How and why my work changed

How and why my work changed

I had long been a textile artist, printing, dying and stitching fabric for both the retail and corporate market and for my own creative pleasure. I exhibited regularly and my works sit in collections in Europe and the US as well as here in Australia.

I was involved in two serious car accidents firstly in 2009 and then again in 2014. The first significantly impeded my creativity and just as I was regaining momentum the second badly broke my left shoulder and my right wrist leading to multiple surgeries over a number of years and permanent restriction in my left arm. I’m left-handed.

I made a decision in the many weeks in hospital that I would use my time productively and with purpose. I slowly drew 4cm drawings as a tonal exercise with the hope that I would eventually be able to take them further.

Fast forward 6 months and I found a fellow artist within walking distance of home with a flatbed press who was happy to not only show me some unconventional ways of printing that would suit my limited capacity but also to assist me in exploring how these would suit my work.

In 2016 with both my children living overseas, I decided to make for each of them a small concertina book of the indigenous plants around me. Plants they had grown up with and identified as home. My exploration of a new way of working was beginning to take shape.

I quickly realized that our seasons are not expressed by autumn leaves, bare branches, blossom and leafy green but the change of light and colour, along with accompanying flowers and seeds.

Starting in January of 2017 I decided to print a 6cm square to represent how I was experiencing that month. Each square was made up of 2 prints meeting on the diagonal. I continued adding each month on the same sheet of paper until December. I produced 3 of these in 2017. Each had been through the press at least 24 times. Each month dated and posted on Instagram with a description of the light /colour at that time. I didn’t set out for this to be yearly project but as the years rolled over I was curious to see how the next would differ.

Individual prints were also created and some became artist books which gave me cause to experiment with different means of incorporating the artwork. At the end of each year I had at least one new book.