A stroll through 2023 - art fragments

 

This is my last blog post for 2023; and what a better way to end the year than to share an art image from each month. Fittingly the year started with some letterpress that set the scene for our year. In January I printed "go gently" which would become an important salutation - see opening photo.

A new year resolution for me was a commitment to tidy my letterpress studio workspace. I had embossing and spray stencils and random poster prints left over from making my large patriarchy It Won't Dismantle Itself artists' book. In February I decided to turn these bits into a unique artists book  focussing on the fact that women are often subjected to uninvited touches and sexual attack. The image below says it all - Uninvited Hands.

In March we were at the cottage in Scotland with F's dad G. In the wind and snow the Cove Post we installed in the front yard had toppled over so one of the first tasks was to re-install it - though this time I cemented it into place.

Whilst at the cottage F got to talk to a couple of locals about the work that had gone on to up[grade Strathnaver Museum. She found out that in the new annex that had been built as part of the upgrade a small display-art exhibition space had been developed. This lead me to negotiating a solo exhibition that would tell part of the story of the highland cleanses. In April I started the task of making 100 metal fishing boats that would be key to the major work in the exhibition.

Melting pewter is something I turn to to give myself a break from repetitive tasks. Making the 100 boats for the Scotland exhibition piece required many hours of work in the workshop. So I paused in May to pour and stamp hearts to give away was a joyful way to give myself a break. I love the fire colour on the heart below.

There are points in the year where one goes back to complete work started earlier. One of the small art tasks that I did in June was to bring the small metal hull forms together with stone to form some tabletop sculptures. 

Before F and I headed to Scotland in mid August we wanted to jointly create and install a small (about 1.2-1.3m high) post sculpture to include on the garden walk below our townhouse. As you can see the post was install  - Faith has taken part in many of my art installations over the last couple of years so not only could she provided installation advice but also take the photo below.

Before we could install the exhibition pieces for the Strathnaver Museum exhibition in late August I had to quickly carve cottages from stone from 5 fishing coves that represented the area the exhibition responded to.

The exhibition, Betrayal and Loss, was set up and ran for all of September - what an honour to be able to exhibit in the new Strathnaver Museum Annex gallery.

The Fishers Post was temporarily installed in September-October near the Strathnaver Museum Annex - it is planned that it will eventually be installed in a public fishing harbour. It was assembled from etched aluminium plates created in workshop F and I ran with S1 & S2 students at the Farr Highschool. What an important sculptural post based on the students' work to honour the folk who were cleared from their farms, were forced to become fishers and lost their lives or loved ones in the tumultuous seas on the Scottish north coast.

Before we headed back to our Maleny home in early November F and I created a third piece in the Charred Series - Charred Cube - rust and recycled timber from fence posts We had a lot of fun making this piece - about 25cm cubed. It sits in the front yard of the cottage.

In November I got stuck into making a new line of my  Found and Formed Jewellery made from gifted pearl shell and gifted gold plated metal. This brought together two beautiful salvaged materials. The new range was launched in early December at a special Saturday sale.

A good note to end the year on was that the Strathnaver Museum committed to buying the artwork Loss that included over 100 small hand made metal boats.

2023 has been a joyful creative year.