Fabric

Signed on the front.

Frame not included

My love and fascination for human anatomy has always been a strong influence and theme in my work and I am particularly drawn to, some might say obsessed with, the spine, both as an exquisitely beautiful physical structure that I never tire of portraying and as an intriguing metaphor that to me expresses our fundamental core human state where fragility and strength coexist. The spine is beautiful and fragile like lace, yet its structure gives it strength. The women I portray are at once strong, fragile and elusive. The exposed spine represents their core authentic self: imperfect, delicate and powerful, inextricably woven with their traditions and culture.

Whilst my artistic endeavours come firmly from a fine art foundation I do not consider any material to be unworthy of use - each medium and combination of mediums has a language all of its own and in recent years I have wholeheartedly embraced embroidery/ textiles for their expressive capacity. There is a humility to embroidered artefacts, relegated as they have been to a female domestic setting. Aesthetically, I adore the honesty, beauty and directness of the drawn line translated to thread. I have come to conceptualise my work in this medium as constructed drawings.