So to the serious end of business! When I dyed the fabrics for the commission quilt I dyed enough to make another for my exhibition with Annette and Robert Claxton called Fusion at the European Centre of Patchwork in Salleles d'Aude which begins on 5 March 2006. I made this top today incorporating the river lutradur piece I made in december and I printed some box gum leaves on one of the panels. I have about half a dozen quilts in this exhibition dealing with river or water as it is such an important commodity in Australia and we have precious little of it for such a large land.
I am also aware that Annette and Robert's work is quite abstract and mine is quite organic. I can't abstract no matter how hard i try ( ok I can but I don't like the result and i do like abstract work of other people, like Annette ) and I have been pondering this as I make work for this exhibition. And then when I look out of my window it is easy to see why- I am surrounded by nature , by living organic things- I don't live in a city and have only ever lived in cities as a go-between phase- I have never considered my sojourns there as permanent things. I also love ethnic textiles or whatever you want to call them- I love the rich sumptuousness of them, the colour , the startling juxtapositions - their living presence often produced in the most primitive of conditions- and yet there is such beautiful colour and pattern. You just want to touch and hold and stroke. So my work is a crossover trying to capture this spirit of cloth and incorporating my environment somehow. I do love this land, it is ancient and it speaks, it is harsh and it is beautiful, it is sea and land, and little water.It is dry and lush and the voices of the past whisper in the erosions of the earth. And as i write this, I realise that my love of ethnic textiles and their juxtapositions is just the same as i feel about this land- there i have learnt something which i had never tied together- and there it is staring me in the face.....
4 comments:
It is fascinating what we feel the need to produce, and reproduce. Like you, I very much admire abstract work, but do not feel any impetus to produce any myself. It is not an expression of me - or it is not what I want to engage with in my creative problem-solving. No matter what I have started out trying to do, I end up with people in my stuff.
It is so rewarding looking at other cultures' patterns and techniques. And how often there are similarities as well as differences.
I do hope that your exhibition in France goes well. I have had work in a couple of exhibitions where Annette Claxton had a piece too. I particularly like her quilts with the 'unfinished' edges.
What gloriously rich cloth, Dijanne. I like it muchly
marion
Hi, It's lovely to find your blog. The fabric you've done here is beautiful.
I think you have the balance just right in your work Dijanne, I find the designs organic but still quite abstract in the way you use them. I find it very rich and varied.
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