Surprising Myself.

Well... life is full of surprises... I decided to apply for membership in Prism, a well known exhibiting group.  As part of the process, I was required to submit up to six images of work over the past five years.  And that was what was surprising... first, that I'd made as much work as I had. Although given the lack of space in the house, that really should not have been a surprise at all...sigh.  The second, though, was the underlying theme running through my work.  I had always thought that it was 'about' emotions...and, of course, it is.  But it's predominately 'about' landscape...inner and outer.  I thought I would show you the images I have sent to them, to see if you agree with me.

Norfolk Flint.

This is a  manipulated photograph, taken of an old flint wall, and printed onto Lutradur XL.  Instead of stitch, there are places where I have burned away the fabric; the frame has lighting built into it, so that you can choose to light it or not.  I had never seen a flint wall before coming to Norfolk, and took a lot of photographs... the best of them are like paintings featuring different sections of beautiful stone.

Norfolk Landscape.

This piece celebrates the endless skies and fields of Norfolk, broken up, on occasion, by rows of trees... This is a monoprint with additional details painted in, then stitched.

Inner Landscapes IV

Pieced cloth, mainly hand dyes, edged with commercial cloth and sari ribbon.  A thin layer of Lutradur, transfer dyed and hand stitched, partially obscures the piece, but can be moved, a metaphor for depression.  The colours are of the Highlands, while the stitching is reminiscent of the flints of Norfolk.

Reliquary

Another Norfolk/Highland composite; this time, the colours are Norfolk in autumn and winter, while the found objects that decorate it come mainly from the Highlands.

Linescapes I : Rewriting The Landscape

I wrote about this piece a couple of days ago.

Visual Haiku.

Small, hand stitched pieces made to specific rules; I have written about them in several posts, with a summary of the 'rules' here.  In their way, they too seem to be landscapes...

This is the first part of the application process, and I have my fingers crossed.  If I don't get through, though, I have to say that this has been a very useful process to go through.  I had thought that I was quite clear about the way my work was going; this has been a useful refocussing of my attention onto the really important bits.


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