On the SAQA members FB page each monday and thursday a question is posted for us to think about and respond to, and resulting discussions are usually interesting and stimulating.
Today’s Thursday Question was “Symbols can be found everywhere we look. From the golden arches to ripples in a puddle. Are there symbols you find you incorporate into your work? Do you find they create a reoccurring theme?”
My inital response was to ask whether the question was about symbols or patterns that become symbolic to us? A morning walk later I went back in and edited my response to add “For example, I have always liked the grid as a layout for repeated units in a design – the repetition has a unifying function even if the units themelves are not exactly the same – think the typical traditional sampler quilt, for example. These days in my designs grids, and the units themselves on/in them are becoming less uniform as a response to the increasing chaos around the world today – grids have become far more important to me as a symbol than I ever thought they would.“
Here’s just a few (in chronological order) from down the years, 1988-2025, I’ve spent making quilted fibreart:
In the most recent works of the Out of Order series, the grids have become far more distorted; so here’s a detail of #7 – to go into a juried call, so I won’t show the whole thing – but you get the idea:
