Artwork

Progress on The Felted Flock

Artwork / March 17, 2022 / By

The felted flock passes the one hundred sheep mark. For the love of wool, the project is two thirds complete.

3D felted sheep flock

Missing from this photo are the shepherdess, who is taking the photo, and the Kelpie who is at her side holding all in place with a steely gaze.

Since I last posted about the felted flock here on the blog two shearer’s and a couple new non-sheep characters have been added, along with more sheep of course, there are always those. Three old characters were stripped down to the wire armature they are built upon and re-done. No matter how I tried to justify leaving them be they needed to be changed up or head to the trash.

Outside of spending days and nights immersed in every thing sheep, real and created, I have secured two public events to show the Felted Flock at. One is an art show and one is a fibre festival. I am super excited about both these opportunities. While the project has a ways to go before being complete it is time for it to be seen by eyes other than my own.

3D felted guardian dog and sheep

Felted Flock Heading into Year Two

Artwork / February 11, 2022 / By

Quiet watchfulness at the feed line with the Felted Flock.

The Felted Flock is still here and still growing. During my recent hiatus from social media I managed to do a fair bit of work on the Felted Flock – mainly making more sheep, which is what needs to happen if the project is to finish. This is the second year into the Felted Flock project and I aim to finish up with it this year and let it go where it may.

I’ve been at this project for over a year and lately the urge to just get it done constantly interjects the desire I have to work deliberately in order to create a unified body of work with a story line. The project mimics farming in a slightly eerie way.

Big projects, like big flocks, take patience and a willingness to slow down, think your way through the hiccups and enjoy all the nuances. There is no need to push so hard; I’ll get there, I know I will.

The Art of Sitting with a dog

Artwork / January 8, 2022 / By
livestock guardian dog

Sitting with a dog who is keeping company with his surroundings rather than with us as we so often expect dogs to do. (Why is it that we make every occurrence be about us anyway – particularly where dogs are concerned)? Sitting with a dog who is making his time be about whatever he has going on, rather than making his time be about us.

Leaving them alone to do so; not making demands on them to do otherwise or calls to insist they come over and keep you company or to show you reverence by obeying you.

Not making demands on yourself to be with dogs in a particular fashion arising from the latest training guru.

There you sit in the same time and place, each observing deeply but differently; not needing to be each other’s company but by being there becoming each other’s company, and by doing that connecting to the nature you both live and breath.

Do they know they are my wonder and my world?

Wool artwork, each piece 28″ square

Along the journey of being an artist I have been drawn time and again to neutral tones, to pieces made with the natural colors of wool. I have often questioned what the fascination is and with these two pieces a little nugget fell into place. Working with only three of four shades of natural wool takes me to the moments of lived simplicity. Moments of making no demands on another being, but just sitting in the same time and space with them. In a similar vein working with natural colors of wool makes no demands on the fibre to be other than what it is.

The above artwork is two seperate pieces. I realized upon making this blog post that the photo of both of them together looks like one piece was cut in two. Not the case. Each piece is 28″ square and made entirely from wool. I’ll take proper photos yet and each one will go up for sale but meanwhile they will hang as a headboard above my bed where they will be the guardian of my sleep.