John & George 2013

John & George 2013 after John Hunter c1789 is 

slowly coming together....the wings are the latest challenge

and, as I'm sure I've said before, each time I finish a work in

this vein I think, never again with the tiny, tiny fragments...

but here I am again making another painstaking 

assemblage from tiny fragments of reclaimed textiles.  

And it is these textiles, made lovingly and painstakingly by 

anonymous others - from different eras, continents and cultures -

 that keep my commitment to the process alive.  The textiles speak 
to me and hopefully to the work's audience.

The Kings hand - in the original painting, Hunter's

King offers the bird two European cherries.  I've added a

Bottlebrush (Callistemon) flower and some kind
of berry, both exquisitely cross-stitched...

my studio table, with exquisite French Chantilly lace and
other fragments, past and present. The lace was sent to me recently 
from a 'fan' in France, along with 2 kilos of other vintage 
embroideries and lace!  The book below my journal is "A Brush with Birds"
by Penny Olsen, National Library of Australia - the original source of
inspiration for the Sanctuary Collection.