These trees are a bit daft. They were made as a response to the seriousness of what was happening in 2020. They were made to provide comfort. To create a memory of the daily walk.
Like Fuzzy Felt, these imagined landscapes are made to fall into to escape the gravity of the time.
Mapping My Way
Sensory Landscapes
The need to find comfort during the last few months has been self-evident. With a lack of human touch and face to face connection how do you get emotional relief?
As a child I loved to play with “Fuzzy Felt” simple shapes becoming elaborate complex stories, circles, triangles, squares in rich primary colours lovely to handle and place. Getting lost in these blue landscapes was a pleasure - the rules were simple: the shapes already defined, the background provided for you - it’s now up to you and your imagination.
Tiny Maps
Bojagi Pathwork
Having a set of rules to follow can be useful as part of the creative process. Limiting materials, the palette and the size. I had been looking into the Korean art of wrapping - often created using beautifully stitched patchwork textiles. The stitches so tiny and uniform it was a personal challenge to see how neat and intricate I could make my “Welcome Walk” maps.
A Sensory Pleasure Through The Use of Textiles.
Comfort trees were developed through a desire to use soft fabrics in particular silk velvet which is soothing to handle. Restricting the shapes, colour and fabric these trees provided a hug and reminded me of those memories of playing with felt shapes on the carpet as a child: a good place to be.
Comfort Trees at The Royal Cornwall Museum
Do you have a sensory pleasure that gives you comfort?
On a grey day in May! I asked some friends what their sensory pleasures might be:
“I love rubbing my feet in sheets/covers/couch/bed. I’ve done that since I was little”
“Sounds: crickets, frogs, soft waves, baby laughter, baseball games, the rhythmic highway sound on certain roads, the crackle of old records”
“The joy there is in seeing all the colors there are. I also really enjoy the quality of a special voice, tone, pronunciation, everything”
Let me know what your sensory pleasure might be?
My “Comfort Trees” and “Tiny Maps” are to be found at The Royal Cornwall Museum, in Truro as part of Time-Lapse an exhibition of artwork created during the Pandemic.