Perpetual Movement
Everyone is on a journey, some more challenging than others; a road well-travelled has ups and downs, bumps and junctions. Everyone's journey has the potential to tell an interesting story. My journey through life has definitely been one of ups and downs and has taken me across land and sea, rivers and oceans, over deserts and through forests. Round corners, up hills and down dales all with stops and starts, junctions, crossroads, roundabouts and dead ends.
My textile work, in so many ways, tells this life journey travelling and working in four continents and all that it has encompassed good and bad. I have lived and worked in the USA, Middle East, Africa and Europe and through this work of line, shape, texture and colour, it represents those continents, e.g. desert and dunes, heather on the moors, Yorkshire Dales, junctions, crossroads and sometimes dead ends. My work creates a metaphor for roads, train lines, oceans, forests, hills, moors and deserts through language, line, texture, shape and colour all united to make meaningful and thought-provoking pieces of textile and mixed media work. The colours in my work represent the various landscapes I have crisscrossed, traversed and passed through —interpret as you wish.
The words and language woven into my work represent some of the challenges I have faced and helps to lead you down a road of mystery and encourages the viewer to feel some of my life journey and recognise some of their own.
I hope my work shows that trauma, with wisdom and healing, can be turned into something very beautiful and completely satisfying. My work embodies recovery, resilience and healing which we can all relate to and empathise with; I am a survivor of many things.
l work with recycled, upcycled and found resources often donated or saved from the charity shops. Some of the lace, doilies, wool, ribbons, fabric, buttons and beads are from my grandmother which personalises my journey through time and memory bringing the past to the present and giving new life to beauty past.
Memory is very personal to the individual through life, background, upbringing and social standing which help make us who we are and creates memories which I stitch into textile work.
The personal journey I have been on and my storybook are my way of sharing some of my life experience through the fabric and associated resources in wall hangings, framed work, wall hangings and handmade soft and paper books.
My work, over the years, has been inspired by several talented mentors and inspirational individuals; Sophie May Hook, Sue Walker, Naomi Phelan, Adrian Pinckard, Jane Tugwell and I dedicate my first solo exhibition to my wonderful textile teacher, mentor and friend, Sally Darlington, who gave me endless encouragement.