Lighting my path

I began my education as a weaver designing cloth for industry but also as objects in their own right. Threads being tamed, ordered and invited to make objects for use and display. I was enchanted by the loom itself, it’s presence in the studio, all wood and strings, wire and potential.

Now in my later years I look for ways that allow me to have direct contact with my material without the interference of machinery. This has been my path, albeit, I’m joining up the dots going backwards. The older I get, the smaller I feel in the world. I sense my entanglement with ‘things’ in nature as I move through my environment.

Tim Ingold, in his paper, ‘Bringing Things to Life’ 2010, talks of the ‘fluxes and flow’ of materials, he argues for a world of things rather than objects, things that are in a permanent state of becoming. I see myself as a collector of things in nature, animating my finds in ways that continue their journey, elevating their quiet presence whilst entangling myself within ‘the stuff’ of nature that catches my eye.

Like the eponymous magpie I do what I do, my nature is to make things. Daisy chains always come to mind, how I loved making those things! The simplicity of it, sitting on the school field on a summers day making bracelets or a circlet for our hair. They begin to wilt of course but the memory remains strong. The instinct to pick those daisies, touch, examine, smell and play is at the heart of my art making.

I believe in Tim Ingold’s world of the Environment Without Objects, bringing materials together, ‘redirecting their flow in anticipation of what might emerge’. I want to improvise and follow my materials on their journey of becoming.