I see Landscape as a metaphor for a Life, in which a road or path crossing it symbolises directions taken due to decisons made, actions taken, and obstacles overcome.
The eternal cycle of erosion by wind, water and temperature change acting on the earth’s surface wears gradually landform material down into rocks and finer particles, and transports that away to deposit it somewhere else. Day by day, over time mountains are steadily worn down, cliffs crack and eventually crumble, rivers carve valleys across flood plains, glaciers grind away valley rock walls leaving mounds of material as they retreat, and waves wash sand back and forth along coasts by way of tidal rhythms and ocean currents, so that beach shapes and profiles are always changing. If we step onto it for a daily walk, our local beach looks much the same until an extremely high tide or unusually strong waves arrive. In a violent storm like the recent hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean, both erosion and deposition by wind and water were massive and rapid, so the devastating results were immediately obvious after the storm cleared. And of course, seismic activities including earthquakes and volcano eruptions bring dramatic and sudden change.
In a Life, the normal processes of birth and growth to maturity followed by death normally bring signs of gradual aging that we don’t notice every day if we’re with someone frquently; we do notice them at family events, meeting up with an old school friend, or looking back through the photo albums. And in Life, too, major events like births, deaths, marriages, divorce, serious medical events, a big lottery win, an outbreak of war, a housefire and more, can produce noticeable changes in a person’s appearance and personality.
Gradual and sudden events shape the future appearances of both Landscapes and Lives.
For some time I’ve realised that every time in my life I’ve had a major geographical relocation due to geologist husband Mike’s job, some kind of change has appeared in my art, and there are several clear periods of identifiable changes:
- In 1969 we married and moved from our home state to Western Australia where the nickel exploration and mining boom was underway. The sewing, knitting and crochet I did in those years was dominated by household sewing and garment making for the little Schwabes who arrived in this time.
- In 1975 we relocated to Darwin and the Northern Territory. During our first Wet Season up there, a new friend suggested reciprocal childminding for her to attend a weekly craft class, offering to mind our two in return, as it was important to get ourselves out of the house doing some activity to stave off Wet Season blues, so I enrolled for a class in Creative Embroidery which changed my life, and soon I was self identifying as a creative embroiderer, and began exhibiting.
- In late 1987 Mike was transferred to Denver USA. I joined the Embroiderers Guild of America, learned traditional American patchwork and quilting, but by 1991 was designing and exhibiting original quilted textile art – widely known as art quilts, see www.saqa.com which I continued as we returned to Australia in 1995.
- 1998 onwards – Still making and exibiting art quilts, Mike an a colleague began a project here, and I commuted Australia to Uruguay several times a year until in 2000, when for economic reasons I decided to stay here until ‘the job’ was done – long story; and I became an accidental immigrant.
- Since 2019 I’ve used more hand stitch, increasingly so since the pandemic, returning to my creative embroidery knowledge and experience with fresh eyes. I took a few online workshops during the pandemic and affiliated with SAQA’s 3D Special Interest Group. Besides exhibiting internationally, I’ve been participating in juried group shows here in Uruguay, but an upcoming solo exhibition in January ’26, Casa de la Cultura, Maldonado UY, Jan 2 – 27, will be my first solo show here since 2009, a long gap partly due to some major life events, c’est la vie 😉 !!!