Can we learn about the animals and plants in our environment, from observation and play?
To study botany/ecology can render plants and our environment as an object; it can be clinical and detached. My query was whether I could study my local ecology via art making with it.
Using materials found in my environment, I printed onto paper. I transformed plants, soil, found copper, charcoal, and rocks into paints and printed them onto paper. Astonishingly, the prints made from the earth often resembled animals and the patterns which live among them. Patterns resembled micro-organisms and canopies, underwater and above.
The process encouraged a meditation on each plant and animal, deepening my understanding of the subject not as a subject, but as a sentient being with a purpose deeply embedded in the web of life it lives in.
Azure Kingfishers. When I first saw an azure kingfisher I didn't know what it was. I looked it up at a friends place, and learnt that as well as the golden belly and royal blue coat, they have orange legs and eat frogs. They are such a gift to see, and still today when I see one I am pretty stoked for another few weeks afterwards. Collaboration with Eucalyptus leaves and gum nuts from the Birrarungmarr, Warrandyte, where I saw the golden kingfisher
photo by Theresa Hamilton from A Tree's Worth Exhibition, At The Counihan Gallery, Brunswick
Mixed Media collaboration with Silver wattle, Sheaok and Eucalyptus leaves from the Merri Creek
Azure Kingfishers. When I first saw an azure kingfisher I didn't know what it was. I looked it up at a friends place, and learnt that as well as the golden belly and royal blue coat, they have orange legs and eat frogs. They are such a gift to see, and still today when I see one I am pretty stoked for another few weeks afterwards. Collaboration with Eucalyptus leaves and gum nuts from the Birrarungmarr, Warrandyte, where I saw the golden kingfisher