Recently I have exhibited a series of mixed media pieces that highlight influences from my upbringing and the creative flow that emerged from my home environment. exerpt from Exhibition notes:
Miss Ellis Regrets…provokes a journey into Hill’s origins and early motifs of current practice. The patterns passed on from her maternal family line jog and revisit memories in the fasteners, craft, stitches and drawings that are laid upon these pieces.
Textile art was the nursery for Hill’s artistic development. Nana let her help with the baking, Grandma taught her to sew, embroider and knit. These domestic skills were constantly being modelled, reinforced within the home by a mother who made the family’s clothes. Hill sewed doll’s clothes and made gifts that used new found skill. In this environment there was discovery and frustration, disappointment and success. Concurrently at school paint, colouring and visual presentation became her most savoured arena.
These humble beginnings were motivated by love, function and giving. Increasingly the maternal family’s influences are stronger and more lasting than any elevated or esteemed within the post-modern art world. There is no intent in these works to be subversive, nor redefine craft as high art, there is simply the gateway of honour where honour is due. Creativity and time spent in the process of thinking of the recipient of these items. There is no design for sale, no commercial undertow, nor recognition sought. Who may see them but parents, siblings or recipient? Where may they be hung but the fridge and family room? Why create them except to enjoy making them. Here the art form is simply the love of creating.
