2015 Favourites...

This time of year is good for stopping a bit, reflecting a bit, pondering bit. Looking back and looking forward.

As part of my regular practice I go back through the work I made last year and consider which ones were my favourites.  I never list them 1-10 (too hard!) but simply do a Top 10 alphabetically.

A lot of work this year was focused on our Pas de Deux exhibition; but odd random bits appeared that made me smile.

So from the 2015 archive we have:

1. Amongst The Clouds I

These long thin works that are made to hang from the ceiling and sway in the breeze try to capture the wonder of living in, above and below the clouds as we do here on the mountain.  They will be shown in an exhibition in May this year and I was excited to do my first 'real' letterpress work for exhibition - plus I loved the paper!

2. Beyond bombs and burning...

Early in the year I was invited to participate in the Al-Mutanabbi St project. I had to postpone the delivery of my books, but I finally sent them off in December.  These books remind us that even books are burned, the ideas and thoughts within them survive...

3. Fragile Gains 

I decided to create wall pieces to accompany one of my favourite books Fragile Gains. The seven pages were individually burnt and then mounted on aluminium (like the book's covers) and held in Perspex.  They are a strong, quiet statement about women's gains across the world...

4. Letterpress play

My love for letterpress grew last year as did my collection of type and drawers and cases and composing sticks and ink and quoins and leading and spacers and furniture and....

I committed to spend most of my time in preparation - in cleaning and preparing the type so that in 2016 I could go to town. When Caren Florance came to stay for few days however it was into the studio to play - and I love how this scrap of printing looks - it inspires to do so much more.

5. Memorial to birds having flown

Pages of small feather prints on Goyu paper, dipped in sweet smelling beeswax and arranged within a Perspex box.

6. Silence helps no one

An unexpected book that came out of attempting a new binding. This book is hard to get into to. It is hard to read. It is awkward. A bit how bystanders feel when they observe family violence - how do I get in? How do I make sense of this? How can I help?

7. Time For Change

Unique patterns created by burning, watch parts included to reminds it is time for change, bandages holding it together with written reminders that women killed by the partners or former partners were mothers, daughters, sisters and friends...

8. Time To Change

This library of 52 small hand made books holds individual records of women killed by their partners or former partners in Australia in 2014.  Hand stitched counting, embossed crosses, letterpress words and unique patterns burned with watch parts added. A tribute.

9. Too Many Poppies

By April 2015 I had really really seen too many poppies. I was overwhelmed by the poppies and all that they signified, and just had to do something.  Five wall pieces and five small books emerged - too many poppies, too many deaths, too many poppies, too many deaths written over and over and over again. And still we go to war...

10. Under Construction

My admiration for wee birds and the amazing work they do building nests got a thorough investment this year with 5 large wall pieces and 5 large books, then some smaller books as well.  I enjoyed the stitching, the creation of short poems, the calligraphy, the printing, the feathers...it was a just a lovely way to spend a fair bit of time.

Thanks for joining me in this meander along the path of artworks through 2015. It surprises me how often I go "Oh I had forgotten about that!" so I really do appreciate the process of review.