On the Quiltart list today, one writer, Delores, announced she was determined to take her art in some new directions this year, mentioning both techniques and themes.   That reminded me of another artist friend who for a year did not teach, write, exhibit or attend any classes but focused on thinking about her work and coming to terms with where she wanted it to go, rather like a sabbatical.  There were several interesting responses to Delores’ post, and I wrote about what I have long recognised about my work over 20 plus years.  (I am quietly cerebral …) I thought my blog readers would probably also like to read this expansion of some of the material in my bio page, elsewhere on this website .

Long before I began making quilted textile art in 1998, I had a background in creative, interpretive stitchery, which indeed occasionally included the quilting technique as a surface texture.  But since 1988 I have been making quilted textile artworks, aka ‘quilts’ and during that time there have been several identifiable changes of direction: never because I have felt ‘bored’ with what I was doing, but always in response to one stimulus or another that has periodically lured/steered me off on a new path.  My website galleries (menu above) are arranged MOL chronologically, but like in the zodiac there are ‘cusps’.  So, I can say that the I recognise the following stimuli in the development of my work :

1. I relocated From Outback Australia to Denver USA – where learned traditional quilt construction and at the same time met some very stimulating creative textile artists with common and overlapping interests in quilt designing, making, exhibiting, writing, contemporary embroidery … and in 1988 began what became my Ancient Expression series
2. from mid-Ancient Expressions when I became interested in strips and linear boundaries, I did two workshops with Nancy Crow in 1990, 1992, and Colour Memories developed
3. The Ebb & Flows developed from Colour Memories because I suddenly found myself living in Uruguay  (1) where I could not buy fabrics I was used to working with and so brought bags of scraps and offcuts (as well as some yardage) over from Australia each time I came,   (2) around 2000 – 2002 I was thinking about the frugal origins of patchwork and how they have influenced modern quilted textile art   (3) and people here use up resources/materials or pass things on   (4) I also was gobsmacked by the intricate piecing being used in her colour explorations by Perth Aus textile artist and close friend, Margery Goodall www.margerygoodall.com   (QN09 exhibitor Erin Wilson also used extremely intricate piecing construction for her beautiful work)
4. The Tracks series began when (1) around 2004 I started cutting into leather and experimenting with it with a view to using it somehow (the leather is a a symbol linking my australian life with Uruguay)  (2) Landscape processes have always been part of my vision but as I have aged they have became metaphorical for ‘Life’,  (3) around 2004? I did a workshop with Chungee Lee, so the potential of sheers, not the Korean construction itself, assumed an importance which has rolled on  (someone somewhere around this time mentioned ‘woodburning tool’ …)

If you do go to my website galleries after reading this, you’ll find I have just added some new works to Tracks and Ebb& Flow galleries, since they  are now on exhibition here in Uruguay www.galerialoscaracoles.com