2022, the year in Review

 Over the years, I have stopped at the end of a year or the beginning of the next to look back and see what I made during the year. It is so helpful to me to be reminded of achievements, of work that I loved, or that I struggled with.  My sense of time remains flexible and I honestly didn't recall that I had done so much in 2022!

I entered the process this year feeling a bit sad and disillusioned that I hadn't done half the things I had hoped or planned to do; and then as the year unfolded before my eyes I recalled some fabulous and lovely things and it felt great to have them alongside for a while. Note to self, memory can be flawed. 

 Here are my Top 10 things I made this year - things that I love, things I am proud of, things that make me smile, things that matter to me and things I am simply happy to have out in the world. They appear alphabetically rather than in any order of merit.

1. Carried

The opportunity to take part in the Vessel exhibition provided real impetus for me to think about new work, and be creative yet true to myself. This work took a long time to resolve, yet tells its story so beautifully. Making the envelopes out of papers I had rubbed on the cottage walls and on a special chair in Maleny made the envelopes special, along with words I had written and the crazy dangling threads I love so much...

2. Cottage Post

This whimsical piece emerged out of our trips to the cove in Scotland, gathering driftwood and bibs and bobs. Some pieces of timber really talk to you and I love how this piece came into being as I held timbers, turned them around, put them together...all with Barry's help of course!

3. Fragile Gains 2

Another work that took several turns about and circular movements rather than a straight line to completion, this body of work builds on my earlier Fragile Gains work (2014) which examines gains made by women which I still consider fragile. With the overturning of Roe v Wade through the year, it became blazingly clear that choices is definitely still at risk. This felt like important work; tho it is small and quiet - it speaks truth.

4. Gleaning

I fell in love with this book after making it, and am so glad it has landed with a friend. It represents my efforts this year  to re-use work and re-make work and see if tired work can gain a new lease of life. This book did it beautifully, and inspired two more similar book re-makings.

5. Locon's book

This was the loveliest of commissions and I really enjoyed thinking my way through how to represent a person's life (the small bits that I knew). It came together really well and the recipient was thrilled. I have just realised I never actually posted the completed work! Shall try to remedy that soon.

6. Postcards Home

My ponderings about what home is came together in small part when I used threads I had dyed from our garden in Scotland alongside threads I had dyed from Maleny garden plants to create this small accordion book. The soft colours of the threads make it a gentle transition between two places.

7. Silversmithing

One of my absolute most favourite things this year was attending an Introduction to Silversmithing course with Lindsey Gallacher in Thurso. It was such a delight to design, resolve and make a piece in the space of a day! Slightly smitten could describe my response...

8. Turning Point

I finished this book/s early in the year and it became a Finalist in the Libris Awards, going on to be purchased for the Mackay Art Gallery's Collection. It is a coming together of the anger women have about sexual assault, rape, abuse and violence - from Me Too to many others, women will no longer be silenced.

9. Validating I & II

Companion pieces to the works below, these two fabric scroll books continue our sense of uncertainty and unease as we emerged from the worst of the lockdowns to try and work out what on earth it means to live  with such a scurrilous virus still circulating. I love the look and the feel of them; and how they make you feel unsure as you approach them. and of course, we (x) find ourselves within them.

10. Validation I, II & III

These words have floated in and out of my brain for months and I am still not convinced that we are all fine and dandy and that everything is settled again. There seems to still be much disruption and uncertainty around us.  Fragility, Tentativeness, Suspension, Isolation... all of the feelings, and we should be OK about validating them. This trio allow us to do just that. 

Thanks as ever for coming along on the ride looking back over the year that was. It helped me remember that there were many beautiful things and moments of magic and that there will be again.

The softness of my palette is repeated yet again this year - with that bold dash of red and black in Turning Point being the only detour amongst them. I covered territory around women, about the nature of home, the joy of gleaning and creating, and around the ongoing impacts of the pandemic. All of which sounds about right regarding the things that have made want to make and create this year. And Letraset go ta really good run!

Thanks again, and go well.