MOMENTO MORI - REMEMBER YOU MUST DIE

2002 - Momento Mori - Remember You Must Die - Tweed River Regional Art Gallery - solo artist in exhibition.  Funded with grant from NSW Government.  Piece from exhibition.  65 cm tall.  Lustres and gold leaf, stoneware fired.  Private collection.

PAST LIFE IN CERAMICS

I started my creative life as a potter, throwing mugs and jugs and casseroles.  I was at one with clay and could not wait to get up each day and go to the studio.  I moved into making art pieces and some fourteen years later was producing pieces such as the one in the photo.  I fell in love with lustre work and gold leaf and worked only in black glazes thus being a foil for the light that was brought into the pieces by the gold additions.  I showed in galleries and exhibitions from Brisbane to Melbourne, was a finalist in the Fletcher Challenge Award in New Zealand, was published in Craft Arts and in a book of modern craftspeople.  My works are held in public and private collections.  It was a busy and satisfying journey.  I stopped at one stage for four years and on the death of my husband I moved back into ceramics.  I loved the lifestyle and the incredibly talented and interesting people I met.  I had been born with an extra rib in my neck and it caused me much pain over the years and finally I sold the kiln and moved into textiles.  It is all just a journey really, a grand adventure, no matter what the media one works in.  I still dream some nights that I am over the wheel and the clay is running through my fingers. 

MORNING WALK

A morning walk through bushland near where I live resulted in finding Wattle flowers and I brought some home to mono print onto fabric.  I chose one of my hand dyed fabrics that reminded me of the glorious yellow of the wattles in bloom and mono printed the found pieces onto the surface in fabric paints.  I quilted it closely in lines in varying directions to suggest the light falling through the leaves. 

MORE LANDSCAPE MONOPRINTING

Working the paint up in translucent layers to suggest the wearing of time on the landscape.  This is from a mountain on Cooplacurripa Station in New South Wales.  As a child I drove through this station to get to the coast from Nowendoc, once a fortnight my father would take us to get supplies and the road through this station was the shortest route to the coast.  In fact it was a long journey of some two and a half hours . I was always fascinated with the bare hills that spoke to me of something ancient and primitive, laying in the landscape like huge monoliths.  I have tried to capture that feeling in this piece. 

EXPLORING ABSTRACT LANDSCAPES

I paint large canvasses and often find the canvas confronting before I begin.  I am using monoprinting to explore images as a source of ideas for larger works.  Australia is in drought in parts of the country, the worst for a long time, towns are running out of water as dams and creeks run dry.  This piece is inspired by the drought and shows a dry watercourse on a sun burnt hillside.  The actual size is 12 x  14 inches however have matted it here at 11 x 11. 

SINGLE BANKSIA STEM PRINT

A small print of a section of a Banksia branch, with detailing in the centre using Derwent  pencils.  Although it has been dry for months and a lot of the country is in the grip of a very bad drought this tree seems to thrive in my garden and I never hose it.  All my native trees and bushes are holding up well, however the introduced species are now struggling badly. 

BANKSIA INTEGRIFOLIA or COASTAL BANKSIA TREE

This Banksia is actually in my garden.  I lived on an island once in Moreton Bay and a version of this tree grew profusely on the island, along the waterfront  their root systems held the banks of the high shore areas tightly in their grip, stopping erosion caused by the winds and weather systems which tended to be very frightening in a storm.  The conditions were harsh and many similar coastal environments in Australia boast this beautiful tree filled with yellow flower heads.  Print 12 x 20 inches. 

GREVILLEA PRINT 2.

A smaller print from the Grevillea tree, this time with colour pencil addition.  A leaf from the bush is to the right of the print.   The tree is very hardy and requires little water  and provides food for the local birds so is a wonderful garden addition.  Blossoms come in a large range of colours from soft pinks through to yellows.  The species in my garden will grow to between eight to ten feet.

MONO PRINTING AND MAPPING

I have been making it a practice to get up each morning and do a monoprint from my garden.  This print is taken from a Grevillea bush, a native of Australia.  It attracts birds such as the Blue Eyed Honeyeater into my garden who drink from the nectar then delight in taking crazy dive bomb exercises into our pool.   At the moment I am mapping the garden, in time I want to map various areas with the native flora near where I live.  I am doing a display in my local library next year and this work is the foundation for the exploration of that display.  I live in a bayside suburb of Brisbane with mangrove walks and bushland ringing the waters here which will provide rich pickings for monoprints.  It is a quiet way of working and I am finding a new direction through monoprints from my previous works in art and quilting.  There is something about the clean images on paper that really appeals.