Traces

Festival near Amritsar

Sometimes, I reflect back. Six years ago I visited India. I have Romany ancestry and wanted to 'trace' connections and links  to the North West regions of India  where it is believed the 'Romani'  first migrated.. The colours of the temple, coverings for the horses and the decorated trucks certainly resonated with the those I remember seeing on the Vardos or caravans my grandparents owned.

 

     Monkey Mountain Jaipur                                               Waiting at the Station, Delhi

I made photographs and drawings recording what I saw and experienced and gradually, as the experience began to sit with me more, the colours and marks found they way into my work.

Rooftop Delhi

I was interested in the day to day, the interaction between the landscape and the people and the marks made as part of that interaction.

Sketchbook Collage

Small Stitch-sketch canvas' of local scenes.

 

One of my pieces, 'Remnants from Not So Ordinary Lives' (above) is in the collection of a teacher decided to show  the work to her students: 

'I have to tell you that your piece hanging in my classroom today drew the kids in.  I could hear oohs and ahhs as they can into the room.  And the neatest thing was watching them get up close to see all the wonderful stitching/printing/collaging, etc.  And then asking permission to touch.  They just really needed to touch your piece as I did several times today.  It looks so transparent and is so lightweight, not what we are used to producing here.  It's a very magical piece.' 

 (Teacher at Whitney High School in Cerritos, California)

This is a reminder of the value of the original research in terms of its place and development in my work and more relevant, how the artworks can inform and inspire the next generation to ask questions about its function and purpose. As always, this research will be returned to sometime as a reflection of my cycle of interests.

Traces installation at Rochester Cathedral in 2007/8 (supported by Medway Council)