Heritage and Family
The Coat (2022)
65 cm X 65 cm X 20 cm
Woollen coat, embroidery cotton thread, silk ribbon, silk thread, fabric paint, cork, linen, printed organza and a little teddy bear!
The Coat carries a family story. My parents immigrated to South Africa with two little boys, my brothers, aged two and three. They each had a coat and this is one of them. It has been embellished with symbols and motifs that embody the heritage from which I have emerged. It carries the threads of connection to the culture, to our family and to the incredibly enduring journey my parents undertook to give their children a better future.
Fitting In (2020)
90 cm X 90 cm
Monoprinting on hand dyed cotton, fabric paint, appliqué and heavily machine quilted.
It’s an odd image: a person contorted in a watering can plus a sunflower! Well, it’s a metaphor for what I see as the process of conditioning.
It happens to us all, particularly so during the vulnerable years of our growing up, but not only then. We are conditioned to fit into all sorts of ways of thinking, ways of being and ways of behaving.
Needing love, affection and protection to survive we will contort ourselves into any shape to remain alive. And so we adapt to what is necessary to be loved, to be accepted, to be recognised, to feel valued, to have friends, and not be alone.
Written in four languages to reflect the cultures I imbibed as a child, the background text reflects the thoughts around the many reasons involved in the process of conditioning while the foreground text reveals the all too often notions of what we are conditioned to believe.
A-mending the Script (2020)
12 cm X 270 cm
Cotton, ink drawings, hand stitched embroidery, appliqué, ribbons and trimmings
Consisting of multiple images of smiling and non-smiling sunflowers this work is a colourful, fun looking strip as if a child’s sampler piece. The sunshine child is the bright looking, attentive, caring, considerate and always smiling child. This behaviour brings much appreciation and reinforcement from those surrounding them and can easily become an unconscious way of being. This piece is a playful yet serious depiction of choice: when to smile and when not to smile. It’s saying “I will smile when it’s true. I will be real with my smile”
The Dress (2017)
152 cm X 90 cm
Lace and tulle felted on silk, silk printed photos, silver and gold thread embroidery, black cotton, silk thread and pearls
Play the videos (2 min & 8 min) to hear the story
Origins (2012)
86 cm X 200 cm
Hand dyed cotton, strip piecing technique, hand dyed cord, machine quilted.
Depicting the story from my origins, through my growing up in an apartheid SA, following different paths, entering the phase of reassembly and finally emerging with a very different configuration.
Sisters (2012)
49 cm X 49 cm
Hand dyed cotton, fabric paints, machine quilted
This is one of a pair of wall hangings made for my sister’s 50th birthday. Hers is the same size and design but the colours are reversed.
Woman (2009)
100cm Ø
Commercial fabrics using foundation piecing method, machine and hand quilting.
Created in a circle, symbol of the feminine, this piece depicts woman’s soul.
Giving Thanks (2003)
49cm Ø in 60 X 60 cm
Fabric, vine tie, ribbons, trimmings secured onto card plus drawings on card
This work was created at my 50th birthday celebration by family members and close friends. I had asked each to lay a thread of something I wanted to give thanks for and together we created this very special piece.