A selfie in the shower? How ordinary ...

Seriously - there's a call for entry from SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) challenging us to create an art quilt through the process of rethinking the known and ordinary. So where better than the shower ...on retreat? I got to thinking about the ordinariness of taking a shower (if you are a privileged western and probably white person) - the un-thought assumption that a tap turned means pressurised water will fall from the shower head  - I remain struck by the ordinariness of "taking a shower".  Door mats, drain and shower heads make for a rather interesting and not-so-ordinary fabric.

Inspired by Rachel Carson

 

I had the privilege of visiting the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge on the coast of Maine last year. It was the 50th anniversary of the publication of "The Silent Spring". The sounds of the Atlantic ocean crashing onto the muddy marshland, the smell of pine underfoot and wandering through soft, dappled light are memories that will be with me forever. Friends, Tom and Susan from New Hampshire shared this wonderful place and helped out while I took a rubbing of a memorial plaque. The refuge covers approximately 50 miles of the Maine coastline. The vegetation, wetlands and forest are unique, especially for an Australian visitor.  As the transition from rubbing to quilt begins, I am playing with different fabrics, each printed with foliage from many places of refuge I've visited - and I hope to do the memory of this wonderful place justice.