Single Use Plastic

Continuing on from the theme of using teabags as a substrate or art material, this quilt was made from a photo of an old lady who sheltered with me in a tropical downpour in Java. I asked if I could take her photo and she agreed. When she saw her photo she thought she was so ugly. I thought she was just so beautiful with her woven hat and plastic sheet raincoat and so much life and mystery in that face! Not long after this, Mt Merapi erupted and I wondered what happened to my wonderful model and if she managed to escape and continue her life anew.

The images below give a close up of the stitching on the teabags that brought her face to life. Everything used in this art quilt was recycled from the woven hat - remnants of Tamara’s art project, to the background scraps to the old scarf and finally the single use plastic that found a new life

Through the Lens of Steve McCurry

As my interest in thread painting older faces developed, I found some wonderful portraits photographed by Steve McCurry who was a freelance photographer for National Geographic. I wrote to his studio and was granted permission to use his photographs as a starting point as long as I referenced Steve in my work. At the same time my interest in using teabags as a substrate within my work was developing and it seemed a good match to place the images in a teabag substrate stamped with a camera and having the images surrounding an image of Steve with his camera. All the teabags were salvaged from use dried and attached to a background of cotton with the teabags being attached with gel medium and a layer of gel medium over the top. The background took on an aged leather look. I called this quilt “Through the lens of Steve McCurry. Below is a close up of the individual images including some that were not used in the finished quilt.

Over the years I have learnt a lot from Steve’s photographs both in composition and of creating the ordinary/mundane into photographic work of art.