Love Letter for a Wednesday - “Home”
My speech from Wednesday night’s Solo Exhibition at the Longtrack Pantry, Jugiong.
Dedicated to our dear Mother, Lona. xxoo
Firstly thank you to beautiful Juliet and Huwy for having my works in your beautiful space. And to Jo Miller for her help with hanging each piece. We spent the day yesterday hanging and it was just so lovely. Also to Hylesy who helped Jo and I hang and his wonderful suggestions and support always.
Thank you everyone for coming and joining us in this Love Local Evening.
There are thirty artworks in this solo exhibition. I thought I had twenty-nine but when I was tying up the titles, I had thirty. I was never that good at keeping track of numbers. This was very evident when I taught aerobics classes, as I’d lose count of how many lunges, squats and core exercises I was up to and would receive a few loud counts to remind me!
Welcome to “Home”, my latest body of work dedicated to our beautiful Mother, Lona who went on to join our dear Da and sister Franny in late July this year.
Home is about the notion of what makes a home.
A home is like a warm hug. My siblings and I were very fortunate to be born into a home with foundations that were built on love, faith, hope, laughter, honesty, trust and peace.
We don’t choose what we are born into, it’s just luck.
And I think this theme is very much at the forefront of our minds with everything that is happening in the world at the moment.
Each piece holds tears, grief, love, time, joy, flow and creating these pieces have been cathartic.
Art heals me. Art lifts me and the creativity quenches my thirst for life and living.
There are little homes in most of my pieces, nestled amongst the hills and trees. And others a resting spot to build a home. Smoke slowly blowing from some of the chimneys as a fire is always a welcomed addition to a home on a cold winter’s night and creates that homely feeling.
My palette has slightly altered again. Which often happens to me after a big life event, it’s as though life has taken on a different direction, one that is trodden with the preciousness of appreciation. It is mostly a soft palette with hints of fluro.
This softness is depicted through the use of soft pinks and gentle tertiary colours. They have a calming effect on me, and I hope you can all feel this.
Each piece tells its own little story, and the titles give you a hint into that story.
They have evolved from a quote, from lyrics of a song, from my grief and conversations around this.
When I looked up the definition of Home in the dictionary, one of the definitions was and the one I have embraced is a verb (which of course is doing word!)………..
(of an animal) return by instinct to its territory after leaving it:
"a dozen geese homing to their summer nesting grounds"
This is my favorite and describes this body of work so well.
I have a few extra tea towels here tonight. These special tea towels are dedicated to our dear Mother and are from a painting I created after Franny died.
So, if you missed out there a few left.
My solo exhibition will continue on through to Sunday 3rd December. The unsold pieces will go online on my website from Monday through to Christmas.
Thank you again for joining us tonight and hoping you have a beautiful, gentle lead up to Christmas and you embrace all things that help make our lives joyful and meaningful.
Here’s to celebrating Love Local and Home.
Love Steph xx