I have found that the more the world seems to feel threatening the more colour and simplified shapes I am using in my work. It's like the political landscape is a darkening cloud that I am trying to keep at bay with my own rainbows and multicoloured umbrellas.
Moving on from My Mother's Vases I am drawn increasingly to 'wild' flowers, especially those with non standard shapes. I am pulled towards the flowers of Jacobean tapestries and fraktur folk art, to the plant photographs of Karl Blossfeldt and the simplicity of quick drawings with crayons and fat, creamy STABILO Woodys, the swishy lines of mono printing with acrylic paint on glass. Stitch and fabric are wooing me back but with a fresh enthusiasm and I finally see the two worlds of my past work not just touch but intertwine, weave together if you will.
It's early days and I feel like the seeds of these ideas are just starting to grow, that the work is taking me where it wants right now. I'll have to tame it eventually but I am so enjoying the wild freedom of play, of colour and mark making in whatever format it takes me. With a large programme of workshops starting in March I'd better the make the most of it while I have time.