Over the past two years I have been working on my Courage and Integrity series.
After reading one of Brene Brown’s books ‘Braving the Wilderness’ in particular, I started this series.
Having dabbled in thickened dyes in a class with the fabulous Clare Benn (whom I felt so privileged to have been in her workshop), I then discovered another UK artist called Leah Higgins and her fantastic book ‘Breakdown your Palette’. Leah’s step by step instructions and fabulous photos lead me to experiment with breakdown screen printing – I was head over heels in love – as my instagram followers can probably attest – after seeing many photos of the process posted there.
I wanted my art to contain authentic pieces of fabric created by my marks and my hand – as those who know me know that I am fascinated by mark making and the human need to make our mark on the world – some of my quilts have illustrated this along the lines of architecture being a form of making our mark.
Anyway after a few days of creating fabrics, I then started using them in my work. ‘Braving the Wilderness’ was the first in this series and uses a figure that I have used before in other work as an illustration of myself (of course I am tall and slender!! Haha). I have been using figures on and off over several years in my work – I just can’t seem to let them go.
‘Home is Where your Story Begins‘ incorporates a lot of symbolism I have used in past works – the architecture, house plans, the human figure, maps and rusted fabrics – all lead to who I am as an artist. What we do in our past influences our future and what we learn comes out (after a lot of cogitation over time – for me).
‘Courage: Show Up, Be Seen, Live Brave‘ was next in the series using figures that have been patched together to illustrate that all of us are different colours but we are, every one of us, made up and shaped by our own experiences, influences and other people in our life journey.
All these pieces were created after reading the work of Brene Brown, a shame researcher, who has an amazing sense of humour and exceptional storytelling skills. I will talk about my larger piece ‘Belonging‘ in my next post.