This is part two of my story
I arrived in the US three years ago having packed up and given away 50 years of accumulated books, clothing, furniture, my car, my computer, my everything, quit my job, put my house on the market , said goodbye to friends, my community and my children and left Australia. All for a man who proposed to me under the Eiffel Tower, and like Evelyn in James Joyce’s “The Dubliners” I did not stay on the shore in a state of paralysis, but flew off looking for love and adventure.
My romance lasted two days: he had changed his mind and was now ‘in a relationship’ with a 20 year old woman and I was I guess, surplus to his needs. My response was not to stick around (never mind the cussing) so I left and travelled by train and Greyhound bus all over the states, invited by his disgusted friends to visit in Washington State, Kentucky, Falls Church and many places in between.
In need of some serious stress release, I offered to clean up the garden of a man who I met at dinner and whose wife had died some years before. He needed a gardener and I needed a garden, and after cleaning up his garden, cleaning his house and helping him pack and move, I went on a three month trip backpacking around Mexico and Guatemala to think about what I was going to do next. I returned to the US and he and I are now together, married and living on the Vineyard
Part One
I have always been involved in making art and I am self taught – although I would love to go to art school somewhere, before I become senile. My work now is in fiber, mixed media and paint. I have always sewn and while in Australia sewed and designed costumes, sets and posters for amateur theatre for many productions.
I have many experiences that contribute to my art: I trained as a Registered Psychiatric Nurse and then as a Registered General Nurse. This was followed by many years of nursing the dying at home and general community health work. Following a serious accident I was no longer able to nurse so I started doing a Communications/History/Design degree by long distance.
Whilst studying, I was offered some part time office work in a sawmill and this resulted in me becoming the owner/operator of the sawmill with 30 employees.
After a number of years doing this my then husband took over and I started working part time on the local newspaper, setting it up on computer and doing all the design from the masthead to the overall look of all the advertising. Being a small paper I also took photos and wrote the occasional story. I also taught literacy, women’s work skills, sewing and computer classes for the local adult college in my spare time.
During this time and as a result of my study, I became involved in the movement towards reconciliation with indigenous Australians and spent a number of years designing, building and maintaining the first memorial to an Aboriginal massacre in Australia. This memorial was heritage listed last year and has become a model for the many that have since been built.
Following my B.A. I got around to training as a Primary (elementary) teacher, and on completion was immediately offered work in a High School teaching Art, Computer, Personal Development and German although I could not speak one word of it, then or now.
Part Three
So now I am here, supported by my wonderful husband Nick, sewing, painting and making art as well as renovating our house and dealing with Chronic Lyme disease.
I have made lots of pieces but here I present five.
Description of Art
“Sunset at West Tisbury” is a beautiful time of the day and my photos did not capture the glorious colors and textures. So I printed them onto silk and cotton, backed them with ‘Dumptique’ fabric, dyed some more and stitched for days and days.
‘The Killing Fields” is about the genocide in Cambodia, and I do not want to forget the harrowing walk around those fields I took over layers of bones and clothing that constantly rose to the surface. Or the images of those tortured in the school and the blood on the floor. I am planning more in this as a series on “Layers” – what we lay over the top – lies, secrets, mysteries, colonization, war, massacres and how we can speak the truth or continue to add more layers until the truth can no longer be found.
“So tell me I don’t have Lyme” comes from my frustration at the difficulties in getting treatment for Lyme disease. The naked and vulnerable woman is covered in ticks, confused and in pain and surrounded by this earthly garden of Paradise (Martha’s Vineyard?) in which lurks the dreaded deer tick. The comments stitched around the edge are real – said to me and others while seeking help. The printed color background is a computer manipulated image of the daily drugs I take for treatment.
‘The Madonna’s of Martha’s Vineyard’ was the first machine piece I made after arriving on the island. It came from talking to women about ‘what they want’ and how they see themselves in life and at this moment. The answers at times surprised me and set me the challenge of matching a Madonna to their desires. Each Madonna took about 10 hours to complete with photos taken and downloaded then ‘Photoshopped’ and then printed out on paper for the image of the individual Madonna to be drawn. This completed drawing was then re-scanned, printed onto fabric and then painted and stitched heavily with metallic thread. I made many new friends whilst making this piece and cannot look at these lovely women without thinking Oh! “Desire” or “Frisky” or “Peace” and of course, the ‘French Whore” whose lovely breasts I stitched and padded with cotton batting.
“Travelling with Prozac” was painted with silk dyes and black gutta on white cotton and was totally hand stitched with thousands and thousands of tiny stitches. This was made before I had a sewing machine and had just arrived via Mexico into the depths of a Vineyard winter. The woman – who is taking Prozac, starts fading out over the 12 weeks of taking the drug and her once colorful daytime world becomes more out of kilter and darker whilst her night-time dreams become more frightening and bizarre. Epilogue: She stopped taking it after 12 weeks and her world is again full of colors.
