A personal project responding to the theme of “Lost Treasure” (something valuable that’s been lost or discarded, and is greatly missed).
LOST TREASURE
When I was a teenager, I made a mixed-media textile garden map using a rectangular piece of hessian and an assortment of bits and bobs. I remember using string, fabric, and lots of sequins and doing a lot of sewing. I loved this project and I felt very proud of it. I remember thoroughly enjoying the process and the end result; it might have been the start of the spark that made me pursue a creative career.
I kept this, and other ‘valuable’ things like it in various containers and cases in a treasure chest which was actually an old, bright blue chest of drawers. Every so often I would pull out my treasures and spread them on the floor, and enjoy looking at them. When I moved out of home, I had to leave the chest in storage (aka my Dad's dilapidated shed) and I kind of forgot about my treasures.
Eventually the shed got knocked down in a storm and a lot of the stuff was lost or unsalvageable. That hessian map was one of the things that was lost. These illustrations are my memory of that lost treasure, and serve as a reminder for me to enjoy the feeling of creating something from nothing.
