Floating tulip

I'm so pleased to have this beautiful shot by

Vogue Living's Marcel Aucar to share with you all.
(posted on VL tumblr 19 March http://voguelivingmagazine.tumblr.com/) 

The tulip, 'Last Gasp, after Maria Sibylla Merian c1670'

is finished now, but this photo of the unfinished work, posed with

an exquisitely elegant Shaker style chair, which I rescued from local hard

rubbish, lends the work an even more poignant sense of the ephemeral. 

"It looks like an exotic bird about to alight on the chair back..."

Tim Craker, friend and installation artist

"Objects, memories and moments that inspire our everyday" Vogue Living April 2013

I was interviewed by the very lovely,

intelligent and witty Annemarie Kiely in December last year,

for this issue, which has a focus on "what is luxury?"

I love the subtitle - "objects, memories and moments

that inspire our everyday"...

...as those sentiments lie at the heart of my materials -

reclaimed needlework, made by others are often

precious hand made objects filled with memory and

moments from another era, when life was slower,

quieter and there were way less cars on the road!



I'm very fortunate to be given such a generous spread...

only about 6 weeks until the show opens at

Gould Galleries in South Yarra

heatwave takes it's toll.....

I feel like this delicate dragonfly (in the making),

 very fragile in the autumn heatwave we are

experiencing in Melbourne, making it

 far too hot to be in the studio after 11am...

the "Last Gasp" tulip is almost done - and now

the question is, with dragonfly?  Or...

... without?

(reclaimed needlework, lace pins, tulle, h 82 x w 86 cms)

the pressure is mounting...

seven small to medium works are with the framers

and I am almost finished mounting the large birds...

very exciting



Here are some of them on their mounts, it has been

like making the work all over again, as the Lyre bird, for instance

took me three whole days to back and attach to the mount board,

but hopefully it will be worth it - they will be conserved within

their shadow box frames and hopefully will find some new homes...

My exhibition at Gould Galleries in Sth Yarra opens to the public

on May 1st and runs until May 31st 2013...

enter the dragon...fly

the last petal is almost complete and a kooky dragonfly

by the same artist, Maria Sibylla Merian c1680's enters the frame....



Maria's insects are strange creatures, especially

her dragonflys which she painted in and around her

still life flower paintings in the 1600's

It is their eccentricity which attracts me.... 



This one is coming to life below the tulip, but will most

likely be placed on top of the far right petal once complete