Inkpot Alchemy

Cheryl Cook

Art represents my belief in how I live. It is a record of me, of place and of engagement. It is heavily influenced by the nature of my materials and the inspiration of my natural environment.

Underpinning my art practice is using materials that tell the story of regrowth with layers of meaning connecting us to our stories. It is generally about transformation, translation and change both of my materials and myself. In making art of my heart, my materials and the inspiration of my natural environment are all. My art practice is a living need to make my art as part of a whole way of being. My work is an engagement in working partnerships: with nature, the medium, myself and with relationships formed with others. 

There is an affinity with the creative process that empowers and enables a serendipitous transformation to occur. There is an opportunity to explore integration with the materials and the experience. It is a creative choice to create a journey of change with natural mediums. I invite curiosity about natural surroundings and to engage with moments remembered. 

Dijanne Cevaal

Inkpot Alchemy is work created in collaboration with Cheryl Cook utilising natural inks and printing inks fabricated from vegetation collected in my garden and from fallen leaf litter. Our work is individual and our collaboration exists in our personal response to the use of natural ink materials.

At the forefront of thinking about the use of these materials is the awe of nature and sustainability in practice, creating only inks that are needed and thereby creating very little waste material. I also utilise Khadi cloth sourced from a fair trade organisation in India.

The work I have created for this exhibition is inspired by the complexity of nature and our existence within it. The inks offer wonderful surprises, reminding us that we are part of nature, not in control of nature.

Biography

I am based in Morwell in the Latrobe Valley in Gippsland, Victoria. I was born in the Netherlands and my parents migrated to Australia when I was nine years old.

I have completed residencies in France (Château de Chassy), India (The Stitching Project) and Boneca de Atauro (East Timor). I have curated many international traveling exhibitions and have recently curated Gathered Threads, an exhibition showcasing textile artists in a gallery close to my home. I have staged a number of solo exhibitions in Europe and Australia and have been the Invited Guest at dedicated Textile/Quilt fairs in Europe and Australia.

I have published a number of books mostly in the French market place, but have published Tifaifai Renaissance in Australia and have self published a book entitled Musing in Textile. I have also published booklets inspired by walks in the Crinigan Bushland Reserve.