little pink flower, you are safe here | in here, it’s all good morning sun
Sliced Fabriano paper with watercolour pencil
2 Part: (2) 76 cm x 76 cm
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
We are hiking through the Kruger. We’ve been walking since daybreak, and our morning thoughts sniff about, as we crunch through the ever-curling winter grass. Our guide points out a baboon spider’s nest — a perfect circle burrowed deep into the ground. He takes a long piece of grass and stirs it gently into the nest. The spider grabs hold, and our guide attempts to pull it out, tug-of-war style. We gather around to catch a glimpse, but she doesn’t come out.
Anchored in her nest, she holds the blade of grass upright. But she doesn’t come out. Back home, I zoom in on the assortment of photographs taken from the hike. The grass is blue, green, pink and brown, holding vibrant conversation with heavy black seedpods and wildflowers in yellow, apricot and pink.
As I progress into the making of these artworks, my eyes learn the dancing movements of a more-than-human world — an intricately layered, wild sanctuary. My hours of drawing conjure a creative energy in the same way that our guide attempted to lure out the spider – I look for it, stir it, and hope that it will come out. Day after day. Hour after hour. Sharpened pencil after sharpened pencil. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of her, holding a blade of grass upright, refusing annihilation.
These artworks are from my series The Well-Trodden Path, which interprets the wild veld captured in a set of photographs, during treks into the Kruger.
Gallery
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