
fortune favours the makers #2 2013
sculptural pieces twenty pieces each 15 x16 x12 cm (approx)