About
Influences and Inspiration
My mother and grandmothers all did embroidery, mostly counted thread works. Mum was always smocking something for her three daughters, turning us out in matching outfits each season until we grew old enough to rebel. I learned basic sewing and dressmaking at school, and so as a young mother I too sewed children’s clothing and household items, but when I joined a creative embroidery class in 1976, the magic of stitch itself captured my attention. I found myself captivated by varous combinations of fabric, thread, paint and found objects, poroducing and exhibiting mixed media textile works, or embroideries.
From 1987 to 1994 I found myself living with our family in Denver, USA, and there I learned traditional American quilt making. However as the potential for personal designs and non-traditional techniques became clear, I began to create non-traditional quilted wall pieces. At that time I was very inspired by man-made patterns painted, chipped or carved on cave walls, rocks and artefacts from the American South West, with their similarity to such markings from all other continents including Australia. The Ancient Expressions series of quilts resulted, with marks translated into stencilled images and stitched patterns added by both hand and machine.
Since my childhood I have been fascinated by natural forces and the roles they play in shaping the landscape. I studied geography and geomorphology at university. Since marrying a geologist in the late '60's, I’ve found myself living in a variety of different landscapes, all of which have influenced my work. More recently I have been thinking of landscape as a metaphor for Life and that is taking me in new directions.
Inspiration sources aside, underlying virtually all my designs is that enduring essential characteristic of American patchwork, the repeated block or unit. Since the early ‘90’s I have used freehand rotary cutting and pattern-free machine piecing techniques, so that although highly repetitive, no two units are exactly the same. Sometimes I leave them as irregular shapes, other times I trim them to squares or triangles, since I very much like the juxtaposition of straight gridlines over wavy irregular lines. The resulting overall shapes of my quilts range from highly irregular to strictly rectilinear.
Because of my husband’s work I currently spend much time in Uruguay, South America. For some time I almost unconsciously searched for something Uruguayan with some link to my Australian background. Both Australia and Uruguay produce large quantities of beef and leather, and so since 2005 leather has become a symbolic element in my designs. Additionally, since the leather I use is often salvaged scrap, that fits with my interest in the frugal and thrifty origins of the crafts of patchwork and quilt making.