Sending love to Lismore – The devastating floods in Lismore and the effect on the community has been enormous. People have lost homes, businesses and ,very sadly, loved ones. Amongst the memorable have been the heroes who saved lives and risked their own. People needed to be boated, helicoptered and some swam to safety. The high bridge crossing the Wilsons river was crossed with boats of people. The centre of Lismore has a heart sculpture to welcome people to the CBD and the hands and heart of the sculpture sitting in flood waters has become an iconic image. As a result, red hearts to show love for Lismore have sprung up everywhere – as though planted and growing – this is the inspiration for this series.
I have begun to use gouache as a medium and have been enjoying the new approach which it has given to me. Being mostly opaque, water -based and fast drying gives me the immediacy of inks which I have used in other mixed media works – but allows a more graphic approach which I am finding a lot of fun.
I began with a small art work (called ‘Sending love to Lismore’) inspired by a Domestika learning module with Cagla Zimmermann. I find messages from other artists help me to think in different directions – it’s good to have diversity of process to think about when creating. My next one is called ‘Growing hearts’ and makes me think of all the hearts which have been popping up in Lismore.
