6 June – 12 July, 2009
‘MINGEI’ – a way of making, a way of living
PETER RUSHFORTH, MARY TAGUCHI, MASAYUKI OGURA
Ceramics, Textiles, Woodturning

Official opening Saturday 6th June at 5.30pm by
Emeritus Professor David Williams AM
ANU Research School of Humanities

MINGEI – A Way of Making, A Way of Living

The arts and crafts movement began in the late 19th century with English designer thinker and poet William Morris and his associates who embraced a re-evaluation of fast vanishing handcrafts and a rediscovery of the beauty to be found in nature combining these with the advocacy of a simpler, more attractive way of life.

These tenets were refined and flourished in Japan in the movement known as mingei – ‘the arts of the people’ – when art critic Sõetsu Yanagi, a graduate of Western philosophy responsible for introducing Western art, literature and philosophy to Japan, shifted his focus toward a greater appreciation of Asian culture in 1919.

Yanagi with his two ceramicist friends Kanjiro Kawai and Shoji Hamada coined the word mingei. And together with English potter Bernard Leach and Japan’s Kenkichi Tomimoto, they led its resultant movement in Japan from 1926 until 1945. They recognised a common beauty and function in everyday utilitarian objects whose forms were arrived at intuitively, over time, not pre-contrived, but bound in the maker’s mastery of material and technique through repetition. Yanagi’s dedication and enthusiasm given to collecting and promoting mingei resulted in many craft traditions remaining alive and well today.

Masayuki Ogura, Peter Rushforth and Mary Taguchi are ardent believers and followers of mingei as a way of making, and a way of living. They each live and work in their rural based, nature-rich environments. Two have chosen mountainous areas in their respective countries, while the third is ensconced in the rural rolling hills and wooded grasslands found not far from this Gallery. Bungendore Wood Works Gallery itself is the result of a like-minded craftsman hell-bent on preserving the skills applicable to his chosen medium – wood, and the skills of the Gallery’s many represented makers.

To say that the participants in this exhibition are craftspeople, and not artists, would be to perpetuate a fallacy – every artist is first a craftsperson, adept at a skill that is required learning and essential to their creative and artistic pursuit.

That Sõetsu Yanagi and William Morris found inspiration in the words of poet William Blake is not coincidental but proof positive of the delicacy and intuition of the thought processes and actions of the contemporary craftsperson, artist or philosopher. The sensitivity that these people possess leads to humankind’s made beauty to be found in the fruits of their labour, never outdoing nature, but always aspiring to achieve their goals in her likeness.

Defining mingei is a multi-faceted task, and in terms of the contemporary craftsperson is well served by the words of Masayuki’s father, Eichii Ogura -
“Our ancestors have lived seeking beauty from nature. Their hearts, grateful with nature, have produced things for good use. I wish to live like my ancestors who have sought functional beauty.”

PETER RUSHFORTH
Peter Rushforth first studied art at RMIT and the National Gallery School in Melbourne. In 1951 he moved to Sydney, established a studio and joined the staff of the National Art School, East Sydney where he became head teacher of ceramics.

In 1985 he was awarded the Order of Australia for his services to pottery and during the same year the National Gallery of Victoria held a retrospective exhibition of his work. Peter is recognised and respected as one of Australia’s most significant potters, first producing from a wood fired kiln over fifty years ago.

He uses jun (chun), tenmoku, limestone and ash glazes for his high-fired stoneware vessels. The glazes have their origins in the classical period of Japanese and Chinese ceramics and are the result of many years of personal research and development.

Peter lives and works on the Shipley Plateau in the Blue Mountains near Blackheath. And while the environment in which he lives may at times influence his choice of colours and textures he maintains that his vessels are dictated by the processes he employs, and the fire, clay and earth materials give the individual pots their unique finish. His work is represented in the National Gallery of Australia as well as Australian State and Regional Galleries and collections throughout the world.

The traditions of mingei play an important role in Peter Rushforth’s life. He has discovered his own harmony of living and working. There is serenity and contentment in his life, and the pattern of making, glazing and firing enables him to express these feelings through this chosen medium.

MARY TAGUCHI
With long academic involvement in Japanese language teaching methodology since 1970 and researching the history and function of indigo-dyed cotton textiles for many years, Mary Taguchi has discovered a strong sense of form and function in both language and textiles.

She works with Japanese mingei craftsmen and has been instrumental in encouraging weavers towards a revival of old cloths and patterns. The tradition of dyeing with indigo is centuries old and continues today. The dye from the indigo leaves makes the beautiful blues of the rustic country cotton textiles used for clothing and accessories of the working, farming, craftspeople of Japan.

The meaning of work jackets, sleeve lengths, field pants and how these garments were produced deftly and economically from narrow bolts of cloth, led her to adapting the cloth and patterns for life in Australia.

Travelling extensively and regularly in remote mountainous areas of Japan, she has met and established working relationships with traditional dyers, weavers and stencillers. Bringing cloth to her studio in the NSW countryside she produces shirts, jackets, vests, scarves, table runners and cushions. Collections of old patterns, garments and cloths have been a guide to her work and form part of her designs. The cloths are woven, stencilled, tied and stitched and are admired for their outstanding technique and handsome designs, rich and complex in tradition and history.

Mary delights in visiting the workplaces of potters, weavers, dyers, woodworkers and experiencing the potters’ wheels, the dye vats and the looms of small family workshops preserving the accumulated knowledge of generations of craftspeople - all living and working in the traditions of mingei.

MASAYUKI OGURA
Masayuki Ogura is a Master craftsman who lives in the Kiso area of the Japanese Alps carrying on a family tradition of wood grain artisans that has existed for centuries. He creates his pieces using traditional techniques combined with modern designs. Masayuki makes polished wooden bowls, trays, cups and utensils and also produces and restores, traditional Japanese lacquer-ware.

Masayuki designs his pieces and makes them by hand using tools that he has also designed and made. He first cuts the wood, shapes it on the lathe, sands the work and applies the appropriate finish. The working of the grain is paramount and requires the constant monitoring of grain shifts and flow as the wood is worked. This total personal involvement in the full production process, he believes, helps bring the finished piece to life and imbues the finished object with traits of its maker giving its owner a practical, living and breathing work of art.

While Japan has always been renowned for its high quality woodcrafts and lacquer-ware, modern mass manufacturing has led to a decrease in demand for hand-finished pieces. Lacquer-ware is a dying art. Masayuki’s pieces are polished five times using lacquer from home grown trees and polishing stones designed specifically for the task. Working with wood and especially with lacquer demands a focus and awareness completely divorced from the rapid pace of modern Japanese social change.

The Ogura clan lives and works by the ideology that certain things must be made by hand and from wood. And that some things are not perfect when finished but become perfect as they are lovingly used.

17 July – 22 August, 2009
TWO OF A MIND
6 Artists with more than one pursuit in mind

Fashion Designer PRUE ACTON OBE - painting;
Australian Living Treasure, Musician DON BURROWS AO MBE - photography;
Restaurateur JASON CHEN - traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy;
Magazine Publisher, Photographer & Graphic designer ELIZABETH HAWKES - painting ;
Former ABC News Presenter RICHARD MORECROFT - photography;
Arts Educator & Author MERV MORIARTY, drawing.

Opened Saturday 18th July by Antony Coote AM
Exhibition in association with

Two of a Mind is an exhibition featuring 6 artists who have gained public recognition in their respective careers as musician, restaurateur, publisher/graphic designer/photographer and TV presenter.

Prue Acton Don Burrows, Jason Chen, Elizabeth Hawkes, Richard Morecroft and Merv Moriarty are six of a rare group of multi-talented and creative people who have turned their minds to a second pursuit, a change of direction, and at times a parallel complementary line of thinking in their lives.

Don Burrows and Richard Morecroft are photographers working in different mediums and achieving touching and spectacular imagery. Don works in traditional and digital black and white images showcasing many of the places he has visited and people he has either met or come across around the world. His mind works in parallel using common aspects in both his music and photography like colour, tone, texture, mood, composition, balance, contrast and rhythm.

Richard’s images are of the places he draws inspirations from the natural, often wild environment. Whether it be the coast or the bush his vertical portrait format images turn the notion of landscape on its head, both physically and metaphorically. His attention to depth of field applies not only to the photographic term of maintaining sharp focus from extreme foreground to the visible horizon but also the portrayal of the totality of the view of the specific slice of landscape he is presenting.

Elizabeth Hawkes and Jason Chen are painters from opposite ends of the West/ East spectrum. Liz works in the traditions of still life and portraiture with spectacular bursts of colour depicting detailed, as well as mildly abstracted, points of view of her subjects. Drawing from wide experience in photography and art direction there comes a wide range of subject matter, people, places, things, architecture and so on. Like most painters and particularly photographers it’s an obsession with light that drives Liz in her artistic pursuit.

Jason is a traditional Chinese painter and calligrapher comfortable on the world stage and within the Chinese community on three continents. He uses traditional media such as ink and muted watercolours and combines his calligraphy with his landscapes to produce imagery abundant in Eastern romanticism. Jason’s paintings capture a naturally occurring world in a mythologised ethereal way heavily linked to his personal ethnic origins.

Prue Acton and Merv Moriarty are life partners and live on the Far South Coast of NSW. She was one of Australia’s leading fashion designers and he was an established artist and art educator by the end of the 1960’s. Prue works in still life and finds sheer joy in “feeling the rhythm of the land and form” and the way light and colour change as it spills over her subjects and informs the work that transcends into the her beautifully executed paintings.

Merv Moriarty is a multi major art prize winner and finalist who broke away from the Colour Field movement to return to more figurative work. He is drawn to the human body form that has played such a major role in art history, with Life Drawing a very popular and valuable pursuit for training and experienced artists alike. Merv continues a long career as art educator and author with his book The Eyes Mind - the artist and the draftsman and a new book Colour for Artists will be published in the near future.

Two of a Mind is a celebration of personal diversity and a graphic display drawing from both sides of the most powerful forces in the universe – the human brain.

Stan d’Argeavel - Exhibition Coordinator

Lemons & Objects $3135Prue Acton

Prue Acton, once a household name for her Internationally successful fashion business is now a respected painter - a colourist - spending most of her mornings painting and drawing in the secluded home she shares with fellow artist and partner Merv Moriarty, at Wallagoot on the far south coast of NSW.

Passionate about ‘green’ issues she is an activist for the protection of the Australian landscape. Prue says it’s hard to put an economic value on the beauty of the Australian wilderness, but she’s working on it. Beauty is her driving force and principal, being brought up with her mother’s sense of beauty. “Every book placed on the table; the way she dressed; set the dining table and arranging the flowers were considered acts of beauty.”

During the 1970s she started to get her colours and inspiration for her designs from the environment. In Melbourne in the 1980s her last fashion collections were based on the Australian landscape.

Prue and Merv’s northern boundary lies about fifty metres from their house and crosses over into the Bournda National Park. She is convinced the ocean is indeed a different colour south of Bermagui and is relishing the cultured company of the artists and Gallery owners who have also discovered the
undeveloped coastal district. Prue has become a central figure in the local art scene.

She concentrates on still life paintings, saying that physically painting still life is hard work and she is fascinated by light and colour, and the way it falls on the forms. “The objects express who you are, so in a strange way they’re natural.”

She does not miss the fashion world that she dominated for three decades and is now happiest in her studio wearing army pants and cotton t-shirts which represents the gold, red and greens of the
Australian bush.

After Rain $535Jason Chen

Jason Chen was born in Zhongshan in Guangdong Province in China and immigrated to Australia in 1974. Since his arrival in Canberra, he has managed his family business, Happy’s Chinese Restaurant, one of Canberra’s most popular cultural dining destinations, until his retirement in mid 2008.

Jason studied painting at the Canberra School of Art (now ANU School of Art) in the early 1980s and his artworks have since been exhibited in numerous International art exhibitions in China, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, the USA and Australia.

He was first selected for the “Contemporary Chinese Art Exhibition” at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1985 and the International Year of the Youth Art Exhibition in Beijing. He has exhibited every year since somewhere around the globe. Highlights include winning the Gold Medal at the 2nd Jitai Cup Chinese Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition in Nanjing, China, he won the Art Store prize at Canberra’s Art Workshop 50th Anniversary Exhibition in 1998, exhibited in the 2000 National Combined Exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, the First International Famous Artists Exhibition of Calligraphy and Painting in Los Angeles and the Exhibition of International Alliance of Calligraphy and Culture at the Malaysian National Art Gallery.

From 1995 to 1997, Jason was invited to take part in art exhibitions of the Canberra Multicultural Festival and his landscape painting the ‘Dingo Fence’ is now held in the collection of the National Museum of Australia.

In 2008 his work was selected for the Worldwide Chinese Artists’ Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition held in China to celebrate the Beijing Olympics auspiced by the Chinese Literature and Art Union and the Chinese Artists’ and Calligrapher’s Associations. In the past 10 years, he has held a number of solo and group exhibitions in Canberra and Australia .

Jason’s work for Two of a Mind comprises ink and watercolours on paper and combines the world of
Traditional Chinese Painting and Calligraphy.

Mindi, Engonnia NSW $495Don Burrows

Don Burrows has been treading the boards as a professional musician for 65 years. In 1973 the twice named Australian Living Treasure received the first Gold Record ever awarded to an Australian jazz
musician, instigated the first Jazz studies program in the Southern Hemisphere at the NSW Conservatorium of Music and was awarded an MBE.

In 1987 he was awarded the Order of Australia (AO) and in 2000 received the coveted Sir Bernard Heinze Award for service to Australia, a rare honour for a musician. In the same year he was awarded the first of his three honorary doctorates.

But the honour he treasures most is the title of Special Ambassador of Photography to Children bestowed on him by the Photographic Imaging Council of Australia (PICA). His 1995 Keating Creative Arts Fellowship resulted in many trips to outback schools and alongside his musical instruments were his photographs taken in the many countries where he played with and befriended people like Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie and Nat King Cole. He found interest high among the children, many of whom have since displayed ability in both music and photography.

The simplest of cameras, the Kodak Box Brownie, was his starting point in photography at age 11. He joined the Sans Souci and Carringbah Camera Clubs well before the advent of the medium in art schools. The camera club movement provided regular forums for the development of well-informed and practiced amateur photography.

While his music flourished and made him famous around the world, Don entered countless
competitions. He learned what a good photograph should look like and this became part of his way of life, working in parallel with his musical development over the next 50 years.

Now in semi-retirement Don still regularly plays his brand of music as well as continuing to inspire young people to his world of music and image making. The work in this exhibition reflects many of the far flung places his music has taken him to around the world.

Amoeba Rock $680Richard Morecroft

Richard Morecroft is perhaps best known in Australia for his work in television, particularly anchoring the ABC nightly news and for several years as host of ‘Richard Morecroft Goes Wild!’ the weekly national wildlife programme.

He has been a long-time trustee of the World-wide Fund for Nature (WWF), is a patron of WIRES (the Wildlife Information and Rescue Service), a Governor of the Taronga Zoo Foundation and one of the
Directors of the Zoological Parks Board of NSW. His interest in the arts is also reflected in his appointment to the Board of Bundanon, the creative centre donated to the nation by the late Arthur Boyd.

After 20 years of nightly TV news, Richard decided in 2001 it was time for more variety in his professional life. With his base in Jervis Bay, Richard has taken the opportunity to pursue his long-time fascination with landscape photography.

“I’m fascinated by the processes which produce structure and pattern in geological and biological
environments. As you examine the detail, you can see repeated motifs, like variations on a musical theme. Erosion, sedimentation, fractal patterns of vegetation growth or mineral formation – there’s a clear sense of common forces at work; universal rules of structure from micro to macro.”

For some years he has used a vertical format for his images of the landscape, exploring a cross-section of the elements in each location, from detail to distance. These vertical portraits offer an alternative to the convention of landscape as a broad, horizontal view. The photographs celebrate the recurring patterns and formative influences of the natural world - a vision of the environment where every element, large and small, is recognised as significant. From details of texture, structure and pattern, through to the larger vistas beyond, the complex resonance of wild places is a constant source of inspiration for his imagery.

Richard’s work is held in private collections in Australia, the US and Europe. His photographs from the South Coast region of NSW hang in the boardroom of the State Minister for Tourism and several of his images have been acquired for the Art Collection of the Federal Parliament.

Iris II $2675Elizabeth Hawkes

Magazine publisher, professional photographer, graphic designer, illustrator and fine artist – Elizabeth Hawkes – is a highly respected and experienced visual artist. Elizabeth’s portraiture photography has been exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery of Australia and her general magazine photography work is acknowledged as the best of its genre.

A graphic designer and art director, Elizabeth started the successful Highlife Magazine in the Southern Highlands. After the sale of Highlife and a five-year stint living and working in the Noosa Hinterland, Elizabeth and her family moved to Canberra where she started Capital Magazine, the lifestyle magazine for the Canberra Region.

But it is painting that Elizabeth calls “her true calling”. She started painting as a child winning her first art prize at the age of nine and topping the State (NSW) for her Year 12 major work – a portrait of her grandfather.

Since Elizabeth started exhibiting her paintings at the Discovery Centre in Noosa Heads (she was one of the gallery’s most sought after artists) she has been committing more and more time to her art.

She has most recently been painting in Canberra with Roy Churcher in a regular group he organises, plus attending drawing workshops at the National Portrait Gallery and Canberra Art Workshop. Last year she won best in show at the Canberra Art Workshop’s 60th Anniversary exhibition.

Elizabeth says that her “day job” as a professional photographer influences her painting. She likes working with natural light and pure colours. Her style is realistic and not confrontational and demonstrates a highly developed sense of technical and visual competency.

Elizabeth’s reputation as a distinguished photographer and magazine publisher is already creating considerable interest in her work as a painter.

Amy as Psyche $2850Merv Moriarty

Based on 50 years of experience and research much of the knowledge recorded and taught by Merv
Moriarty has been lost in today’s art schools, in the pursuit of ‘trend’. Yet without skills, how can artists and designers develop their own ‘hand’?

In his books “The Eyes Mind - the artist and the draftsman” and “Colour for Artists,” Merv introduces knowledge, ideas and exercises that give a firm understanding of the principles that underpin colour and form, enabling the creation of personal vision. Merv’s books and workshops are attracting students from around Australia.

Merv Moriarty has been a practicing artist all his life, exhibiting in major galleries in most Australian
capital cities. His work has covered a wide range of approaches, partly due to his arrival on the art scene as a young man coinciding with a major shift in art practice, from the established traditional realism, to figurative expressionism, then later to abstract art.

Like many committed artists of his generation, his art evolved in sync with the changing art movements of the time. Now that present day attitudes to art practice are more inclined to encourage artists to work in a genre that best suits them, Merv’s broad experience, both technically and philosophically, is of great value to his students.

Merv is a major art prize-winner and finalist who broke away from the Colour Field movement to return to more figurative work. He is drawn to the human form that has played such an important role in art history. Life Drawing continues to be a very popular and valuable pursuit for training and experienced artists alike.

Merv’s work is represented in major public collections including the Queensland and NSW Art Galleries,
Allegheny College USA, Syracuse University USA, Pale Ontological Research Institution USA, Brisbane City Art Gallery, the Gold Coast Collection, Art Bank Australia, Darnell Collection University of QLD and the Brisbane College of Advanced Education Collections.

Some Lovely Feedback from the Two of a Mind Exhibiton and Partners in Time Concert evening on Saturday 18th July

Hi,
Just a quick line to thank you very, very much for such an enjoyable experience. There we were, my wife and I looking at one of Don Burrows pictures (twin swans) when I heard over my right shoulder, Don's voice explaining how he waited in the hope of gaining such a shot and he was suitably rewarded as were we the viewing audience. Don and I then discussed our respective initial photograhic experiences with box brownies and actually using chemicals in development tanks to obtain final grainy prints. He stated he missed the days of 'hands on' with chemicals compared with today's computer processing and special effects. To add that my wife and I met at ' Clean Living Clives' at Phillip where Don and George often played; this was simply icing on the musical cake. We also purchased three of Jason's black and white creations and this together with the concert, wonderful food and excellent service just capped off two weeks of the first holiday my wife and I had experienced 'sans enfants'. We are talking decades, so well done.

Thanks to your gallery, staff, friends of the gallery and the artists for such a unique and memorable night. I feel that we witnessed at the concert, musicians at the peak of their craft and combined in such a way that we probably will not see and hear another such combo in the medium to long term.

David and Tora Bennett
Partners in Time Kevin Hunt, Don Burrows and George Golla Concert

Red Table $3850White Objects, Lemons $3135Four Apples on Plate $2640Early Morning $565 Sold
Swan Lake $495Sing, Sing, Sing $495Man in Temple $495
Fire Fighters $680Midas Pool $680Stalactite Pool $680Curve Pool $680
Tamarillo Tree $2375
Amy $2500Lizzy On Chair $4400

MICHAEL RETTER with SCOTT MITCHELL
Exquisite Marquetry and Fine Furniture from an Australian Master
A Wood Masters Series Exhibition
5 December, 2009 – 20 January, 2010
Opening Saturday 5th December at 2.30pm by Aldo Giurgola AM

Marquetry and inlay were inspired by the ancient craft of intarsia - the making of decorative and pictorial mosaics by the inlaying of precious and exotic material into or onto a groundwork of solid wood.

Michael Retter first started marquetry as a pastime while at sea as a marine engineer in the late 1950’s. In 1975, Michael devoted more and more time to developing his skills and his markets until in 1984 he was able to start thinking about marquetry as a profession.

Michael’s work is uniquely Australian in subject matter and materials. Pieces of his work have been presented by the Australian Government to overseas dignitaries from Japan, Ethiopia, Greece, Indonesia, Russia, Malaysia, Canada, US, UK, Sweden, Norway, Israel, Turkey, South Africa, Korea, and China.

An artist of international fame, Michael Retter was named Marquetarian of the Year at New York’s Marquetry Society of America Exhibition in 1984. In 1989 Michael was awarded an Order of Australia (OAM) medal for his work.

Michael’s largest commission and most public work to date was in 1988 for the new Parliament House in Canberra. The first part of the commission involved the making of 56 monochrome frieze panels for the Cabinet Ante-room. A second commission was for a ceiling marque and more commissions followed including 20 more panels, marquetry on the Speaker’s chair and for the Australian Coat of Arms.

Another major public project was for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra. Michael supplied nine small marquetry insets for the VIP dining table and sideboard, plus a set of 15 panels each 90cm square, covering the end wall of the same room.

The work in this exhibition displays three areas of Michaels work. The wall hangings are indicative of an artist at the highest level of his skills, and indeed of marquetry worldwide. Presented in two sizes the works depict the Australian flora and fauna in all its uniqueness and beauty, accurately represented and documented on each unique piece.

There are also a limited number of works that form a mini retrospective of his more than 35 years of professional artistry. And then there are utilitarian pieces worked in collaboration with Canberra fine furniture maker Scott Mitchell. The long-time friends share a passion for all things wood and the decorative and subtle artistry of Michael’s marquetry is harmoniously injected into the designs and finesse of Scott’s fine furniture pieces.

The Gallery is proud to be able to present this major and most important exhibition of Michael Retter’s exquisite artistry as another of its Masters in Wood 25th Anniversary series.
L to R Scott Mitchell, BWWG Artistic Director David Mac Laren and Michael Retter in preparation at the Scott Mitchell Design workshop in Canberra

4 April – 31 May, 2009
Opening Sunday 5th April at 11am
E ficifolia pygmy possumHELEN FITZGERALD
Nature's Patterns
Watercolours and Botanicals
An exhibition of watercolours featuring the infinite patterns of nature, and the flora and fauna that makes this land we call Australia, unique
Opening by Canberra ABC TV's weather presenter Mark Carmody
Sunday 5 April, 11am

Helen Fitzgerald is an art teacher and botanical artist who has studied in Australia, Austria and Italy. This wide range of influences can be seen in her watercolours that have been enjoyed at the Sydney and Canberra Botanica exhibitions as well as the Royal Horticultural Society (where she won a gold medal) and the Society of Floral Painters, both in the U.K. Helen’s work is prized in corporate and private collections in Australia and overseas.

For this exhibition Helen’s new works include her Patterns series, impressions of nature’s flora and fauna on Japanese ‘Yupo’ paper onto which the watercolour flows, not so much controlled, as guided, to form outstanding and beautiful patterns.

November 22 – January 20, 2009

JUDY and CHRIS WILFORD
Remembered Places
Embroidery and Woodwork

Opened Saturday November 22 at 11am
by Sarah Tucker MA (Textiles)

Judy Wilford works in a realistic, impressionistic manner gaining inspiration entirely from the landscapes of the regions she has visited and lived in. She references the natural world in its many and varied aspects; from the wide scale landscape to the intimacy of the habitats of birds and small animals, and in recent times the small and minute elements of the land, such as lichen and mosses.