April 2025 Exhibition update

The talk on samplers (4th April) at the gallery went well and lots of people attended and learned a lot from Abigael Flack, Curator (Human History) about the history surrounding samplers, and were able to see the museum’s collection which had been bought out of storage for the occasion. A couple of the samplers also made it into the temporary gallery where I spoke to people about my work - and a little about Laura’s - and how I got from sampler to Memento Mori. Lots of questions about technique!!

Memento Mori 1 and 2 in the gallery. Click here to read more about them.

We now have permission to use a different poem from Benjamin Zephaniah to put behind the reproduction of the quilt I’ve made called Icon. It will be put on a building in the town as a mural. The poem I’ve used was about Windrush and fitted in with the current exhibition, but he wrote many many poems so a huge choice for the organizers, and his wife Qian.

The portrait is stitched onto red cloth and then painted. The background is gilded 24ct gold leaf which has been stitched over and sanded lightly so the background shows through in places.

Windrush - Benjamin Zephaniah, Icon

We finish on 11th May so just over a month to go, but there will be a special Windrush Meet The Artist this Saturday 12th April 2-4pm; if you’re in the area so drop in and say hi and find out about the themes and processes on this part of the exhibition. Our final Meet The Artist will be the day before closing on Saturday 10th May from 11-2pm. What on earth am I going to do next?!!!