Thither and Yon

This is the last in the tryptich about my journey from a London suburb to a regional area in Australia. Here I am nearly all absorbed in the 'wide'brown land' which is inhabited by people from all over the world; all shapes and colours.

But there are a lot of empty spaces, even here 20km from a major rural city, Toowoomba. Today we are waiting for rain and the sky is a dusty red only a bit paler than the colour on the left. It is also the colour of the earth and yes, it does stain and you can dye with it.
There will probably be no more pieces before Christmas as I have some other sewing to do and want to make a couple of gifts for the 4 legged people in the family. 

TOMATO SACKS.

This is what happens to my old art pieces. I turn them into tomato or potato sacks and dot them round the garden.  I line them with plastic bags that have holes cut in the bottom and sides for drainage, then fill with potting mix and plant a tomato in the top.  By the time harvest is over, so are the bags and then they gradually turn into compost somewhere in the garden as they act as mulch. As I bought most of the wool or other fabric from op shops, I find this is a most satisfactory way to recycle. And cheap.And I don't forget to water the tomatoes as they are easily seen. We have a sort of mini-drought here at the moment, so everything in the garden is a bit dry as you can see from the grass. The one on the right was exhibited in Tamworth Art Gallery after I did a workshop with Nancy Crow. The one on the left was always a bit of a worry and never exhibited as i didn't think it was good enough.

This is the second of the three pieces. It is called 'Whence' and represents the journey from England to Australia. I used green and gold colours as they are the colours most associated with Australia.

There is hand and machine stitching, with some traditional quilting. In addition to the adult human shape used throughout there are also a few child shapes to represent the teaching I did as a career after my schooling.

Most Australians live near the sea and I also lived by a beach as a child and young adult.  Australia is a land of many migrants so lots of different fabrics are used to denote the variety of people who live here.

The last piece will be about the part of Australia where I now live. All the materials are on the cutting table and I will put it up when it is finished.

In the meantime, I have been juried in to 'Progressions', which is currently at the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery in Toowoomba, Queensland. It is called 'Boat People' and shows my family in transit to the new land in the 1950's. You can see it on Facebook at Darling Downs Textile Art Group.

This is a new work called Hence and it is the first in a triptych.  It started life as part of what might have been a group exhibition based on our origins. This is quite a common theme in Australia as a lot of us come from other countries.  However, when nothing came of that idea, I decided to use it in a small series called Hence, Whence, Thither and Yon.
Well the first one is done and the second one is in progress.
As my heritage is Britain, I chose to base this piece on the colours often used for genetic charts and I used a universally recognised outline for humans. I reckoned that my genetic makeup would consist of lots of different ancestors and I let the imagination roam.  The red ones are Vikings, of course, and there would be a group of Scots and Picts and Angles and Jutes and probably even Spanish from the Armada and just maybe a bit of genetic material from the original settlers way back in the bogs and mist of the old days.
I'll put the next one up when I finish it.

The colour in this photo is very true. This is a very bright wool piece and it has held the colour well despite being on a wall for years. Just recently I found the rest of the pink silk blouse cuff which forms the flower pot.
The leaves and petals and stem are made from a re-cycled dress, found in an op shop in Toowoomba, Australia. The dress was made in France from Australian wool, which had been made into fabric in Italy. The wool thread for the stitching was dyed at the same time as the background so that it would disappear at a distance but still be visible on the surface; a metaphor for hidden barriers to communication and acceptance. It is one of my favourite pieces and I am happy to live with it for a while longer.

Paddocks

These two quilts were chosen by the local paper as illustrations to the review of the exhibition written by their art critic, Sandy Pottinger. She wrote:

"Art Exhibitions, solo or shared, offer the viewer a particular take on the world.
Sometimes we relate to the work because it connecst with our own experience, but when it shows us a fresh  approach to the familiar, our interest is further captured. The Oakey Cultural Centre proved an ideal venue for the recent retrospective exhibition, "Recollections", the work of local  textile artist, Marion Curry.  The pieces, predominantly wall works, present cameos of life, but not necessarily in the literal pictorial sense.
Curry has recycled fabrics that have had a previous existence; clothing, blankets, and remnants given as small treasures, many collected over years of travel to distant and exotic places.
Some materials are rust-dyed, others are coloured by potions brewed from nature's leafy refuse, while some have a pristine crispness.  All have their own histories which Curry has incorporated into her own narrative, a response to the immediate world of her own backyard, or a telling comment on the wider environment.  Memory becomes a shared statement translated through texture, patter, colour, and thread."

Another one of the flower series, this one is called 'Off The Cuff'
and is available for half price, $150 including postage within Australia. The body of the banksia flower is made from a recycled electric blanket and one of the tufts says Made in Australia, which is true to the flower.
The cuff is from a dress which I picked up in an op shop in Toowoomba for $3.00.  When I got it home the label said the wool was grown in Australia from merino sheep, the fleece sent to Italy where it was spun into the finest wool and the dress made in Paris. It was cream wool and the sort of dress the Duchess of Windsor would have worn. I wonder how it got to Toowoomba?
I used every bit of it in various pieces, so it has come home and gone on to another life.  Wool is such a forgiving fabric.