Papermaking weekend

 

Happy Easter to all. I have been fortunate to have some time to make paper this weekend. It is a big process but I love the tactile quality of the paper. I love the delicate fragility yet strength and resilience. It is worth all the hard work. I am using banana fibre again. The paper will be used to sculpt my new sculpture about memory. There is something in the making , taking apart and re creating. 

Memory

 I am currently preparing paper for my new sculpture. I am using Kozo fibre paper that I have brushed with Konnyaku starch (Momigami.) After I prepared the paste I lightly applied it to both sides of the kozo. Then folded the four corners in and then crumpled and squeezed it, then opened it back out repeating the process over and over. I love this process and  how paper has a memory. There are lots of possibilities for this type of treated paper. It feels like fabric and perfect for my memory project. 

Fabric of life

My new work has started and I am currently sending out my question in the mail to many amazing women who have so generously offered to take part. I am always so grateful for their support. The work is about memory and will include a full body sculpture and the many responses the women provide. It is such an exciting part of the process.
 

Such inspiration : Chiharu Shiota Exhibition at Goma

 What an incredible exhibition currently at Goma. I spent many hours taking in these amazing works, by Chiharu Shiota such an outstanding artist. 

Renewed Energy

 I have been very fortunate to have just spent the last two and a half weeks in the Northern Territory. Visiting Kakadu National Park, Catherine Gorge, Litchfield National Park, Nitmiluk National Park, Gunbalanya and  Davidsons Safari lodge Mount Borradaile West Arnhem land. It was truly and amazing trip. So wonderful to connect so deeply with nature, hiking through the magnificent environment trying to take in so many beautiful visual images. The highlight ,seeing incredible Aboriginal paintings at Ubirr and Nourlangie and Mt Borradaile. The serenity was just wonderful. I have come back refreshed  and ready to get into my new work based around memory.

Exhibition Tom Bass Juniper Hall Paddington Sydney

Opening night at the Tom Bass Prize for Figurative Sculpture Juniper Hall Paddington Sydney 2022

I felt very fortunate to be a finalist  and a part of the exhibition. I was in the front room accompanied by some incredible work by Paul Trefry . His work "Old Charlie liked to dip his toes in the water. " received the peoples choice award. Huge congratulations to all the winners. Maudie Brady (vic) Jess MacNeil (NSW) Fiona J Schoer and Paul Trefry and all of the finalists.

This was my piece Endure. Handmade paper from property grasses and bulrush, banana fibre, tissuetex paper thread ,methyl cellulose ,metal armature and glass beads.

It was a super fast trip down to Sydney to install the sculpture and back the next day but was able to fit in a quick trip to the Museum of Contemporary Art where I was so excited to see the  Kiki Smith tapestries. I am a huge fan of her work and the five tapestries were incredible. Each one took a year to complete in a collaborative process between the artist and the Californian fine art print studio Magnolia Editions.

 

NOW

 This is my new work  NOW. 

The shared and embodied experiences of women are an enduring inspiration in my art.

Now aims to make manifest a moment of arrival. A moment of poise and pivot in the inner and outer life of a mature woman, a luminous alchemy of her past and present.

Now is sculpted from paper I

have made myself. Apart from its tactile values, I enjoy working with handmade paper for its layered depth, subtle shifts of colour and strength, and not least its translucence. I find these qualities provide rich echoes from my exploration of womens variegated lives through time.