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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Flight - a linocut in progress





This week I've taken a temporary break from making artist's books to work on a linocut. It's destined for a group exhibition in Granada, Spain. The theme is open, but there is a designated size, namely 18 x 18 cm. I find it challenging to work within a square framework, even though I've used that format frequently in recent years, most notably the Winged Women paintings and linocuts (2010) and Moth Women linocuts (2009). These, however, were images that naturally lent themselves to square formats.

For this project I wanted the linocut to be reflective of my current silhouette-based imagery. But I discovered that the silhouette pictures tend to work best as vertical compositions - particularly the extended vertical format of concertina books (see below).

Then I remembered the silhouette painting Flight Path, 2012, which was also made for an exhibition that dictated a square format. (See Blog Post December 5, 2012). This work became the basis for my linocut Flight. I've made substantial changes to the original composition.

The block for Flight in various stages of development is pictured above. The image was drawn onto the lino in India ink and white acrylic paint. The third image from the top shows the block ready to edition.


By way of contrast, to see the unique silhouette book A Tall Tale in progress (a detail is pictured above) visit Moth Woman Press HERE.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Heads Up: The Moth Woman Vigilantes Coins


A second resounding bombshell has been dropped less than 24 hours after Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard controversially announced a September 14 Federal Election. Following months of persistent rumours, the Moth Woman Vigilantes have confirmed the formation of their own Apolitical Party.

The Prime Minister has come to regret calling the election date so early. Due to overwhelming public pressure, both the present Government and the Coalition have already considered conceding defeat. If this landmark precedent is set, the electorate will also be spared several excruciating months of false promises and relentless mud slinging.

Anticipating a landslide victory, the MWV have commissioned a full set of Coins of the Realm. These handsome coins substantiate another rumour: from election day forward, the former Penal Colony of Australia will be known as the Republic of Mothstralia. 

Under this new regime, the MWV pledge that the cost of living will dramatically plummet. Accordingly, they have re-introduced one and two cent coins. Pictured bottom row, far right is an example of the reverse side of the coins.

2013 has already been decreed Year of the Moth, and a solid gold limited edition Commemorative Coin has also been minted.




The name Mothstralia was originally coined by James Bucanek. In gratitude, the Moth Woman Vigilante Apolitical Party will bestow on him its highest honour, the Order of Mothstralia. The formal ceremony will take place on the evening of September 14, immediately following their Election Day Victory Speech. 


The original artwork for the MWV Coins of the Realm, the MWV Commemorative Coin and the Order of Mothstralia Medal is by Deborah Klein. Designs were completed in the iPad Face on Coins app.

From top:
Coins of the Realm
Moth Woman Vigilantes Commemorative Coin: obverse and reverse sides
Order of Mothstralia Medal

For more about the Moth Woman Vigilantes coins, visit Moth Woman Press.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

'In(Two)Art' and 'Unveiled' exhibitions

Monarch Butterfly Winged Woman, 2010, acrylic on linen, 
36 x 36 cm, in the touring exhibition In(Two)Art

With a new project beginning in the studio, these group exhibitions each include an older work of mine that has helped to pave its way. Both works have previously featured on this blog, particularly the latter, which in a cropped form also serves as blog title illustration. I hope you will make allowances for the repetition, which is mainly for the benefit of first-time visitors.

In(Two)Art has resumed its extensive tour. The exhibition features 30 artist couples, including my partner Shane Jones and myself. It opens at Goulburn Regional Gallery, NSW this evening, Thursday 24th January, at 6pm.

In(Two)Art
Corner Church & Bourke Streets
Goulburn NSW 2580

The exhibition continues until 28 February

Its next venue is Swan Hill Regional Gallery, where it will run from 21 March - 28 April.

Installation view: Unveiled,  Manningham Art Gallery
Left to right: linocuts Sister Act by Deborah Klein
and Cry by Heather Shimmen

Yesterday evening Shane and I attended the launch of Unveiled: Art from the Manningham, Maroondah and Whitehorse Artspace Collections at Manningham Art Gallery. Coincidentally, this exhibition, which opened exactly 24 hours earlier than In(Two)Art, also includes a work by each of us.

Pictured above is an installation view of my linocut Sister Act, 2000 which hangs alongside Cry, 2008, a linocut by Heather Shimmen.

The exhibition includes both contemporary and historical works from the galleries’ permanent collections, and shows across all three venues. 

Unveiled was curated by Megan McEvoy, Manningham Art Gallery, Wendy Garden, Maroondah Art Gallery and Jacquie Nichols-Reeves, Whitehorse Artspace.

Unveiled
687 Doncaster Road 
Doncaster Vic 3108

Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 11 am  - 5 pm

32 Greenwood Avenue
Ringwood Vic 3134

Hours:  Tuesday – Friday 10 am – 4 pm
Saturday 12 pm – 4 pm

1022 Whitehorse Road
Box Hill Vic 3128

Hours: Tuesday and Friday 10 am – 3pm
Wednesday and Thursday 9 am – 5 pm
Saturday 12 pm – 4 pm

Exhibition dates (Manningham Art Gallery): 23 January – 16 February

Exhibition dates (Maroondah Art Gallery and Whitehorse Artspace): 23 January – 2 March

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Charging into 2013





And so we gallop into another year. In Ballarat a little less than a fortnight ago, I overheard someone's shocked exclamation that she had already seen some Easter eggs in one of the stores. At that moment, the grim realization set in that this was going to be another One of Those Years. No wonder the days whizz by so quickly. We have barely enough time to absorb the present, when we are flung headlong into the future.

Doing my best to rise above all of this, I've had my head down starting some new work, most of it book and zine related. The title of the painting pictured directly above is A Tall Tale; it's the basis for the first of the books. To see the book in progress, visit Moth Woman Press by clicking HERE.

Pictured from top:

Crusader
Phonographer and
A Tall Tale

All 2012, acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm
Photographed by Tim Gresham 

Monday, December 24, 2012

'Tis the Night Before Christmas



Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.
Mary Ellen Chase

There’s much than I enjoy about Christmas, but like most people, I’ll also be glad when it’s over. We all need the rest!

Once again, Rona Green provided one of the year’s highlights, this time with Corporeal, her latest print exchange portfolio. As previously posted, I found coming up with an idea for this one particularly challenging. I tend to be quite hard on my own work, but perhaps because I struggled so much with this image, it’s one that I have a particular affection for. Corporeal will be exhibited at Geelong Gallery in February 2013.

Corporeal/Ethereal, 2012, linocut, 60 x 50 cm
Printer: Andrew Gunnel
l

Another high point was Inga Walton’s article Behind Beauty’s Masks – Works by Deborah Klein, which appeared in the journal Etchings, Issue 10, The Feminine. In my opinion, Inga is one of our finest arts writers. To read the article, scroll down the right hand sidebar and click on the link.

Steven Sondheim on stage at Her Majesty's Theatre, Melbourne, 23 November 2012

One of the year’s most unforgettable experiences happened quite recently. On 23 November my partner Shane and I attended One Afternoon with Steven Sondheim at Melbourne’s Her Majesty's Theatre. I’ve revered this brilliant composer and lyricist for decades. To call the event a dream come true would hardly be accurate, because never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d see him in the flesh. Sondheim was genuinely modest, disarmingly warm, open and generous, discussing in entertaining and enlightening detail his work, ideas and creative process. It was pure gold.

Attack of Moth Women from the Moon, 2012, by Deborah McMillion Nering
Self portrait photograph placed in Sketchbook Pro, with collaged moths.
Tooned in Comic Book app

I’ve very much enjoyed an ongoing correspondence with Deborah McMillion Nering, an Arizona-based artist who makes her work on an iPad. In fact, she is a pioneer of this still relatively new art form. Over the last several months, we’ve found that aside from sharing the same first name, we have an uncanny amount in common, including similar tastes in art, artists, books, films – particularly a mutual enthusiasm for 1950s science fiction movies. We also share a fondness for moths, which we believe are far superior to butterflies. Deborah’s emails and imagery continually surprise, stimulate and delight, none more so than the visual treat she sent me prior to the recent opening of the exhibition BAZE at Hand Held Gallery. (To see it, click HERE. Take particular note of the book titles.)

It’s been a busy year, although next year will be busier. My first ever book art show will take place at Hand Held Gallery in June. I’ll also be making more work for Wonder Room, a group exhibition at Maroondah Art Gallery which is scheduled to open in late October. My fellow artists Rona Green, Filomena Coppola, Heather Shimmen and Paul Compton are a very talented lot, so I’m really looking forward to that one.

Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy New Year. I hope you’ll drop by from time to time in 2013.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

BAZE at Hand Held Gallery

The Moth Woman Vigilantes UNMASKED is the second of my two zines made for Hand Held Gallery's Christmas show BAZE (Book Arts and Zine Exhibition) and the third Moth Woman Press publication to focus on the notorious Moth Woman Vigilantes. For those few who have never heard of the MWV, here is a brief introduction.

The Woman Vigilantes is an ancient, clandestine order whose origins are lost in the mists of time. To countless millions its members are selfless, fearless super heroes with an acute (some would say misguided) sense of justice, whose sole raison d'être is to help the helpless, even if they have to bend - or break - the law to do so. 

The MWV have equally attracted a legion of detractors, who regard them as a gang of ruthless, highly organised, criminals, whose reasons for taking the law into their own hands are entirely sinister, self-seeking, and certainly not for the purpose of righting wrongs. If they are so heroic, their critics insist, why do they hide like snivelling cowards behind their moth masks?

For the first time in living memory key MWV office bearers recently bowed to pressure and, to the abject horror of their colleagues and devoted admirers, agreed to remove their moth masks.

The Vigilantes are famously camera shy (to date, they have never been filmed). The controversial event has instead been recorded in a series of detailed watercolour drawings. The revelatory pictures have been collected in the limited edition zine
The Moth Woman Vigilantes UNMASKED.

At long last, it seems that the identities of their leaders will be revealed. How could they have sold out so readily? And how many more Vigilantes will follow suit? In the tradition of all great super heroes, their heroic deeds were largely dependent on their anonymity. Could this be the beginning of the end of the Moth Woman Vigilantes?
 


To judge for yourself, click HERE.  

BAZE (Book Arts and Zine Exhibition)
Opening night 20 December, 6 - 8 pm
Hand Held Gallery
Suite 18, Upstairs
Paramount Arcade
108 Bourke Street
Melbourne 3000

Email: littleredfishy@yahoo.com

Gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12 - 5 pm

The gallery will be closed from Christmas Day and reopens on 16 January. The exhibition will continue to 19 January 2013.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

'Poker Faces' zine




Here is a sneak peek of the small zine Poker Faces, which I’ve just completed. It was made specifically for the forthcoming group exhibition BAZE (Book Arts and Zine Exhibition) at Hand Held Gallery, Melbourne. Curated by Megan Herring, the exhibition will feature some of Australia's finest book and zine artists.

The zine is signed and limited to an edition of 100. It will be available on the opening night, which is from 6 – 8 pm on 20 December.

BAZE will continue until 19 January.

To see inside the covers of Poker Faces and learn more about it, visit Moth Woman Press Artist's Books and Zines (Blog Posts 6 - 8 December) HERE.

Pictured left: Poker Faces zine, 2012, colour photocopy, cut and folded, 10.5 x 7.5 cm, limited edition of 100. Photograph by Tim Gresham.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

2012 Belle Arti Art Prize


Flight Centre was made for the fourth annual Belle Arti Prize exhibition, which opens at Chapman and Bailey Gallery on 12 December. The show has an open theme; the sole prerequisite is that all works are made on Belle Arti stretched linen, 36 x 36 cm.

The imagery was partly developed from the linocut Corporeal/Ethereal, which in turn was drawn from my current exploration of silhouetted imagery (see blog posts November 12 and 14). A key influence was Surrealist artist René Magritte, who on several occasions employed both cut out elements and bird iconography (see below left).

Chapman and Bailey Gallery
350 Johnston Street
Abbotsford Vic 3067

Gallery Hours:
10 am-5.30 pm Monday - Friday
11 am - 5pm Saturday


Telephone: 03 9415 8666

The exhibition runs until 26 January 2013.

Images from top:
Flight Centre, 2012, acrylic on linen, 36 x 36 cm.
Photography by Tim Gresham.
L'entree en scene, by René Magritte

Sunday, November 25, 2012

Afghani and Australian Women Artists Books Collaboration


In 2009 a group of Australian women artists were invited by artist Gali Weiss to participate in a project that highlighted the plight of women in Afghanistan who had been denied the basic human right of an education. The project was intended to support them and SAWA (Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan.) Pictured above is the book Women with Wings, in which my linocuts are accompanied by a powerful and moving text by Majabeen. To read her story and learn about an exciting development in the project, visit Moth Woman Press HERE

Friday, November 23, 2012

IMPRESSIONS 2012

IMPRESSIONS 2012 opens on November 30. As usual, some fantastic artists have lent their support (see above ).

I really enjoy this event. It gives me a chance to catch up with other printmakers, many of whom I haven't seen all year, especially as I'm in Ballarat so much these days.

My linocut Four Eyes, pictured left, was made for IMPRESSIONS 2012. (For more about this work, scroll down to Blog Post October 19).

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Corporeal, Part 2


   Corporeal/Ethereal, 2012, linocut, 60 x 50 cm, ed. 23

As promised in my previous post, here is a reproduction of Corporeal/Ethereal, my linocut for Rona Green’s Corporeal.

Although it didn't directly inspire this image, I found much of what I wanted to express about body/spirit dichotomy reflected in a song lyric by Dory PrevinHere is a fragment:

Dory Previn, early 1970s
Curse the mind that mounts the clouds
In search of mythical kings
And only mystical things
Mystical things
Cry for the soul that will not face
The body as an equal place
And I never learned to touch for real
And feel the things iguanas feel
Down
Down
Down
Where they play…

Dory Previn, Mythical Kings and Iguanas, 1971.

To see her perform the song, click HERE.

Previn, a superb, shamefully underrated American singer/songwriter died earlier this year. I still treasure the memory of her concert at London’s Albert Hall in the 1970s. This work is respectfully dedicated to her memory.

The twenty-three Corporeal artists are:

Graeme Drendel, Di Ellis, Philip Faulks, Rodney Forbes, Susan Fraser, David Frazer, Rona Green, Rew Hanks, Kaylene Kelly, Michael Kempson, Alexi Keywan, Martin King, Deborah Klein, Terry Matassoni, Ron McBurnie, Janet Parker-Smith, Travis Paterson, Ben Rak, Heather Shimmen, Stephen Spurrier, Anne Starling, Clayton Tremlett, Scott Trevelyan

Warmest thanks to Rona Green for instigating this challenging and rewarding project which I’m so proud to be part of, and to Andrew Gunnell for printing the edition of Corporeal/Ethereal.

Corporeal will be exhibited at Geelong Gallery, Victoria, during February-May 2013. Based on the works Rona showed me yesterday in her studio, it's going to be an impressive show. (Full details TBA nearer the time.)

Monday, November 12, 2012

Corporeal, Part 1


A project that has occupied me of late is the linocut Corporeal/Ethereal, my contribution to the Rona Green-curated print exchange portfolio Corporeal. (See also Blog Post October 8.) I was very drawn to the theme and began preliminary research some months ago. Several weeks and dozens of rough drawings later, however, few of my ideas felt quite right. Even compositions that appeared to have some potential failed to take the square-ish format fully into account (designated paper size was 60 x 50 cm.) Reluctantly, I had to abandon them all - at least as far as Corporeal was concerned - and put the project on temporary hold.

Concurrently I’d also been experimenting with painted silhouettes, some of which have featured in recent posts. I came to believe that I would eventually find my way back to Corporeal through the silhouettes, if only I could hold the faith while I took the necessary time to develop them further. This was indeed what eventuated. 



Corporeal/Ethereal was editioned by Andrew Gunnell; the completed work will feature in my next post. Another forthcoming post will illustrate its impact on the project that followed directly afterwards. In fact, although it’s still a little too soon to tell, it may well be a key image in terms of my work’s future direction.

Pictured above: Corporeal/Ethereal block: work in progress

Friday, October 19, 2012

Four Eyes


During the past week in Spring-deprived Ballarat, I editioned and hand-coloured the linocut Four Eyes, destined for Impressions 2012, the fundraising exhibition at the Australian Print Workshop in Melbourne, which opens on November 30.

The image, a continuation of a long-term fascination with the concept of the Other, also draws from my repertoire of masks and moths. The latter, Milionia aetheria, hails from Queensland, in northeastern Australia.




Pictured above, from top: The project in various stages of development; and (immediately above) completed work: Four Eyes, 2012, linocut, hand-coloured, 15 x 20 cm (image) on Velin Arches paper 250 GSM, 25 x 38 cm, edition: 10

Monday, October 8, 2012

Lino cutting at Ballarat


It's hard to believe that only a week ago it seemed that Spring had finally decided to live up to its name; Ballarat's infamously cold Winter always hangs on with dreary, grim persistence. Don't get me wrong. There's much that I love about Winter, but this one had definitely overstayed its welcome.

Taking advantage of what turned out to be only a brief respite from the cold, I moved operations out to the sunroom. Its warmth, which to a great extent has remained even after the cool (and wet) change, is so much more conducive for cutting lino.

It was good for the spirit besides, especially when combined with musical accompaniment from the magpies in the garden. To me their song is as lyrical as Mozart, as uplifting as the sunshine - and considerably more enduring than the latter.

The linocut in progress pictured above (captured during that all too brief spell of sunshine) is destined for the exhibition/exchange Corporeal, curated by Rona Green.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

On Silhouettes


As followers of this blog will be aware, I’ve recently begun experimenting with silhouette forms. Here are three more examples. Like those posted previously, they are on a small scale, although I’m working concurrently on a relatively large-scale silhouette, a linocut for Corporeal, a project curated by artist Rona Green. (More of this in the near future.)




In the meantime, I’m finding it fascinating to research the origins of the silhouette. Its varied and distinguished lineage can be directly traced to the legend of the first portrait. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (circa 77-79 AD) wrote of Dibutade, a Corinthian girl who traced her lover’s candlelit shadow on a wall before he set off on a long journey. Silhouettes have also been aligned with the black-figure vases of ancient Greece and the art of Chinese paper cutting.


Silhouettes became extremely popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. Because they were relatively quick, simple and inexpensive to make, many amateur artists, including women, enthusiastically took up silhouette portraiture.

By the 19th century professional artists had patented several silhouette-tracing machines. The principal behind them was little different to the method employed by Dibutade centuries before. But the drawing now served as the artist’s cartoon, which was then reduced in size using an instrument called a Pantograph or ‘Stork’s Beak’.


Even though professional silhouette artists were patronized by the rich and famous, their clients were equally immigrants who, in the days before the invention of photography, recognized a quick and economical way of commissioning a likeness to send to loved-ones in their homelands.

Recently I acquired a DVD copy of Vincente Minnelli's movie The Pirate (1948) a film I've long admired. Minnelli is an extraordinary colourist with an incredible eye for detail, for example the brief sequence where Judy Garland as Manuela sits for a silhouette portrait prior to her wedding. 


Silhouettes were originally referred to as ‘l’art d’ombre’ (shadow art) in France and ‘shades’ or ‘profiles’ in Britain. The art was re-named for Étienne de Silhouette, a French Economist, who, as Finance Minister during the Seven Years War (1756-63) imposed severe economic measures on the populace – particularly the wealthy. Consequently his name was applied derogatively to practically anything that was done on the cheap. In this instance, the name has stuck, but fortunately its original negative connotation hasn’t.

From top: 

Palmae, 2012
Cervidae, 2012
Omnivore, 2012
All acrylic on canvas, 9 x 7 cm. Photographs by Tim Gresham.

Invention of the Art of Drawing, 1793, by Joseph Benoit Suvee

Silhouette tracing machine

Drawing pantograph 

Judy Garland in The Pirate, 1948. D. Vincente Minnelli

Sunday, September 16, 2012

'Vignette/Vitrine': sneak peek #2


I've just completed another work for Vignette/Vitrine. In my last post I mentioned that I believe a great curatorial theme can potentially revitalise an artist's work, as curator Megan Herring's has done for mine.

Firebrand, the unique edition book pictured above, is an experiment of sorts, and like the works previewed last week, evolved directly from this project. It's already become evident that it will be a springboard for more books; in fact I've already started to map some of them out.

To see inside the covers of
Firebrand, visit Moth Woman Press artist's books and zines HERE.

The exhibition opening at Hand Held Gallery is from 6-8 pm on Thursday 20 September (see below). For those in Melbourne, I hope you can join us, or that you'll be able drop in during the show's run. For full details, scroll down to the end of my previous post.




Pictured top: Firebrand, 2012, unique concertina book, pigmented ink, acrylic paint, Khadi paper, gessoed mdf and bookbinding tape, 8.5 x 9 cm (closed); 8.5 x 45 cm (open). Photograph by Shane Jones.

Saturday, September 8, 2012

'Vignette/Vitrine' sneak peek



I have some new work in the forthcoming group exhibition Vignette/Vitrine at Hand Held Gallery, Melbourne. Curated by Hand Held Director Megan Herring, the exhibition will comprise paintings, objects and works on paper. Other participating artists are Sheridan Jones, Paul Compton, Bonnie Hanlon, Priscilla Ambrosini and Megan Herring.

The miniatures encased in the wooden box pictured above are my first forays into silhouette figures. Traditionally, silhouette portraits are black paper cutouts, sometimes with selected details added in white. The painted surfaces of my works deliberately emulate these effects.

Over the years I’ve found curated projects such as this one to be exceptionally challenging and stimulating. Seeking fresh ways to address a specific brief, at least if it’s one that particularly excites my imagination, will almost invariably introduce new life and direction to my work. In fact, I’ve continued to extend and develop the silhouetted figures, and plan to take them to a larger scale.

The shadow animations of Lotte Reiniger are the primary influence for this series. As a young child, I discovered her animated fairy tales on black and white television. I was completely captivated - I had never seen anything quite so magical before - and never forgot them, although I had no idea who their creator was. 

The mystery was finally solved in 2010 when I attended a special screening at Melbourne’s Astor Theatre of Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) the world’s first extant full-length animated film. I wondered if this could be the same artist whose fairytale animations had stayed with me for all those years. Indeed she was. The Adventures of Prince Achmed, an acknowledged masterpiece, is now firmly entrenched near the top of my list of favourite films. I have my very own DVD copy, courtesy of the British Film Institute, and, thanks also to the BFI, can also regularly revisit Reiniger’s short fairytale subjects that I first encountered in childhood. When researching her work, I was elated to learn that she shared my admiration of the work of film pioneer Georges Méliès, and that Jean Renoir, another of my cinematic heroes, was a lifelong enthusiast and supporter of her work.




Images from top:

1: Vignette Vitrine, 2012, by Deborah Klein, acrylic on miniature canvases in wooden case (31 x 31 cm overall); photograph by Tim Gresham
2: Lotte Reiniger at work on a shadow puppet
3 & 4: Stills from Lotte Reiniger's animated film The Adventures of Prince Achmed, 1926
5: Still from Reiniger's fairy tale animation The Golden Goose, 1944

Vignette/Vitrine
Suite 18 first floor, Paramount Arcade
108 Bourke Street
Melbourne Vic 3000
Telephone: (03) 9654 4006
Email: littleredfishy@yahoo.com.au
Web: http://handheldgallery.blogspot.com.au/
Hours: Tuesday-Saturday 12-5 pm

The exhibition will run from 20 September - 20 October.

Monday, September 3, 2012

Sentinels and showboats at Geelong Gallery


Lace Face/Lace Wraith, 1997, linocut and hand stitching 
on interfacing, 123 x 61 cm. Collection: Geelong Gallery
My linocut Lace Face/Lace Wraith, 1997, is part of the current exhibition Sentinels and showboats – milestones in print collecting at Geelong Gallery. The exhibition aims to reflect the range and inventiveness of the works that have been acquired through the prestigious Geelong Print Acquisitive Award.

Lace Face/Lace Wraith was a recipient of the Award in 1997.  It was one of the final works that I completed whilst undertaking a Master of Arts (Research) Degree at Monash University in 1995-97. The motif of the tattoo, which I had explored via the Tattooed Faces and Figures series (1995-97) became ultimately a device through which to incorporate women’s sewing iconography as a signifier of women’s hidden histories. As an extension of this, I began to print onto fabric, then layer and hand stitch the imagery. At first I experimented with pre-exisiting blocks, beginning with the linocut Lace Face, 1996 (the basis for this work) before progressing to new linocuts designed specifically for printing onto fabric. The first of these was The Lair of the Lyrebird, 1997. To see this and other works on fabric, click HERE.

Lace Face/Lace Wraith reflects my ongoing fascination with the notion of the double - in this instance, the haunted double. In Scottish dialect, a wraith is a spectre or apparition of a living person; it is also regarded as a portent or omen.

Other featured artists in Sentinels and showboats include Heather Shimmen, Rona Green, Tate Adams, Raymond Arnold, George Baldessin, John Ryrie and Pat Brassington.

The exhibition continues until September 9.

Sentinels and showboats – milestones in print collecting
Geelong Gallery
Little Malop Street
Geelong Vic 3220
Tel: (03) 5229 3645