Believe’n diets

Cathy Shemansky chose UK poet Tom Kelly’s poem Believe for her pastel artwork. The  poem starts like this…

It’s happening, the odd crocus
edges out between rocks and trees,
blue tongues licking crisp sunshine

Cathy’s work is stunning, and the colours are marvellous.

Lynn Taylor’s little sisters stole the show and sold like hotcakes. They were created in response to Barbara Strang’s haiku,

on a diet
she devours
recipe books

Lynn wrote the following:

Feed our sisters. Some of us are full but some sisters have been on a diet of recipe books too long and have been reduced to slinkies. Please save them so they can be stuffed with some tasty dacron or at least have a new view! (You can choose to keep your Slinky Sister as a wall piece or have her evolve into a stuffed girl)

These personalities respond to the haiku I chose and also blend with my own waiting room experiences. While undergoing chemotherapy I was hypnotized to help me turn up to the treatments. A part of this therapy was to visualise a little monster friend who would come along with me – a fun creature who counteracted the grim reality.

Mixed media: new fabrics, predominately hand dyed and screenprinted fabrics, including vintage table cloths and doilies. Buttons, domes, thread, dacron etc. Fabric imagery is made from dying fabrics and overprinted with text from recipe books, silverfish (the ultimate book devourers) scales, tape measures and kitchen items.

And again using the same haiku as her theme Lynn made these soft leather and hardcover hand bound books.

Variety of papers, including reconstituted paper handmade from a pulped (Devoured) recipe book -“Dine with Elizabeth”. Screen print, paint, embroidery thread, shell button.