These images are an invitation to experiment with layers and textures.
The wrought iron screen draws the eye, fierce, graceful and definitive, but unable to capture as much attention as the light behind the glass. There is a sense of possibility behind the glass that the determined iron does not obscure. The points of the design are intimidating, sharp and menacing, skillful and also cruel. The space behind the glass may remain unknown.
The stone screen is almost passive. It is solid and does not invite speculation about what it conceals. The age and difficulty of working the stone is immense; it looks heavy and cold. The circles lace through each other, but are clumsy and without lightness. Darker bands of figure in the stone provide contrast and an upward glancing trajectory.
Brickwork with age and improvisation displays enormous character. These handmade bricks, roughly patched and joined, form part of an old arch in a culvert, and have many stories to tell. The accretions of mortar, the chips and textures, provide a rich three-dimensional surface that may be a starting point for felt, embroidery or fabric collage. The colours may be soft, but the surface is not. Skinned knuckles and broken nails are close behind any conversation with cold brick. However yielding when made, the bricks grow harsh as they dry and unforgiving as they age.
The stone surface is weathered, pitted. It was formed, and thrust into the crust to begin the long process of disintegration. In time it will return to component parts, weathering and changing other elements on the way. The interaction of forces is ruled by entropy, and we are all changed. Allowing the patterns of the process to emerge on a surface pressed into the stone sparks an inside view.
