Statement.

The memory of waves of water that coursed through underground tunnels reveals a palette of colours borne of minerals present in sandstone:: iron oxides (red) magnesium, manganese (blue, green), visible when sunlit.

History of the Project.

When I visited the Slot Canyons in Arizona USA at invitation of a photographer friend Matt Blaisdell, photography was still a new venture, a hobby. Then a surprise invitation for a solo show of – what I then merely considered photos to accompany a travel article – catapulted me into a new direction. Especially when these sandstone images on archival paper sold to an art collector. I indulged in Fine Art photography, i.e. concept-driven compositions in which metaphors and ideas drive form, shape, texture, line and light.

This happened in 2010, the year I moved home from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Maybe the physical change of place had something to do with the mental and practical shift to making art, in stead of writing about others’s. As an art historian analyzing and finding meaning in the artworks of others had been my much loved freelance activity for as long as I can remember.

Participation in group- as well as solo-exhibitions followed – locally and abroad. What a surprise it was when collectors actually purchased some work at the New York Affordable Art Fair and the PhMuseum in Bologna, exhibited my work in the limited edition art festival publication, In the Sun on the Moon. And presented me with a free “virtual room” on its platform with the instruction to post anything I make or write there.

Yet another change in direction happened recently. A search for something in my archive caused me to stumble over these early evocative sandstone images from the Slot Canyons. Again they became a catalyst for a shift, this time for experimenting with Textile Art. A new name presented itself when I placed them into a new folder. Without thinking I wrote, Veils of Stone, to distinguish them from the former title for the 2010-exhibition, namely Flowing Stone. The phrase just presented itself. I printed them on thin veil-like fabric. The idea of making scarves presented itself. Then also table cloths, table runners, curtains, each product prompting printing on different fabrics, each of which produced different shades of the colours. Playing with distortions more and more abstract patterns are evolving.