Bounty of the Beach

poem and mixed media collage of shells, beads, fabric, sequins,
tracing paper and yarn, sewn onto recycled paper

Bounty of the beach

Shells on sand

Girls wander the shoreline

Gather jewels in their hands

Contentedly collected then

Sewn into memories

Of lifelong friendship

Fondly recollected

- Sally Jane Carter

I made this collage as a present for my best friend, Phaedra. We met at uni over a decade ago and I imagine that we'll be enjoying each other's company well into our retirement. The collage and poem it contains is an ode to our friendship. The shells come from a beach holiday where we spent hours wandering the shoreline and collecting the ocean's jewels. They represent memories of times shared, like:

• Friday night cooking with the shared contents of our fridges at each other's houses when we both lived in Summer Hill. Usually followed by a tub of tim tam ice cream, two spoons and a dvd
• After-work drinks at Bistro-fax
• Nights at the Opera, afternoons at the Art Gallery
• Sharing a love of lists
• Pre-date fashion consultations and mid-date sms updates
• Being each other's bridesmaids
• Being a source of wisdom and acceptance for each other throughout our struggles
• Making a mess with Master Miles, baking biscuits
• Regular beauty spa sessions

Phaedra is gentle and wise and cheeky and full of substance. And there's a contentment knowing that we'll be hanging around for some time.

The Ethics of a Pencil Case

The Spit Press is a free Sydney art newspaper. Its August issue includes an article I wrote on sewing instead of spending. Happy reading!

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

wisdom of the leaves

On a windy cold morning as I returned from the bakery, ready for a day of  creative industry, I spied a fascinating composition of shapes that was once a a single leaf, attached to the twisted rope of its stem. And then further down the road lay a delicate piece of skeletal lace.

Refuse, lying spent in the gutter, strewn desolately across the footpath. But the aesthetic spirits of these fragile leaves had not departed and they spoke to me. It compelled me to honour them as objets d'art in a mobile. And the exquisite vulnerability of their form told proverbs about how to see. 

“ 

Contemplate beauty in all people and you will see their inherent value.

Listen carefully; beauty whispers from desolation.

Function can be reinvented; there is no uselessness.

Value and respect the resources you expend.

Resist the tyranny of desiring what is new.

Reaching for the shiny and refined does not stretch one’s imaginative muscle. 

       

All beauty enriches; finding it in unlikely places grows contentment.

When you next step out into a bleak wintery day consider the beauty of the leaves underfoot and the wisdom they impart. Winter affords us this luxury.