Fractal Figures

As I write this first blog post for April, I am reflecting on all the things to be grateful for. My family is healthy, we are able to go for walks to the beach (still) and the birds still sing outside my window.

With all the terrible news of escalating deaths around the world, I feel the need to go within, to remember to give thanks and to laugh. For I know that those last two weeks of March I really struggled.

I stitched together pieces of a broken jigsaw world. It reminded me of how much we had lost and been pulled apart. But In this last week I abandoned that palette of orange and red and have introduced green and blue. The sublime planet that we are on, connected by the ocean. It helped shift my thinking.

I decided to I wanted to feel lighter and not feel guilty about laughing again. I other know people are struggling with regaining their creativity and want to find that stillness within. So I created a colouring in fractal figures downloadable PDF map for people to download.

Now I have started to extrude the fractals from the image and create quirky characters with them. It has turned my daily artwork project into an evolving fractal figures story and I am sharing the making of it every morning live on Facebook and Instagram at 9am.

Today’s fractal figures (below) became characters learning to fit in around each other. For all of us in households with more than one person, that is in itself a challenge.

Tomorrow who knows, my fractals might dress up or pop up from a printing block. I don’t know yet but I know it is helping reinvigorate my own daily practice and keeping me on track as we move through this month.

This fractal image was still on my silkscreen from way back in 2016. I thought it might be a a pattern people could colour in and even the printing of it regained my love of silk screen printing. So today I have cleaned up my studio for the first time in ages and got my printing table clear again.

This is a time I am cherishing. No travel, except on my bike, no exhibitions to organise, just me, my family and my art. I feel incredibly blessed to have creativity in my life during this time. It keeps me sane and motivates me to get up in the morning.

Who knows what this next week holds as my blue planets of handmade paper start spinning and the world starts to heal with less human disturbance. This is my impulse and meditation on the world. Maybe my fractal figures will be able to dance in this recreated world one day. I live in hope.