Mimicry

My work is influenced by plants, insects and undersea creatures; sometimes just the cellular aspects of them.  Rather than copy nature directly, my fabric sculptures are fanciful, yet evolutionary.  I see my work as if something under a microscope that has been enlarged.  My sculptures “grow”, repeat in form and often “evolve” into new sculptures, like spores or cells.”  Instead of natural fabrics, I use synthetic fabric, unusual in colour, tactile, often slippery and sensual.  Not all sculptures are esthetically beautiful; many are provocative, challenging the viewer to see something in a new way, either by physical relation to the art or by challenging the viewer’s sense of appreciation, sometimes causing repulsion or awe. 

Nature is my inspiration because that’s where I like to play, that is where I have connection.   I think we all have or need that connection.  I love how trees grow, how they divide into branches, like ladders, stretching and reaching.  I love the marshes, the merging of mud and leaf where I watch birds and they in turn watch me.  I want to bring that to the gallery.

The Gallery is an aspect of the sculpture too.  It’s the site for so much potential; how will the sculptures relate to each other in this space?  How will the sculptures interact with the lighting?   How will the sculptures relate to the viewer and the viewer to the sculpture in the gallery?   Even after the sculptures are sewn, there is so much unknown.  The Gallery is part of my canvas, it’s my blank sheet of paper. 

Many of the works take months to sew.  Sometimes sewing is meditative and calming, sometimes it is mechanical, at first the process is slow, as I experiment and learn how to make the shapes or attain the effect I am looking for. Eventually the patterns take form and come together like players on a stage.

The sculptures seem alive to me, sometimes they have personalities, sometimes they are cheeky other times they are menacing.  Like a Venus Flytrap – “the Pod” could draw you in.  Like a tree frog that might be poisonous or might just be fascinating but harmless, my sculptures will draw you in or they might repel you – You decide.