The works in the Feelings Series are connected to my sense of stitching as a form of emotional expression and sense of playfulness. Some works are highly choreographed, while others take an improvisational approach. The two Wave of feeling works, are constructed from linen, stained with dye pigments made from red onion skin, turmeric and turmeric mixed with bicarbonate of soda. The linen was cut into small pieces and reassembled using collage and embroidery. Wave of Feeling 11, evolved during the week following my first shot of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. Challenged by the media hysteria in Australia concerning deaths from blood clots caused by the vaccine, I kept my hands busy through hours and hours of stitching. And in doing so, I found it became a calming meditation of emotional release. Experiments with soul and Breath 11, represent the complexities of life and the search for meaning . Messy somewhat chaotic drawn thread work, layering of wrapping stitches and fragmented surfaces depict the journey into soul. The works Here I the continent that is woman dwell, are inspired by my poem Frocks can be deceptive, reflections on female entrapment and being fixed in a physical and psychological guise not of our choosing.

Frocks can be deceptive

Entangled I be caught in the interlock between
warp of pleasing and weft of uncertainty
timeworn fingers tearing at the bias
pulling at the embroidered cloth of one’s being
a fashioned cloth from which
my becoming is patterned and cut
such a deceitful craft
the dressing of female bodies by
patriarch’s dream squad
materialist stylists
indoctrinated by the Enlightenment and the
promiscuous promises of the Romantic Brotherhood
here I the continent that is woman dwell
revisiting, reimagining, restitching, remaking, reworking
in my continual war against the grain