Peace of Snow

I find trees fascinating. I'm always drawn to pictures of trees, especially trees without leaves highlighted against a setting sun or clear blue sky. I've always found them a beautful thing to look at. And when it comes to trees in snow against a clear sky...that's beautiful and incredibly peaceful.

Here are a couple of my favourite photographs of trees and snow taken this winter.

Coping with Fear

In the days following the devastating 12.51pm earthquake in Christchurch the events continued to fold hour by hour on the internet news sites. I sat glued to the screen. The pictures horrified me, bringing the carnage closer. I needed to capture some record of those moments; I created a book in response.

I trialled a number of different book styles, meandering books, accordion style with foldouts before finally deciding on a book that looked like it was barely holding it together.

The book consists of six leaves, the front cover and an additional tag. It is bound with large loops of wire to represent the famous 'No 8' wire, with which anything can be fixed. The front cover design was inspired by the terrible damage done to the Christchurch Cathedral, the heart of Christchurch city and the lines on the seismic drums recording the earthquake. Each page of the book focuses on one image that particular affected me. These were printed out, torn from the printed page and then crushed up before being spread out and loosely attached to a sheet. The edge of each page is decorated in red and black watercolour pastels brushed off another card. The attached tag has a quote from the Mayor of Christchurch, Bob Parker.

"You have to believe me

when I say we can do it,

we can get through this

by leaning on each other

and finding a strength

we didn't know we had."

Responding to Fear

Somethimes things happen that we have no control over; your car bursts a tyre at speed, a parent is diagnosed with inoperable cancer or the city in which your friends live is shattered by an earthquake. At 3am (Italian time) on the 22 February 2011 I was wakened by a text from my son. Christchurch, New Zealand, the place of his birth, had been devasted by a 6.3 magnitude earthquake an hour earlier at 12.51pm (NZ time). The closeness we celebrate through internet connections shattered. Our distance from home became impossible to cross. Our worst thoughts could become a reality. As the day dawned in Italy we were able to begin to get in touch with close friends in the city and more and more news filtered out about the massive devastation of one of our favourite places.

I needed to do something, anything.

To cope with the turmoil of emotion I started to do something creative. I turned to my fabric and my love of celtic design. I chose a design that appealed and spent hours adapting it to work in fabric. The repetitive nature of the applique stitches was soothing and allowed my mind to rest. In a celtic knot there is no beginning or end, and every intersection alternates weaves. Under, over, up and down, always and endlessly. This is life, the circle of life of the planet.


Celtic design in Canterbury colours