Living in beautiful New Zealand inspires me.
Living in a global community,
joining in global projects
such as The Prayer Flag Project and Make Something 365
supports the inspiration.
I come to see the world through different eyes.
Heartfelt Dolls |
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Living in my small community is an inspiration. Living in beautiful New Zealand inspires me. Living in a global community, joining in global projects such as The Prayer Flag Project and Make Something 365 supports the inspiration. I come to see the world through different eyes.
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It can take a long while
and a supreme effort and a moment of grace and serendipity for us to accept our own beauty. To replace negative self-talk with a positive outlook. To replace a sad demeanour with joy. To know that we are loved. I delight in possibility.
Scientists explore possibility. Believers dwell within possibility. Artists reveal possibility. What if I put this with that? What if I used this fabric or that? What if I adapted this pattern? What if I made a doll from cane? What if I expressed my distress at the felling of trees? What if I made a doll from mattress ticking? I am always uplifted when I hear of acts supreme sacrifice;
when people set aside their own lives to help another. I am always inspired by small acts of sacrifice, when people set aside their ordinary, everyday lives, and help us become who we are called to be. It may be as simple as a hug, or a food parcel, or a phone call. We live in a throw-away world. But there is something satisfying; ecologically sound; meaningful; liberating about contributing to the life history of an object. By changing its purpose or shape or designation we contribute to the story of an object and help save the planet. Many of my dolls use donated and recycled materials. This creative practice in Philadelphia is inspirational and creative ... a wonderful model of creative initiative and endeavour in depressed city centres. An article in the NZ Herald described an exhibiton which speaks to my soul. I am captivated by the imaginative and conceptual use of domestic arts used to address the human condition.
"The handcrafts of our grannies and aunties evoke powerful memories of our domestic past - a past that has earned a place in our artistic heritage Open a cupboard at the new Artstation show, Cupboards, and you'll find shelves loaded with nostalgia. Cupboards, put together by 30 members of Knitterati, an arts and crafts collective based at the Ponsonby community gallery, is a "family geography", according to curator Liz Wilkinson. "Family geography was just a way of sparking people's ideas up," she says. "A lot of it seems to be involved with past things or their parents." So Ngaire Mains' curtained Celebration Cupboard includes a large jar of old buttons, something you always used to find in grandma's home, its strata of buttons marking times and styles long past. Embroiderer Lynn Kearns has sewn an image of a black and white cupboard, while Alison Milne's Precious refreshes a recycled crocheted cardigan with woven ribbons and a secret revealed when the buttons are undone: knitted breast prostheses. Marlyne Jackson's Lavender and Roses spells out the title in French knitting above two tiny cupboards containing pretty trinkets, tiny embroidered doilies and little jars of natural skin care essences, reflecting her "thinking about Mum and my grandmother". There is a cupboard full of knitted teapot cosies (Lyanne Corbett), a minuscule paper cupboard decorated with photos inside and out (Reflections on My Forebears by Sharon Rochford), and a cabinet full of milk jug doilies (Maggie Gresson). Jude Graveson's Serving Tea at Mason's Ave is a tea trolley covered with macabre objects like a bowl full of artificial eyeballs, a cup filled with eye teeth, dried cow gut, bird skulls and three slabs of anatomically carved soap. Egg Cupboard, by Gillian Clark, features the "cosmic egg" hovering above a broken egg cup, while Liz Wilkinson has two pieces in the show: About A Year, a box of recycled envelopes-cum-diary, and Morandi's Bottles, woollen bottles knitted in the round as a tribute to Italian painter Giorgio Morandi, who painted bottles and bowls in simple muted colours. Knitterati, who have been working together for about 10 years as part of a worldwide Knitterati movement, started with classes at Artstation taught by Auckland University of Technology lecturer Trish Scott. Since then, they have evolved into an "untutored" group which meets monthly to knit, practice craft and visit public art spaces. As Wilkinson explains, the group is not restricted to knitting. "In fact, in one of the earlier exhibitions one of the artists put in all her recipes for coleslaw." But there is knitting aplenty. For its House to House show in 2011, Knitterati went to Taupo and knitted in public for six hours a day for nine days for the Erupt Festival, while they knitted huge blankets for a year for a 2008 show called Shelter, with the blankets later donated to Mangere Refugee Centre. Knitterati are also associated with the Artists Alliance's Oily Rag Project, or "How to have an exhibition/event on the smell of an oily rag" designed to encourage artists who want to show their work who are otherwise inhibited by a lack of funding. As with all Knitterati shows, Cupboards includes a charitable objective. Viewers are invited to bring non-perishable food to place in Old Mother Hubbard's Cupboard, which will go to the Auckland City Mission." I am always in awe of artisans who produce immaculate work. Many hours. Much skill. Incredible vision. Attention to detail. When tried and true formulae are given a new face,
I think, what could I adapt? how could I re-interpret a conventional formula? how can I make something relevant to my context? I absolutely LOVE it when others think outside the box; to conceive of news ways of seeing; and of innovative ways to capture image. It pushes me; invites me; challenges me; encourages me to consider the improbable. Friends inspire me in so many ways. Soul friends. Mentors. Patronage. Shared experiences. I am richly blessed. |
Liz PearceI am a doll-maker; a doll interpreter; a doll activist, perhaps, using this medium to reflect on the human condition. Archives
August 2020
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