“The Planthunter is an online magazine devoted to celebrating plants and the varied ways humans interact with them.” www.theplanthunter.com.au
October 2015 ART Issue #24
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The beginning
It begins with a tree, I saw it lain down on the side of the road, partly dissected and incomplete. A great glorious tree, now saw dust, leaves and broken limbs fallen from great heights. An urge overtook me, well it took a few days to put this urge into action. I went and found a quiet back path to the place of the fallen tree. I gathered, planning on taking only what I could carry in my bright blue ikea sack, and I sat and photographed, and just was present with the tree for a while.
The day finally came, the work was finished, stretched and hung. The mentoring process that Kim and Gallery 159 provided has been a wonderful nurturing, and helpful process. I felt very prepared for the opening, and it was a wonderful group of people both physical and online that showed their support and appreciation of our work. Please accept my heartfelt thank you to everyone that is participated in this ongoing process.
The interruptions of love and making artwork becomes a clearer and clearer path as my journey unfolds, over the past week there have been two tragic passings of people in […]
The pursuit of blue has taken me on lovely journey and into a new obsession with colour…. I was lucky to have a whole weekend where I could play, and with the easy to follow directions provided by Jenai of Alchemist Inside (link below) I was able to finally make some of the shibori samples that I have been looking at online and in books for what seems like ages. It was so much easier than I had made it in my head.
IMPORTANT – use heavy duty thread i.e. linen or heavy weight quilting cotton thread, you can put a […]
Upcoming Exhibition
The last few months have passed in a blur, my head down working on the final preparation for the upcoming exhibition in September. Contemporary artist Kim Schoenberger has been mentoring me while I put together a body of work entitled ‘Lovingly Interrupted’ which will be shown along side Kim’s own established work ‘Expressions of Love II’. I feel immensely gracious to have this opportunity and petrified as well to really, truly have a body of work that will be in a public space, opening 14th September 3.30pm at Gallery 159, Payne Road, The Gap, Brisbane.
Using materials from our surroundings to make art and objects was imparted on me at a young age. I was born in the city, and moved to Arnhem land in the Northern Territory as a child. This was a traditional island, weaving, carving, bark painting, dyeing fibre, gathering, hunting in season and preparing in the traditional ways was part of everyday life.
We were there for a few years, this planted the seed and my mother is a maker, spinning, weaving and stitching in the background. So my younger years were spent in this way. As a young adult my path […]
Preparing for the Workshop at The Cooroora Institute and mini Exhibition for Materials of Place meant a new body of work. I have been exploring my own journeys and surroundings, using the dyeing process for a few years now. This was the first time I had been invited to present and explore. Having accountability and purpose really helped me stay on track, the workshop and exhibition are proving a wonderful way to hone my skills and make the process repeatable and documented in a way that can be shared. My mud map and the initial collection pictured above is entitled […]
The humble nest has taken on a multitude of meanings, as I sit and construct and doodle in 3D, with whatever materials are on hand I find my mind drifting off on many tangents. As I become more aware of truly owning my footprint on this planet, value in everything that passes through my hands becomes apparent. Recycling and landfill become challenged as solutions for ‘waste’ that is created in our opulent society. I was given a glass jar the other day, (with some leaves that I was trying to get some dye from) I asked, “Would you […]
This story is about why I spend endless hours making scarves, why not ranges of garments, or ‘fashion’?.
My upbringing was that of a preacher and a teachers’ daughter in the Northern Territory of Australia, our childhood was full of experiences not possessions. So as we moved to the city in my teenage years ‘brands’ and ‘fashion’ consumed me. I loved sewing and making and so the allure to work and be fashionable took me on a journey.
(Golbourn Island NT Australia 1978 making paper Hats)
It is an interesting concept to explore the […]
The highlight of last week was Kim Schoenberger’s exhibition at the Noosa Regional, I went to the artists talk for the exhibition “Expressions of Love II” and came away completely in love with the work and process, inspired to get going on some of my own projects. Kim began her journey with her mother over a cup of tea and in 2010 presented the first collection of work that shared her story of her mothers passing, using traditional women’s skills she crafted a quilt and other objects that were made entirely of tea bags collected by her mother and friends. […]
