Artistic progression

Since my last post, I've continued to play in the studio - including weighing down pva-coated leather as it dried so it retained a stretched format, painting and stitching on 'glass' organza, needle-felting over wire armature, botanical dyeing, and creating fragments with silk paper, cricula cocoons and thread.

Most importantly, design-wise I believe I have found a way to both explore the imagery I have of King Island and represent it in both a meaningful and an artistic way. It was hard to tear myself away from the desire to simply try and reproduce the magic of my photographs, although ultimately I knew this wouldn't work. Like most things, with time, it found it's own way. An overarching theme, within which I could include elements of my photographs, emerged. Suddenly, 20 or so images which were important to me found a way of coalescing into a series of work which made sense, and allowed for focus to be dedicated to the parts I was most interested in. I feel like I have made that leap from simply replicating an image, to using it to create a work which is uniquely my own.

Other images have found their way towards fully sculptural interpretation, which I look forward to experimenting with further. These are the ideas that float around at 3-5am! Suddenly, I seem to have created a vast number of sketches which need to be fulfilled! The book of selected photos I had printed when I returned has been a very useful tool, although it is amazing how often I look for an image that isn't there. Images I initially didn't rate as vital have now become so! The constant scanning through it, and the computer files, sorted into weeks and days can be very time consuming, so on my latest plan of work I made sure to note the file number on each sketch! And they say artists are disorganised......

It seems fortunate in many ways that I had pre-determined my wish to try and create this project with as much of my own materials and that which I could scavenge second hand. TST (These Strange Times) has now made that somewhat of a necessity, but I couldn't be better placed to not only survive, but thrive. I've uncovered amazing fabrics which I have dyed over the years, hand-dyed yarns I've bought, fabrics gifted from friends, dyes unused for many years now coming to the fore as I work through synthetic fabric off-cuts. I am almost entirely unaffected by TST, and once again recognise the fortunate umbrella I live under. Days spent sewing and painting in my studio are special, and I hope one day that the result of this this work will be seen as special by others!