Oops, there are no images here! I hope to
rectify that when I return from the USA in July. In the meantime,
some thoughts on how my work has evolved appear below. You can
also find images of recent work in the article about my work in the June
2007 issue of Down Under Quilts.
My early
quilts were complex, combining hand-printing and a variety of stitching
processes to depict the Australian landscape.
In 1994, assisted by a travel scholarship, I began to explore old
textiles, both from
Australia
and other cultures. Under
their influence my images of the Australian landscape became more
abstract, pared down, much simpler.
Discovering
a patched Japanese futon in a Tokyo
flea-market, I was amazed at how similar it was to patched ‘Waggas’,
our early Australian utilitarian quilts.
The art of making do, creating something out of nothing, is a
common thread in all cultures, and is part of my own family heritage.
So I felt great empathy for old Japanese domestic textiles,
wonders stitched from meagre resources.
I gradually amassed a large collection of
precious scraps of old fabric, fragments with damaged stitching,
faded areas, holes or patches which provide hints about their previous
life.
As I
became more absorbed by the old fabrics and their history, I was
diverted from the landscape imagery which had always been the central
core of my work. Whilst it
still appears on occasion, it is submerged, more often than not, by my need
to work directly with my old fragments, making quilts which reflect both
their history and mine. You
can see a sampling of these on the exhibitions page. My recent
work will be added later in the year when my website is
redesigned.
