Map, oil and acrylic on sewn canvas, 2005
I have been sewing canvas together since 1994, if not earlier. It came out of necessity as much as anything. By the time I was in the second year of my Bachelor of Fine Art degree, I had already spent three years studying graphics/ art straight out of high school. When I finally completed my degree I was not just poor, but in debt. So I did what all thrifty creatives do and recycled.
I sewed together all the scraps of canvas I had to make them large enough to paint on. When I say scraps most of them were already quite large, but not the size I wanted. I often used the seams as divisions in the paintings. I did one series (if you can call four paintings that) of the seasons in this manner using colour within the sewn panels to depict the variations.
The above is a map I sewed together when I was studying my Masters of Visual Art, some eleven years after the first sewing began. It was created on pieces of an old painting that I cut up in to panels of 10 x 20cm. I then painted part of a shipping chart onto each panel individually before placing lines and symbols in a manner that resembled a map. This was the same year I painted and sewed feathers to panels of identical size, although the original painting I cut up was one with washes of white and pale yellow, which was more sympathetic to the feathers. Eight years later these small feather paintings inspired the painting Flock.
I enjoy sewing, although I have no idea why. I especially enjoy sewing different materials. I have a piece I began so many years ago that I can't remember, lets call it the early 2000's, where I sewed the first 100 pages of the Melway (Melbourne street directory) together. I have another painting Compare, (100 x 200cm). It dates back to 1997, and is a slightly abstracted sunset over water. Behind the paint, sewn and glued together onto the canvas is a Melway map of the Mornington Peninsula, where I live.
I have two more leaves to paint before I begin the arranging and sewing of them. Of course I have already begun sewing shipping charts together and my next project is to tackle...yes, the Melway again. It's funny, but until now I hadn't realised how much the map and sewing have existed in my work, and how they continue to inform my decisions. I guess we pursue the things we love, either consciously or sub-consiously.
