Woodcuts 

These woodcuts touch the essence of both plant and bird, celebrating their relationship and drawing out the qualities that lie underneath. I use images of the cells of the plant to create a feeling of the inside out. Tui is sharp and defined working with black and white, whereas the kereru is a more nurturing relationship. 

Surface

My art practice explores and expresses the notice of Essence, (that by which it is what it is), through the process of printmaking. I like to think of essence as a quality that cannot be pulled apart or lessened through interpretation.

Yet essence is also mutable and alive and behind essence is emptiness.

In this exhibition I have played with surfaces where gesture conveys essence. Through layering and sometimes ghosting an image I convey an inner hidden quality.

Paper Moth

Hidden Harmony - Hihi and Taurepo

Three individual, theme connected pieces.
Size: each piece 420 mm x 594 mm (unframed)
Approximately 500 mm x 680 mm framed
Medium: Drypoint and monoprint on Hahnemühle paper

These three artworks explore the journey of Hihi from the past, the present to the future. It also celebrates a relationship between Taurepo, one of our youngest plants and Hihi, our oldest honey eater. In pre-European times Hihi were found throughout the North Island, becoming extinct on the mainland in 1883, with the only naturally surviving population found on Te-Hauturu-o-Toi (Little Barrier Island).

My first designs for these pieces were reminiscent of wallpaper in the 1880s –as I read the history of wallpaper, its production and use became popular at the same time that Hihi became extinct in the North Island. Hihi was a term used for the healing rays of sunlight. The shoulders of the male Hihi light in a burst of yellow as these birds darted through the trees and were said to be carriers of the sun. As one of the first species to vanish from mainland bush, these sensitive birds can be an indicator of forest health and a test of ecological restoration.