Stash, collection, hoard, cumulation, stockpile, assemblage. I have them all. Who collects offcuts that they may use one day?
Today is my day. I have two boxes collected over the years. They have been very useful but it's time to lessen the hoard of all the treasures that have been part of an artwork.
I’m making a junk journal.
The white paper has shading and the stockpile of precious collage will diminish.
Let the book begin.
Quirky art is something that appeals to me.
I focus on work I care about and these women have their own story. The connection between the past and the present gives them their own voice. Recycling, retelling, remaking and re-using old parts to give a new life to items from the past.
Maybe I've made my own fashion parade.
A plain coloured tile doesn’t have much appeal as an artwork but break them and rearrange they become something completely different.
I have several pieces made over the years using glass or clay tiles.
After 8 years weather has leeched into the grouting of the couch seat. I wished I had looked after it better and not let the moss grow as the hedge forming.
I'm about to repair it.
No matter how much space you have it never seems enough. My purpose built studio often has every surface covered with things. It's great to be able to create and return when time permits.
Sometimes I feel I've joined Pam Ayres poem about ‘Heaps of Stuff.’
I like to be surrounded by things as they are my inspiration for making but I can’t see my shelves dwindling too much.
It's amazing how recycled stuff can work as storage.
My tips for storage
I use a mapping drawers for my paper.
Cotton on wooden dowels
Yarn in wooden cubby holes
Old chest of drawers for knitting needles and magazines (these need sorting out!)
Cane basket with dividers for paint brushes
Old suitcases
Docket spike for Bernina bobbins
I’ve been silent but still creating. In late July I flew to Auckland for another operation to fix my knee replacement done 16 months ago.
It was all a mission but a successful operation and I have my life back. Awesome.
Each day I go for a walk somewhere exciting to keep the steps up and the knee moving.
I’ve even been on a bus trip. Climbing aboard wouldn’t have been possible after the first operation.
These are some photos I’ve taken on my walk. Nature is the best therapy.
We live in a great place.
I’m wearing out. I’ve had a knee replacement that has not been successful.
Every step is a painful one. I'm emerging from my chrysalis with a view to make the older generation more visible.
They have a list of valuable credentials that people seem to skim passed.
You may be surprised at what they can offer and how they can help you.
They have gone through many stages of life.
These twists and turn of life leave there mark. So many experiences.
“My life is a dot lost among thousands of other dots.” Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama has a fascinating history. I admire her gumption in standing up and creating art, despite her mother destroying some of it. She is a Japanese contemporary artist and at 91 is still creating.
In 2009 I saw her “Mirrored Years” exhibition in Wellington. The outside of the City Gallery was a mass of dots. The mirrors inside reflecting light and colour in an amazing kaleidoscope. The dots have became her trademark and she began creating “Infinity Rooms.”
The mirrored fabric represents both her dots and mirrors. The media used is stitching, dyeing and collage.
Having only grey linen during lockdown, I used red and yellow dye to brighten things up.
I took up the challenge from Keirunga Book Arts to make a book using the topic 'Circle.’
I had some old water balloons and decided to paper maché one into a sphere. After several attempts of noting which colours had perished I chose the blue one. Japanese tissue is ideal as it dries very hard with a few layers.
When dry pop the balloon and remove. Cover the small hole left. Fold the silver paper and cut with a circle cutter or scissors. Add your quote.
The quote I added around the circumference on a silver strip read,
”The next best thing to being wise is to live in a circle of those who are.” C. S. Lewis
The mini, mini circle book reads, ‘A group of people with a shared interest.'
Never too old, so the saying goes.
Recently I joined up to a Sue Stone online portrait stitch course. I’m not a great one for ‘process’ but the course is designed for practise on the basics. The next stage is for more individual detail. I’m really enjoying it.
Progress has been achieved. The blank book as been dismantled and some colour and holes added. I’m planning on attaching a spine and binding the book.
I’ve signed up to participate in the Brooklyn Sketchbook. I have plenty of time until the deadline but I’m not one to leave things to the last minute.
At first I was excited as this was going to be something to work on over the next few months.
On opening the package I saw all the blank pages and felt a little daunted at filling them.
What am I going to put on each page and more importantly, what if I make a mistake. I’m gathering my thoughts and have a few ideas.
If you are keen to join up, the link is below.
Colour to me makes things alive. It’s quite an emotional thing. My home is full of colour. I’m not a colour expert but tone on tone and vivid colours can enhance any room. I’m not brave enough to paint my walls bright but my furniture and artwork become like a gallery.
In painting blue recedes into the background and red comes forward giving a 3D effect. Traffic lights are an interesting example. Red is the colour with the longest wavelength so it was chosen for Stop as it can be seen from the greatest distance.
My garden has many colours in it. Also it’s quite random. If things grow and the precious birds drop seeds I’m happy.
Many years ago I bought a concrete bird bath from MT Pots in Haumoana. It was in pristine condition and over the years many birds have been drawn to it. They feed their babies on the grass beside it, wash themselves and play. It gives me so much pleasure watching them grow.
It's last facelift was in 2013, so I decided it was time to make it look new again. After painting it I did some research on what colour birds are attracted too. A little late, I know. Apparently they have great vision. Thrushes don’t like bright colours but prefer more earthy tones. Orange attracts hummingbirds but I don’t like my chances there!
I haven’t filled it with water yet but already a blackbird has visited.
Learning anything new can be a challenge. Last year I joined an embroidery group. Who could imagine there are so many stitches!
My husband had a saying, “You have to have the gear to do the job.” That was to justify every power tool and gadget he bought.
I’m getting there. I have books and and kit. Its quite exciting learning a new skill and I'm planning on using it in my art.
I encourage everyone to give it a go.
Embroidery is slow but satisfying. I have had to set a few goals though, otherwise it will not be finished until next year. The push is on to do a row a day. Progress is being made. My first sampler.
As we slowly moved into the the exhibition there was no talking but more gasps at the shear scale of this exhibition. 546 panels stitched by over 600 people. After 125 years these women are still treasured for their hardship, resilience and determination, this is their memory.
I shed a tear looking from one panel to the next. It was overwhelming as each one seemed to find a voice.
I cherish this moment and congratulate every single person who was involved especially Caroline O’Reilly.
Thanks also to Wendy Welsh and Ryan Jennings for some of the photos
Its open until 31 August at the Wellington Museum.
When something wears out you either repair, replace or renew. I've played a lot of sport and my knee has suffered various injuries.
These injuries were something a plaster wouldn’t fix so in March I had a knee replacement.
My surgeon could well become the invisible stitcher. A running stitch with dissolving thread.
Recently my artwork has included many varieties of stitches as I learn to embroider.
4 months later and I’m still recovering.
Motivation is not high up on the list for finishing a project I started quite a few months ago.
This great initiative organised by St Vinnies in Wellington saw me busy over Christmas. I've enjoyed every stitch and bonded with Jessie pollock very early on.
My process is about making a beginning and things develop from there. Using raw threads shows the workings of the piece.
I have a stash of treasured stuff that is very old and fitted perfectly into the vintage theme. I’m grateful for the donations from friends when tidying their cupboards. The tatting came from my late Mother’s sewing box. It had a label DIC 2/6d and i used her embroidery thread. The blanket for the nurturing all the women did.
I contacted her Grandson and this is his recollection.
" Jessie Pollock was born in 1863 Jessie married twice. The first, against her mother’s wishes when she was about 22, in 1886. Henry was a scion of an English clerical family of some repute, but had been sent to the colonies to redeem himself, it would appear. His occupation was given as bottler on the marriage certificate, so presumably he was working in a brewery.. The marriage ceremony was given publicity in the local papers in Dunedin, as the bride wept throughout the ceremony, and having said “I do”, dashed out to the graveyard area accompanied by her puzzled spouse and they spent the the next few hours discussing matters. The upshot was that she went back to her mother! 5 years later in 1891, she divorced him, amid attendant publicity in the local Otago Witness paper, and later had, at age 33, a very successful marriage to Bob Garrett. Nothing of this earlier marriage was ever talked about in the family. Indeed, it was only when we were examining the marriage certificate between Bob and Jessie that we noticed that she was defined as “divorced” rather than the usual spinster! This set us off on a hunt to discover what had taken place. She is reputed to have met Bob whilst out riding a horse along the banks of the Taieri River, Mosgiel area. She ducked her head to go under a tree branch, insufficiently as it turned out ,and off came her bonnet. Bob was minding his own business, sitting by the river bank, and laughed at her embarrassment. Jessie turned her steed around and proceeded to to give Bob her opinion of people who laugh at others’ misfortune. So! Bob picked up her hat and thus she went and married him! Jessie did have strong opinions, regarding Temperance, and Suffrage, and worked to improve the lot of women in general. She and her mother both signed the petition. She wrote to the ODT, under the pen name of Lola, on numerous occasions.”
Thanks to Malcom Garrett her Grandson for the information.
view the link for more information.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/womens-suffrage/petition
Jessie and her mother Janet appear on sheet 86
