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| Winter Solstice: Sun and Winter Solstice: Moon Wax, collage, feathers and stitch 2018 |
For several years now I've taken part in Surface Gallery's excellent 'International Postcard Exhibition.' I really like this project as it's a great way to start a new year; it's manageable, affordable and a great way to test out new ideas and get them out into the world. Technically I ended the year with this project as I made my postcards last month but the exhibition is this month so I'm going to let myself off.
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| Winter Solstice: Sun Wax, collage, feathers and stitch 2018 |
As I've been experimenting with wax and collage recently I decided that I would use the postcard show as an opportunity to create a couple of small pieces exploring this technique. I've also become very interested in using the sun and the moon in my work over the last year or so (continuing my interest in dichotomies) and again thought this would be an ideal opportunity to experiment a little with these ideas.
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| Winter Solstice: Moon Wax, collage, feathers and stitch 2018 |
I made a pair of postcards, they're designed to work together but I think they also work apart from each other. I made them on the solstice, being inspired by the idea of the turning point of the year and how even in our 'advanced' technology saturated lives the cycle of light and dark is still so important to us.
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| Winter Solstice: Sun (Detail) Wax, collage, feathers and stitch 2018 |
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| Winter Solstice: Sun (Detail) Wax, collage, feathers and stitch 2018 |
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| Winter Solstice: Sun and Winter Solstice: Moon Wax, collage, feathers and stitch 2018 |
One postcard is entitled Winter Solstice: Sun and the other Winter Solstice: Moon, representing the dark and the light, night and day. I love the way cloud can diffuse the light of the celestial bodies, creating an ethereal effect and I wanted to try and capture this in my pieces. I used metallic paper and layers of tissue paper, all held together with wax. I tore rather than cut the paper to try and capture that hazy quality. It's been partially successful and I think it's an idea worth pursuing. I incorporated feathers in my pieces to represent us and the importance of our relationship to the light and the cycle of the seasons and of night and day.
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| Winter Solstice: Moon (Detail) Wax, collage, feathers and stitch 2018 |
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| Winter Solstice: Moon (Detail) Wax, collage, feathers and stitch 2018 |
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| Winter Solstice: Moon (Detail) Wax, collage, feathers and stitch 2018 |
Although theses postcards haven't come out exactly as I'd hoped it's given me a start on some ideas I've been wanting to explore for a while and I hope that over the course of this year I will be developing this work further. In the meantime, if you're in Nottingham do go and look at the show and see the amazing diversity and skill of all the artists who've submitted their work.
