Merrilyn George’s thoughts on Art and its practice.
What initially attracted you to fabric as a medium creative expression?
This is a hard one, but my early memory is comfort associated with cloth. I wanted clothes for my dolls and I liked pretty clothes and blankets. I can remember that I was ‘making things’ from an early age, albeit whatever I found in the bush was a start- like the remains of the ’cloth’ that every kid in Horopito had a tent made from, after the orange canvas army supply bags were left from the ‘Kaka crash’ rescue in 1948.
What or who were your early influences and how has your life/upbringing shaped your work?
I think with love recalling my family. We did live surrounded by native bush, between two creeks, in a simple mill house. We were a family of four girls, two born at the beginning of WW2 and two afterwards. I was the 3rd child. The bush was our playground. My dad worked in the bush, which required him to be up very early- to light the fire, cook his breakfast and walk to work. I got up and kept him company, sitting on the box and having my first breakfast with him. His pet name for me was Mate. My dad was a maker and we always said he could fix anything with No 8 wire and brown paper. He could solve problems. My mum had restricted movement resulting from an infantile stroke. She did not sew but knitted clothing. My dad did the mending on a sewing machine. He also made a contraption from a roundish branch of a tree. It had a large hole in the middle with tacks lining the central hole. He used the French knitting technique to make our socks. From an early age we had needlework at school which I enjoyed and we spent time with friends of the family, our ‘Aunt’ who made our clothes in exchange for mum knitting her children’s warm jerseys. This life in the bush has always informed my work. The environment in which I live is the basis for much of what I produce. I am a nature child. I say, “The bush was my cradle and is now my sanctuary “.
What was your route to becoming an artist?
Does not living make you an artist? We are born in the image of our creator! As a child, I was encouraged to make things, make a garden, sew clothes, and draw lots. I took clothing and art at college despite being in an academic class. I won the Arts prize at college. When I became a teacher, I was always making resources using my artistic skills. At home, in my spare time, I painted, and sewed all our clothes and household needs, made puppets and props for early learning. I took annual school trips, always including art exhibitions. I wrote a history book on our local area-it took over my spare time for 12 years. When I finished I made porcelain dolls and cloth dolls, and loved making the clothes. I also learned from my neighbour Edythe McLean, and my daughter Kerren who took a patchwork class, the art of patchwork. Took a further class with Trish Souness which was great, but, it was not until I saw a Hoffman challenge on a school trip, that the ‘penny dropped’. I could make stories and do my own style of work. I need not follow another person’s pattern! The mountain erupted and so did my art. My first art quilts were of the mountain erupting. I filled my holidays and spare time quilting. Now that I have retired from work-mostly, I am working as an artist and when I need change, I write history and garden. I do wish to acknowledge the quilting groups in this country and internationally, who inspire and encourage me along the way.
Can you please tell us about your process from conception to creation?
Things around me inspire me, and my head is always buzzing with ideas. If I am preparing a new work, I will often dream the end product. I have dreamt a whole exhibition- held along the road to the mountain, in the bush. I will follow a dream. I consider it a gift to me. I do not need to draw anything to begin a work like that, but I make notes as I think through the process, and I keep a journal for ideas and associated thoughts. Having not initially being able to say how long a work takes, I have, for several years recorded my times involved in the process. So; with the idea, I pull out all the fabric and audition it, for value, pattern, texture and suitability for the idea. I might join fabrics to get going, or I might arrange collage style- depending on what the plan is. I hang it on the wall and look at it, checking balance of elements, before I construct it. I finish with batting and backing and decide on surface decoration, which might be hand quilting or machine quilting.
Are you able to tell us a bit about your chosen techniques and how you use them in layman’s
terms?
I recycle fabric- pull cotton, linen, wool or silk garments to pieces. I like to boil up folded fabrics with tin, rusty iron and plant material. I use lahar from eruptions and paru/mud from my local area. I rust fabrics by wrapping fabric in rusty material. This becomes part of my stash. I also like to print, and so I make stencils, stamps, screens and use various methods to mark fabrics with paint. Other surface decoration I use is hand quilting or decorating. I really enjoy freeform buttonhole stitch and running stitch. On the machine I like free form and matchstick (very close) quilting. I also use a Maori traditional taaniko method in a contemporary way with fabric.
What currently inspires you to create a new project?
The passion I have for the subject drives me. I have so many ideas in my head that is what is ‘on top’ at that moment becomes the possibility. As I am working on one piece, the next piece often starts forming (series). Social issues, historical stories also inspire me.
Can you please tell us about a piece of your work that is in the current exhibition – Sustainable
Creativity – Sustaining the Art of Quilt Making. How does this work specifically fit the sustainability
focus?
I will choose Nature’s Child. It comes out of my passion for art, teaching children and the belief that children need to be allowed to be children; in a safe, nurturing and creative environment. I have used recycled remnants from a sample furnishing book, silk off cuts printed, and made use of parts of my grandmother’s tablecloth. The colour in the fabrics are from boiling up with plant material.The batting is an old thin blanket, and the backing a calico sheet. I have bought nothing for this work
How has your work developed since you began quilt making and how do you see it evolving in the
future?
I initially bought fabric, before I made a practice of dyeing fabric, and used fabric in a traditional way often with ‘borders/frames’, and turned in edges. I now often use organic shapes, raw edges and collage style arrangement. I see myself moving more into organic construction.
What advice would you give an aspiring artist, especially around the sustainability of their
practice.
I would first say, “Make what makes your heart sing. Use what you will be happy to see in 20 years’ time, in terms of looking after the environment. Use your voice to say what you need to”
Is there a move in the supply change part of quilt making to reduce environmental impact? We are
seeing this with yarn production – is there something happening in the fabric for quilters supply
arena?
Yes I believe there is a move internationally, and a slow movement in New Zealand/Aotearoa. The supply places, apart from op shops, are not so prevalent NZ wide, but artists are using natural products and recycled product more than ever before.
How do you see quilt making evolving going forward to have less environmental impact?
What I see now in that people are taking the stash they have and redyeing threads and fabrics, marking old fabrics, upcycling. As the work some artists are doing and getting recognition for, it will inspire and encourage others to follow, which will contribute to less environmental impact.
