The Fabric Collage Series is created as large scale Painting and Drawing, and is comprised of my rough brush strokes to convey textures and emotion, is often blurred and behind a layer of fabric. The palette I work with most often is a muted or dead palette, as these are the colours I’m drawn to when creating the works around my themes. The painting/drawings are created on double layered voile a synthetic translucent fabric, and create a social distance between the landscape and people (fabric). In addition the fabric choice speaks to notions of preservation because of the oil paint on a fabric base that has not been prepared archivally, therefore the oil paint will begin to break down eventually. Consistent Images in my work are skin textures, fabrics and abstractions of the landscape: the image of fabric existing to protect our bodies from the environment we live in. These images are taken from a multitude of sources but are mostly found images from nature and fashion magazines, representing the societal need to conform to unreachable ideals. These images are then taken out of their original context and collaged into a final image. This creates an abstract quality in my work, as many of the images are distorted, nonsensical and often resemble body systems, in which ties in the sense of body within the landscape.
My work so far seeks the answers to the questions of how we feel based on how we are seen in society – individually on our outward appearance, and how this is related to the surrounding we are in, often causing alienation and anxiety from being deviant. This stems from my upbringing from my relatives about the importance of dressing correctly for a situation, as well as properly, according to their European values. To this day I consider what clothing I am wearing when leaving the house, and what to wear in order to not stick out in public spaces, I recently have been interested in how the region and weather we are in effect your wardrobe choices and fabrics in which we wear in these.
