The images of textiles on this website are a result of my need to express the beauty of the natural world. My home is surrounded by the myriad details of nature, the close up views of forest floors and tree trunks, pools of water full of vegetation and busy insects, collections of pebbles and lichen-covered rocks.
Although not always
recognizable, these elements are the subjects of my textile art.
I mostly try to convey the essence of the environment around me
rather than a realistic representation and my focus is on the intricate details,
not the panoramic landscape.
For the last few years my work has been an exploration of the hidden connections in our universe.
It began with a fascination for beetles and the patterns on their wing covers. Looking at them through a microscope I am mesmerized. Our world is full of so much beauty, and a lot of it is absolutely tiny. The sheer pleasure of observing these living jewels is enormous.
As I explored the patterns on the wing casings I couldn’t ignore
the connections of the emerging designs with so many other things in our
universe. The spots could be star systems or skin markings or the landscape of
an aboriginal painting.
My Coleoptera Series does not deal with the beetle in a literal, or even physical, sense. The beetle has become a metaphor for the connection of everything in our universe. What began as a love of pattern and colour has evolved into a growing sense that the patterns connect with things infinitely small, and with things phenomenally vast. It is a spiritual statement of existence and how humanity is not distinct but intrinsically a part of everything. The patterns on beetle wings are an indication that they are linked to the landscape of the universe.
I express the marks with textiles, usually cotton sateen, that are painted with dyes and the surface is layered up with dye painted organzas, silks and velvets.
