2022
JAN MULLEN

Patience

My Dad designed and built our family caravan. School holidays meant travelling, exploring and playing Patience and Fish.
The cards we played with now cover our much loved van with memories.

Materials: Recycled cardboard, playing cards, knitting needles, glue, paint.
Silk/satin hemp, thread, batting, interfacing, fusible web, beads., Techniques: Recycled cardboard body, covered in my family’s ‘holiday’ playing cards.
40 x 25 x 40 cm (w x h x d)

overwhelmed

Years ago in a market in Spain I purchased this old, scratched, and worn etching printed on heavy card stock. It was cut in half to fit in my suitcase as I planned to merely photograph the fine patterning details of the print and to build a ‘library’ of textures for future use. Alas, the print needed a second life.

Deep box frames were constructed around the original prints with copies made to mirror the images on the sides. Dried flowers were glued in position and a taut layer of black tulle was stretched over the boxes, veil-like, to both soften the prints’ disrepair and reference the mourning of the woman and her children.

Materials: An old etching plus mirror copies digitally printed on heavy card stock.
Dried flowers from ‘gifted’ bouquets. Tulle, glue, glass, wooden frame.
Techniques: Line drawing to mute damaged areas.
Photography, digital printing. Floral collage.
Dyptych each panel 37.5 x 55 x 10 cm (w x h x d)

The Green Fairy

I found this wreck of a dress in a barn in Illinois many years ago. The fabric, the pleating and the buttons were ripe for re-use.
Pulled out of a box this year the colour yelled at me, this was the colour of ‘absinthe’ AKA ‘The Green Fairy’. This addictive drink, famous in France in the 1840’s, led many on a downward spiral.

Like the lives of the addicted, this wrecked dress has been patched and worked over yet the disrepair/despair cannot be hidden.

Materials: Vintage dress, cotton batting, silk fabrics, cotton thread, fusible web, fast2fuse
Techniques: Construction of a firm petticoat, patching, applique and stitch to repair
102 x 158 x variable cm (w x h x d)

The Green Fairy

The Green Fairy detail

The Ferry Vases

Victorian Art Pottery Co. was established in 1901 in Victoria by William Ferry a relative of mine. I inherited two ‘family’ vases and regard them with appreciation of my diverse lineage. My contemporary versions combine the forms of ‘my V.A.P’ vases but are covered in Ikat fabrics – to gently reference the glazing on one of my pots and the Ikat fabric cover of a touring album of my maternal grandparents.

Materials: Wheel thrown bisque clay vases – made by Robert Hawes.
Cotton batting, glue, Ikat fabrics, cotton thread, ribbon.
Techniques: Fabric covered ceramic vases, batting glued to vases, fabrics hand stitched to cover vases
(height varies between 19.5 to 25.5cm)

Past Times/ Pastimes

The notion of ‘past times’ as a theme morphed into ‘pastimes’. We often have an ‘op shop’ jigsaw on the table for our family to pass the time.
These ‘artists’ jigsaws were ripe for comment.

Materials: Jigsaws, cardboard, batting, various fabrics, glue. Framed
Techniques: Collage
(w x h cm)

#1 Adoration 55 x 76 cm

#2 Dedication 38 x 103 cm

#3 Temptation 80 x 55 cm

armour/amour

I walk the roads and tracks around Dwellingup to immerse myself in the sights and sounds of the bush. I collect feathers on these outings which directs my gaze, viewing in minute detail, exploring with appreciation and respect.

These suits of armour express the need for protection.
#2 wears the V of victory - these ‘twenty-eight’ parrots live without fear of falling numbers in our Jarrah and Marri forest.
#3 wears the breast feathers of female red-tailed black cockatoos which need protection against the impositions of human encroachment.

Materials: Feathers - breast feathers from female red-tailed black cockatoos & from twenty-eight parrots
Silk/satin hemp, thread, batting, interfacing, fusible web, beads., Techniques: Machine stitching, hand stitching, beading.
33 x 39 cm (w x h)

#2- victors

#3 - the straight and narrow

little by little the bird makes its nest
SERIES #1 – #15

‘Little by little the bird makes its nest’ is a French Proverb.
Our treed yard in Dwellingup is always filled with birds. They regularly gift feathers but various birds also nest here - most of these nests were found on the ground in our backyard. It is one thing to collect and esteem them, yet another thing to be able to regularly view them placed back up high.

Materials: found nests, ceramic mounts (ceramic, paint), twigs, twine & glue, Techniques: hand built ceramic plinths, painted constructed ladders
dimensions are variable from 11 x 19 to 15 x 35cm (w x h)

Runaway Talent
wall pieces #1 – #20

My father-in law made his living as a house painter - his brushes a testament to his occupation. The size and heft of these brushes impress me. The imprint of colour and their worn shapes delight me. He will not go down in history as a ‘great’ painter, though perhaps he can now share the title with these famous artists by association?

Materials: old used paintbrushes, cardboard, linen fabric, ink, batting, glue, d-rings.. Technique: digital printing on fabric, mounted on card, glued to a paintbrush
(various dimensions)