2023 Work
November’s Daily Dialogue (details 9 of 30), 4.5" x 5.5" each. From the series, A Year Commemorating the Earth & I, 2023. Ongoing.
At the beginning of January 2023, I started a project that challenged me, my process and tenacity. My goal was to create a daily dialogue between myself and the materials I use in my art. My intention was to use only repurposed textiles and unconventional objects within each piece. The alternative items such as found littered plastic gradually made it’s way into the pieces later in the year. I didn’t know where this was going to lead me, and goodness knows what possessed me to begin such an undertaking! It may have been my obsession with hand sewing, which developed during my health crisis in the US. My husband gifted me a book Christmas 2018, “Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art (2015)” by Claire Wellesley-Smith shortly after my diagnosis. My love of this simple yet powerfully enriching practice of sewing thread through a piece of cloth was borne out of a need to connect with something tactile. So began a year long journey, documenting fragments of my daily life, observations, and experiences.
During my treatment and the problematic years that followed, I found solace in hand stitching, with no particular aspiration to make a finished piece. The focus was on my health and my practice as an artist was put on hold while I healed. It’s only now, that I have felt ready to push myself as an artist. Essentially, my visual vocabulary went into deep hibernation since I graduated with an undergraduate degree in 2006.
Hand sewing daily continues as an important part of my creative process, and since beginning this series, my work has evolved and become more refined in terms of subject matter and colour palette. Drawing has also been deeply rooted within me, and it’s the foundation of my art practice. Sharing my work with my daughters and involving them in my creative process is really important too. For me, art in any discipline, is about sharing ideas, processes and involving the community. It should be available to all.
However challenging this 2023 project was at the time during it’s creation, it allowed me to develop concepts that were laying dormant for so long. I now have the problem of solving the display of 365 pieces. Originally, I was going to lay each month onto a large piece of calico fabric, so there would be 12 months hung. I am still unsure that this would be the best way to show these and whether or not I should frame them individually. There is still work that needs to be finished on this project before I decide on the displaying issues. For now, I’m still enjoying the process, and learning more about myself and my artworld.
