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:
“First Day on The Slopes” 1988. 61cm x 61cm
“Forecast Cooler, Windy” 1991. 91cm x 91cm
“Diamantina” 1995 75cm x 150cm
“Timetracks 7”, 2008 99cm x 74cm
“Sweat of the Sun; Tears of the Moon” 2018 60cm x 125cm
“Out of Order 2” 2025. 90cm x 80cm
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:
My arts degree (liberal arts in USA) majored in geography and ancient civilisations, and included a year of political science and two of english literature. I added a post graduate Diploma of Education, and thus equipped, stepped out into what I expected to be a lengthy and rewarding career teaching highschool level english and social studies.
I didn’t forsee what effect marrying an exploration geologist would have on that plan, but suffice to say it greatly shortened my brilliant teaching career. Mining booms always collapse or fade as conditions change; companies merge or disappear, jobs dry up and people move around seeking work. Our lives were no exception, and this rhythm recycled several times. Indeed at one time in 1975 we even lived for 5 months in a tent camp six hours’ drive east of Darwin, out on the edge of Arnhem Land, up towards the coast on what is now gazetted as Kakadu National Park, then known as simply the Alligator River flood plains. Our future was always less under our control than any of our family or non-mining industry friends ever experienced, and there were times when we really envied the stability and predictability in their lives. We know some of our friends would have loved to have some of what we had in Life – an example being the letter from the son of one of Mike’s oldest friends Terry, who passed away last week. Tom commented about his father – “For what it’s worth, his recollection of both of you always seemed to be drenched in a sense of adventure and the exotic.”
When we were young, in the 70s and early 80s, without question the wives and families moved with the mining person, (which were rarely female in those years) That often caused problems in families and relationships; but one advantage was that all mining centres, large and small, gained regular infusions of people with fresh ideas who joined in community organisations and sports clubs as the best ways to get to know the locals, and contribute to their adopted or temporary community. Looking back to what I call our tent period, 1975 and 1976, up in the NT, West of Darwin on the edge of Arnhem Land, the exploration camp Mike headed was housed in large marquee type tents, A diesel powered generatorran from 7am to 10pm to work fans, provide light, enable water to be pumped up from the creek, run the fridges, freezer and washing machine, and most importantly power the two-way radio to the Darwin base (which every adult in camp had to learn how to use, of course) I can’t access photos from that time, but believe me, this post in my second blog https://pickledgizzards.com/tednrays-barramundi/ and other posts there will give you some idea of how ‘exotic’ our lives were at times 😉 Today mining professionals very often fly in/fly out to remote work sites, and many of their families stay behind in larger centres, benefitting from better housing, educational, medical and other facilities; but that can be tough on everyone, too. Moving around at various companies’ expense took us all to places that other people have to pay big money to travel to.
“Purnululu 8” 2018. ~190cm x 80cm
We’ve lived in and travelled across a variety of landscapes in Outback Australia, the United States and here in South America, and it’s hardly surprising that my art includes landscape inspired shapes, patterns, colours and textures.
In the last decade there have been shifts in the balances of economic power and political infuence developed in the post WWII years, impacted by the effects of the Covid pandemic, and the actions of certain political leaders’ agendas contributed to instability in this mix The results today is that the many international agreements on aid for economic development and health; of trade and defence agreements that used to form a large, fairly stable network of structures governing international relationships have buckled under recent pressures. The effects on us all is stressful, and there’s a sense that the systems are broken. In my art, this influence is coming out in increasingly skewed grid designs, with a series titled Out of Order –
This little piece, 8 x 10in, is “Out of Order 5” ; sold last weekend in the SAQA Conference Spotlight Auction. Pieces go to the successful bidder framed by white matt board in cellophane covering.
How pleasing that Spirogyra 3, In The Weeds has been accepted into the biennial, Quilt Visions26, which opens at the Visions Museum of Textile Art, VMOTA, on October 13th next.
“Spirogyra 3, In the Weeds” 2024 98cm.sq.
In my recent solo exhibition, it was possibly the one that most people commented on, and is a particular favourite of mine, too, although they are all favourites while I’m making them!
Someone recently asked me “may I ask how you stitched the skinny pieces onto the surface? Are those running stitches that you did by hand?” Being a fibre artist myself, my first glance at something either tells me how it was made or has me wondering. This detail shot shows both machine and hand stitching, and I can’t remember exactly the order in which I did each step – sorry – but you’re welcome to play with the idea and have fun!”
Backs are intriguing to a stitcher like myself. My early learning in embroidery always included guidance on the importance of neatly finishing off as I came to the end of each thread and started a new one. It’s ingrained, automatic, my normal level of craftsmanship. After all, for household linens like tablecloths and mats, serviettes and the like, they need to hold up to plenty of repeated washing and use, and securely finishing off ensures some level of durability. But I also associate this hidden-but-still-important-detail ethic with the training we had in the Brownies and Girl Guides – that we had to polish the backs of the brass badges on our uniforms even though they would not be seen by others. The Brownies and Girl Guides movements paralled the Scouting movement for boys founded by Robert Baden-Powell, Our uniforms were subject to weekly inspection, and our patrol lost points if we failed inspection on some detail. OMG, it was so military, but good training in leading fairly orderly lives, I guess – attention to detail and finishing off a task properly, all that.
In my other blog, https://www.pickledgizzards.com, I recently posted about how the 1970’s Golden Hands Magazinehad a huge influence on the keen stitcher I later became. I remember seeing some brighly coloured, richly embroidered head and shoulder portrait profiles by an artist who I think came from somewhere in the sunny Mediterranean, possibly Italy or Greece. They were unusual and therefore very interesting because, the reverse sides of these were framed and exhibited in an art gallery. In the magazine article the fronts and framed backs of each wer presented side by side for us to compare them. Despite the knots, hanging ends and travelling threads etc of the backs, we still saw the expression or personality of each subject- serene, happy, angry etc, and as if through some kind of filter. I did put AI onto trying to find the artist or the Golden Hands article, but though I learned a lot about the needle painting style of embroidery popular in that era, the pieces were not by a recognises textile artist, and that the way the GH magazine itself was documented it was not easily searchable by today’s methods. I’d really need to be able to physically go through the middle issues of Golden Hands, but if I do still own mine, they’re in storage in Australia; and it’s also possible I gave them away before one of our moves sometime; so that quest is over for the moment at least.
At times I have taken pics of some of my own backs too, because of their interesting patterns. Here’s Green Mosaic a 12″sq. work for the 2022 SAQA Benefit Auction – not too different from the front.
“Green Mosaic” in progress; pic above shows the reverse side at that stage, because the applique of the pieces was in effect the quilting, too. (SAQA 2022 Benefit Auction)
The next images are of “Out of Order 3” showing (1) the reverse of the surface design stitching before layering and quilting, and (2) the image resulting from my interaction with ChatGPT that I wrote about In an earlier post on this blog
“Out of Order 3” is currently showing with the SAQA Global Exhibition “AI: Artitistic Interpretations”, at the Louisiana State University Art Museum. It will tour to various venus until the end of 2029.
Yesterday I took a pic of the reverse side of what I’m currently working on, Out of Order 7, but though it seems interesting in my hands as I’m working it, the photo it isn’t really, and I won’t bother AI over it.
Last August (2025) I posted about how grids represent order and stability, and that today the various systems of order under which each of us lives in today’s world is being destabilised in some way by challenges and change brought about by politicians or other faction leaders’ political ambitions. Until last month, the Russian attack on Ukraine was the most dramatic recent example; but although I haven’t searched to find data on this, I do know there are horrible examples on every continent today. The most recent dramatic conflict currently enveloping the Middle East and threatening us all in some way is the motivation to continue my “Out of Order” series to depict more severely damaged grids.
Here’s a progress shot of Out of Order #7.
“Out of Order #7” in progress – damaged grid.
As it’s for a juried call, I won’t be showing any more of it here until it either makes it, shows somewhere else, or I decide to not show it until my next solo exhibition. Anyway, suffice to say I have moved to the point of soon needing to decide how to quilt it.
