Essence of Pleasure
Julie Haddrick
Hand
dyed, painted & printed fabric: machine pieced and quilted
Stained glass applique technique
I
chose to depict in a totally self indulgent manner, images of some of
my most favourite things. I wanted to record the pleasures of now, winter
2003. To enjoy the present, one has to create happy memories, by not hanging
on to anger and bitterness from past mistakes and grievances. A continual
reminder to enjoy of the moment has been reinforced by recent funerals
of two friends. The first panel is memory; murky, horizontally printed
fabric, like a closed blind.. A seed of hope and regeneration is depicted
as a bulb.. The central panel illustrates some of my favourite things
and the final panel, printed and quilted pale golden chrysanthemum flowers
indicate an optimistic future. [The Chrysanthemum flower is known as the
symbol of optimism]
As a fan of blue and white china, this was the starting point. The image
evolved at a class of machine appliqué techniques, taught by Australian
quilter, Eileen Campbell. I used her stitching technique as a process
for expressing my own imagery, that of the blue vase. Japanese in style,
the vase is a composite image depicting in part, the Rabbits ears iris,
[ Iris ensata ] another favourite. In bloom currently are pink japonica,[
Chaenomeles x superba, Japanese flowering quince] so I sketched cuttings
from my garden. The spoon shaped chrysanthemum , a favourite plant originating
2,500 years ago in China and later Japan, symbolizes the sun and optimism.
The silky, cream stitched chryanthemum was placed in the arrangement to
provide a visual focal point and textural contrast. Old Japanese Kimono
silk used as a draped cloth was subtly printed to give colour to the semi
transparent surfaces and it was cut and stitched in place by glueing the
folded piece and cutting back the layers.. Scattered across it are precious
treasures; shards of china from my broken crockery, sun bleached driftwood
collected on the southern beaches of Tasmania and a pale green branch
shooting; symbolize new life.