Veritas, solo exhibition opens this week!

 

Veritas was the Roman goddess of truth. Known to be elusive, she was the mother of Virtue. The work in this exhibition represents a woman's inward journey in search of the ever elusive Truth. Who are we beneath our clothes and beneath our skins? As the layers fall away we discover our fundamental core truth. The core is about being authentically and powerfully oneself with all the beautiful imperfections, eccentricities, and fragility that might entail.  

I was born in Scotland and studied Fine Art (sculpture) in Edinburgh. I have continued to create and study sculpture, drawing, mixed media & traditional craft forms and have been exhibiting my art in Melbourne since 2007.In recent years I have been exploring textiles to construct thread and fabric life drawings that express my love of the human form and seek to convey authentic human experience from my own perspective as a woman. Drawing is the foundation of all my artwork and I constantly strive to portray the immediacy and spontaneity of the drawn line in my sculpture and textile pieces. 

My love and fascination for human anatomy has always been a strong influence and theme in my work and I am particularly drawn to, some might say obsessed with, the spine, both as an exquisitely beautiful physical structure that I never tire of portraying and as an intriguing metaphor that to me expresses our fundamental core human state where fragility and strength coexist. The spine is beautiful and fragile like lace, yet its structure gives it strength. The women I portray are at once strong, fragile, beautiful and elusive. The exposed spine represents their core authentic self: imperfect, delicate and powerful, inextricably woven with their traditions and culture.

Whilst my artistic endeavours come firmly from a fine art foundation I do not consider any material to be unworthy of use - each medium and combination of mediums has a language all of its own and in recent years I have wholeheartedly embraced embroidery/ textiles for their expressive capacity. There is a humility to embroidered artefacts, relegated as they have been to a female domestic setting.  Yet despite their often lowly status they represent hours of highly skilled workmanship, skills passed down by generations of women. As a result of their historical place firmly rooted in the domain of women, there is an inescapable femininity to any embroidered piece. Aesthetically, I adore the honesty, beauty and directness of the drawn line translated to thread. I have come to conceptualise my work in this medium as constructed drawings. 

The use of found objects has long been an important part of my artistic practice. My every growing collection of preloved table linen, crochet doilies, napkins etc have finally found their way into this recent series of works. The napkins and tablecloths are beautiful yet useful objects. Some are the result of hours of detailed work, done by hand, by women, perhaps in the company of a circle of women. There is a history to them, they hold the stories of the women who made them, the women who taught the skills to those who made them and of those who used them. Domestic, feminine and humble, I have selected them and used them in these works for their beauty, their implied reflective narrative, and the message conveyed by the juxtaposition of the women or anatomies I have embroidered or placed upon them.

Truth can mean many things: it can be intangible; it can be sought; it can remain elusive; it can be covered up; it can be revealed. Truth can be exposed. Some truths are harsh, base and hard to face. Being true to ourselves can be uncomfortable, antisocial, fun, pleasant. Knowing our own truths can allow a more true expression of our personal authenticity and uniqueness. It can bring to us a deeper and more authentic connection with others. 

Veritas opens this Friday 12th July at Brunswick Street Gallery, Fitzroy. 

Please join me at the opening 6-9pm.  

www.brunswickstreetgallery.com.au

Work in progress

I've been very busy finishing off work for my solo show "Veritas", which opens at Brunswick Street Gallery on 12th June. The pieces that will be exhibited have all been created over the past year or so. In truth they have been with me much longer, lurking in my creative consciousness, waiting to be brought into the world. They are stitched together with the theme of Veritas, meaning truth, and in most I have indulged my obsession with anatomy, developing my life drawings into artworks that explore internal structures, particularly the spine and that develop my long held concepts around the spine being a metaphor for our deep inner truth.

Solo show opening June 12th!

Radiant

I have absolutely loved working on this piece which I made as a private commission. I recently took her to her new home in Sydney and had the immensely pleasurable experience of installing her myself and seeing her settle into her new place.

Radiant was developed from life drawings and detailed studies of spines. Using thread I have freehand machine embroidered the spine before constructing the figure from a network of embroidered thread lines.

Radiant, 2015, thread, fabric & LED lights

The fabric was carefully chosen from http://www.spoonflower.com/ . I love that online fabric store. The material was gorgeous to work with.

Once complete, I constructed a light box with LED lights which is attached to the back of the canvas and gently illuminates the whole piece from within. 

Junk!

For as long as I have been making art I have had a passion for finding, collecting and hoarding things that no-one else seems to want. 

Sometimes these fascinating objects even make their way into my artwork

 

I know that I am far from alone in this curious pursuit of collecting other people's rubbish and incorporating it into my creations. When I studied sculpture we were positively encouraged to take time out to visit the local scrap yard to collect materials and inspiration. I have many happy memories of digging around muddy junk piles for treasures to use. Here is something I made after one of those visits...

Juliet D Collins, Spine Window, plaster & found window

Of course, it is not just artists that do it, in fact here in Australia it actually feels like something of a national past-time. It's so ingrained that there exists a whole informal culture around the easy and free recycling of unwanted stuff via "The nature strip" (for non-Australians: the area of grass between the road and the pavement where one places ones junk and passers by kindly remove it for their own use or simply to hoard) 

mixed media drawing with found lace, 2014

Found Doiley spine with reused jute shopping bags

 But why, oh why? (my husband cries with dismay as yet another valuable storage area gets filled with useless objects for future art projects)

For me, the process of making art is inextricably entwined with found objects. These found elements are a vital part of my creative journey whether I am making sculpture, drawing, or textile work.

The object, whatever it is, forms an intrinsic part of the creation of the piece from inspiration,through design and even,or perhaps especially, informing my choice of technique and medium. That journey is unique with each piece.

"Fragile Strength", machine embroidered spine in a found vintage cheese box

So... I am really excited to be offering kids JUNK SCULPTURE workshops here in Melbourne these kids school holidays!

I have been happily hoarding all kinds of fascinating bits n bobs, trash and junk that would normally be thrown away and have planned a fun packed few hours for kids of all ages to learn some tips & tricks and unleash their creativity with junk! 

For more info and bookings head over to 

http://www.kingstonarts.com.au/PUBLIC-PROGRAMS/Creative-Lounge

Pop Tarts

I'm having lots of fun with my "Pop Tarts" and they are proving to be very popular! Here is the full set so far. They are all 40 x 30 cm, framed and ready to hang. They are developed from original life drawings, cut from fabric and sewn using freehand machine embroidery. The anatomical features are made from dissected crochet work or lace

Beautiful Anatomy

Human Anatomy has fascinated me for as long as I can remember and I have studied anatomy both as an artist and from a more medical perspective in my health science studies.

In my recent work I have been exploring the beauty, fragility, strength and mystery of our anataomy. 

Mystery

Fragility

Strength

Beauty

These are a series of four. They are all approximately 1m x 1m. 

The background fabric is either a heavy weight cotton or a linen. The female forms are drawn from life. 

The Lacey spines are embroidered thread. They are drawn from careful and extensive studies of spines. In designing the spines I am seeking to capture both a decorative quality and to use it to convey a sense, not only of the fascinating and beautiful structure of the spine but also of the lace like bone structure and the way that it has organically grown to create the beautiful, intricate forms that make up the vertebrae. The space behind the spines which is not so obvious in the images is to me an important aspect of these works.