Living Change @ The State Library Gallery

A surreal and almost indescribable afternoon at the State Library of Queensland yesterday with the official opening of "Living Change" exhibition as it begins a year long tour of Queensland regional centres. To have a quilt included in this amazing collection of artists was overwhelming. To have my father present ... there will never be the right words. Congratulations to all  the artists - sculptors, painters, weavers, potters and and textile genres - such talent and so humbled to share this space with them. It was a day of exquisite company, unexpected friends, an emotional roller-coaster and a day that I hope will never fade from memory. Family is everything. Many thanks to Janet de Boer and TAFTA, Flying Arts Alliance and the generosity of sponsors of this annual event.

My Father's Shed selected for QRAA

This week I received a phone call to say "My Father's Shed" had been awarded the 2013 Queensland Regional Arts Award in the area of textiles. I've watched how other textile artists conduct themselves when published, or receive awards and have quietly wondered what that would feel like and what would be the appropriate response. Looking back, I wish I had responded with some sense of dignity or managed to be calm, cool and collected. It was not to be - when it came to the crunch, I was found wanting.

Congratulations also to Renton Bishopric for Coal for Breakfast, Jasmine Jean for That Place Inside Me and Christine Turner for Immersed. Seabastian Toast's piece Pig Post received the People's Choice Award. 

Many thanks to TAFTA for, among other joyous things, a scholarship to attend TAFTA's 2014 Contextart FORUM , to Flying Arts Alliance Inc for their generous gift, and to Irene at Scenic Rim Regional Council whose enthusiasm for our arts community is boundless. We never create in isolation - and I've had many reasons this past month to reflect on the blessings of fellow artists, friends and family in my life, especially Ankie. Most of all, Dad - thank you for surviving the move.

Queensland Regional Art Awards - Living Change

The QRAA is an annual visual arts competition and exhibition open to artists in rural and remote  areas of Queensland. This year's QRAA theme is "Living Change" - and viewer's choice voting is currently open. Tim Morrell is this year's curator and selected pieces will form a touring exhibition.  I have a few favourites including Barbara Pierce's "Quarter Acre Block" which still makes me smile. There are some beautiful and also confronting pieces in this year's entries. I'd love to read the artists' statements on some of them! "My Father's Shed" is also included, living change at the core of emptying forty years of my father's presence into skip bins and trailers when my parents moved house in 2012.  To look at this year's entries and cast your vote, head over to QRAA - Living Change.

Relocation of Memory (the movie)

Better understanding changing technologies and embracing "new media" opportunities are high on my 2013 agenda. My new media experiences are more than likely "old hat" for many - and so it was the day my parents left their home of nearly forty years and quite joyously, have never looked back. Raw feelings and uncertainty gave way to a wondrous and revitalised existence. My Father's Shed, My Mother's Garden and The Heart of the Matter emerged from between the cracks in the paving blocks, the galvanised pipes and the spaces in between where we used to live.

Music: Richard Stolzman and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Maid with the Flaxen Hair, Fine Music Vol 1 (2008)

My Father's Shed - journal cover

 Some serious fun with fabrics left over from the larger My Father's Shed pieces - an A3 sized Journal cover  that wraps around many of the drawings and ideas for MFS. The fabrics have been variously stamped, monoprinted, painted, printed, Shiva'd and burnished. The free motion machine quilting is a memory of all the rocks and stones he gathered from the paddocks to preserve the blades of the ride-on mower.



The heart of the matter

The heart of the matter - I stitched a heart as the focal point for this quilt - what an exquisite organ it is - the keeper of life.  

The very heart of it ...

Inspired is probably not the right word. Artistically, there is often a trigger or catalyst from which we launch ourselves. I find myself responding to the sale of my parents' property after forty years at "509". They, I might add, are full of the possibilities for the future at their new residence.  For now, I am staying in the trauma of upheaval and disruption. The first response has materialised in "The very heart of it ..." which developed at a recent  retreat. Text and textiles. I have tried to convey the emotional quality of moving day. In a literal context I have chosen the use of text. The heart (not shown in this pic) symbolises the emotional core of  being, and the gift of Dad having survived a trauma of a different kind ten years ago). The final element was the creation of the focal point - which goes to the very heart of it.