I was honoured this week to have my most recent work, "Strata" selected as a prize winner at the Franklin Arts Festival here in Pukekohe, Auckland.  Entering an event like this, I am always very aware of the extremely diverse range of work that "Textile Art" covers and the incredibly skilled practitioners who create it.  

"Strata" was inspired by my past life as an engineer.  My geology lectures at university awoke in me a fascination with the complexity, vastness and mystery in the ground under our feet.  Layers of sediment deposited, one on top of another.  The lower layers gradually squeezed and compressed by the weight of the upper ones. Further down still, the pressure and heat of the earth's inner parts cause changes to the physical or chemical form of the rock - metamorphosis.

A love for Geological Artworks

A favourite artwork in my own collection is a gestural ink on yuppo by Monika Kralicek which speaks to me of Geological forms.

Here's to mystery...

One of the aspects of creation that I fall in love with a little more every day is that there is so much mystery.  There is always more to know and to find out. Clearly the great scientific minds of our time have a head start on me in that regard.  However, even they will never know it all.  That domain is God's alone.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the sponsors of the award that I received for "Strata"; Picturebook Interiors and Barfoot & Thompson Pukekohe.  Thank you to all of the local businesses who support the Franklin Arts Festival.  You are a huge part of what makes our region a vibrant and diverse place.