Out of Tasmania - Happy New Year!

This series of bird images derives from a sewing project, in a book called Scandinavian Stitching by Finnish textile artist Kajsa Wikman.  

I used the leftover paper cut outs of iron on bird shapes to collage this image in my visual journal, above. I then almost ruined it by drawing on the back, with markers, whilst creating the image below. I tried to rescue the first image, and sort of succeeded (its a bad photo), by using a white paint pen. I really like the whimsical bird images, and decided to keep exploring them, although I don't usually work with other people's designs.

In this image, I started with the numbers, which span across two journal pages, and then cut out the 'one' and the 'five', leaving two empty spaces, into which I then drew birds, on the page beneath. So there was a pattern of each page being influenced by the previous/following one.  Kind of like days, and years, really. No such thing as a clean slate!

This is the original image on quilted fabric, using random scraps of material, and using the same bird design. I treated it as quilting practice, really, as its something I'm still not very experienced in. I had fun with this!

 Tessellated Pavement, Tasman Peninsula

I read three books by Tasmanian authors at the end of last year - The Sound of One Hand Clapping by Richard Flanagan, What Days Are For by Robert Dessaix, and The Dirty Chef by Matthew Evans. The first is a well-known, moving and much-loved novel about migrants in Tasmania, and the impact of loss and grief on two generations. The second is Dessaix's memoir - musings on mortality and what he calls life's layers, after a sudden heart attack, and the third is a fascinating (and often mouth-watering) account of novice farmer, former food critic and city dweller Evans, as seen on SBS's series Gourmet Farmer. All are aiming for authenticity in their own sphere - and it was good to read them whilst in Tasmania.

I love these images of the Tessellated Pavement on the Tasman Peninsula. The shapes, although naturally occurring through erosion, are quite regular, and the straight lines are unusual in nature, so it looks quite surreal.

A nice rave about 'detoxing' for the New Year, by Oliver Burkeman, here. Happy New Year, and please leave a comment, if you want to. I've had over 15,000 visits to this blog since I started five years ago, in late 2009, which is amazing!

more later.