Playing with the completion of this piece which is the first of a new series to be finished. This was based on memories and ideas about my Grandma, her days of dance halls and her favourite Queen of Hearts costume. She is watching through the dress but the Queen of hearts drawing (a copy of one my Great Grandfather drew… His photo of her can still be seen in the dress) has been swallowed by paint. What is seen of the underneath layers is not important…what is important is that I know that the images lay underneath and add to the energy of the image. She had a collection of elephants and loved butterflies (the dress has almost become a butterfly wing. She was a like soul and I remember her singin the old song ‘Daisy, Daisy give me your answer do, I’m half crazy all for the love of you…’ She was married in a light blue clapper dress but for me this peace is about a memory of a creative soul who I love dearly and this is a way of keeping my memory of her alive. No it does not look like her in the real world…but it is an emotive intuitive piece and as in all my work …all images have a story to tell and this is my story. I wonder what she would have been like when she was young, surrounded by artists and having the world ahead of her…going through a war, a ten pound Pom and a new land, a new home…. I know this is a romanticism and imagining but it is about the love shaping the memories and also part of me longing to free her from a life that restricted her creative soul. One that broke out in decorative play and quirky combinations. I don’t often tell the story as I like the viewer to bring their own stories and create a new understanding from the images. I hope you enjoy my story… My version and then read the image in your own way by stepping back and viewing it through the eyes of your own stories.
Memories and imagination merge
Queen of Hearts
Standing at the doorway,
Traversing time
Imagining possibilities within the shadows,
Beyond the threshold of beginnings,
Memory travels forward,
Shaping what dreams may come,
Holding momentary life,
She steps through,
Crowned by the loves and lives that shaped her,
Shaping the lives that emerge,
Queen of Hearts blooming into life,
Holding onto the dreaming space
Cradled within…nestled, awakening,
Opening to a new day…a new path.