Once again, thank you to my supportive family and friends for assisting with the hanging of my work and attending the exhibition opening at the Brisbane Institute of Art. Arron and Cameron measured, discussed, agreed, disagreed and finally managed to have work up in a impressively level line for viewing . . . not easy, with work which varies in size and format and sits 37mm off the wall.
Brisbane Institute of Art
Thank you also to all the delightful self declared GEEKS at The Edge, State Library of Queensland, who offered support and assistance so I could fulfil my desire to produce these laser cut works. . . your patience in the face of my persistence was commendable. I am looking forward to taking work into metal production . . . . http://edgeqld.org.au/
Sharon Lee
GARDEN
Taxonomy of Small Joys
For me, art making is all about the process; the sharing of experiences, investigation of ideas and learning of new techniques. A quote attributed to many individuals, including Buddah, succinctly describes how I feel about working towards an exhibition -Life is a journey not a destination.
In 2016, using GARDEN as my starting point, I became obsessed with the results of an extensive research project conducted by Mike Stevens, lecturer for landscape studies, at the University of N.S.W. Entitled The Congruent Garden: an investigation into the role of the domestic garden in satisfying fundamental human needs, it establishes that gardens satisfy nine human needs: Freedom, Identity, Creation, Understanding, Participation, Leisure, Affection, Protection and Subsistence across four existential states: Being, Having, Doing and Interacting.
Early in this journey I knew I required a technique which would assist me in portraying these nine needs, but that it would also need to incorporate my belief that, it is not only that which we see, but also that which remains unseen, which is invaluable.
I realised that laser cutting would help me portray this other-worldly, multi layered feature of the garden. Using my initial paintings and hand-drawn images, I attended courses in Illustrator and Coral Draw to produce the necessary vector files. Attending various induction workshops to learn how to use the laser cutting machine at The Edge, State Library of Queensland, has been a long and often frustrating, but rewarding process.
The resulting 4mm ply laser cuts, with their solid forms and variable shadows, represent a collection of moments, of the seen and elusive, which regularly occur in our garden. The overlay of colors using mono-printing and stencils portray the perpetual variables which create change, often in a heartbeat.
1/ FREEDOM - EXPERIENCES
oil on 4mm laser cut ply
Because of the adventurous spirit of naturalists, the covetous cravings of entrepreneurs and relentless development through grafting, rooting, budding, mutation and hybridisation, we have a plethora of vegetable plants, fruit trees and flowers which thrive in today’s gardens.
2/ IDENTITY - AUTHENTICITY
oil on 4mm laser cut ply
Science alone will never adequately explain how a garden helps us make sense of the disorientating confusion of modern society. Connecting with the elements in a garden can act as a buffer against the dread often presented by the big-picture of the world.
3/ CREATION - INHERITANCE
oil on 4mm laser cut ply
The purposeful introduction of foreign flora and fauna has often produced disastrous problems, and yet deliberate hybridisation has given plants a complex inheritance which can prove highly beneficial.
4/ UNDERSTANDING - NURTURANCE
oil on 4mm laser cut ply
Gardening is an exercise in optimism and often a triumph of hope over experience. Gardeners know there has to be a balance of humility and benevolence. Of course it also helps to exercise control, servitude, respect, pragmatism, and ecological conscience.
5/ PARTICIPATION - CHOICE
oil on 4mm laser cut ply
There are numerous lasting gifts we can bequeath our children: clean air, fertile soil, serenity, knowledge, roots, and another is wings. However, there is nothing in which birds differ more from man than the way they manage to construct and yet leave the landscape as it was before.
6/LEISURE - FINDING SELF
oil on 4mm laser cut ply
Gardening is ultimately a folly which allows us to make our own mark upon the land providing delight and a place in which we may rest. The sound of birds can stop the corrosive chatter of the mind. The sun and rain cleans and heals. The inaudible glide of the wind sooths the soul.
Sometimes I sits and think, and sometimes I just sit. - A.A. Milne
7/AFFECTION - ANTICIPATION
oil on 4mm laser cut ply
One of the most delightful things about the garden is the anticipation it provides. To be intimately aware that there are unseen happenings afoot. Tending the garden with parental solitude, loving what you do and feeling that it matters.
8/PROTECTION - RESPONSIBILITY
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Gardening imparts an organic perspective on the passage of time. Change marches on relentlessly, as time speeds past regardless. And what was is not and never again will be.
To what shall I compare this life of ours?
Even before I can say,
it is like a lightning flash or a dewdrop,
it is no more.
-Sengai
9/ SUBSISTENCE – ACCEPTANCE
oil on 4mm laser cut ply
Life and love are life and love, a bunch of violets is a bunch of violets and to drag in the idea of a point is to ruin everything. Live and let live. Love and let love, flower and fade and follow the natural curve which flows on, pointless.
- D.H. Lawrence
10/ BEING, HAVING, DOING, INTERACTING
oil on 4mm laser cut ply
The sun rises, pink and gold, momentarily highlighting a landscape of sparkling, dew-drenched cobwebs looking like fishermen's nets crafted from stainless steel; gossamer, ethereal, and otherworldly. A grey heron arrives to gracefully stalk the ponds. I make coffee and in my moment of busyness feather and shimmer disappear as if
displeased by my inattentiveness.
PROCESS - NEST oil on 4mm laser cut ply
Throughout my observations of our garden, researching and learning the new technique of laser cutting, I have realised that art, gardens and text, despite being unique dialects, when juxtaposed, echo and augment each other. Together the three speak in a hybrid language, far richer than each would be on their own. And it is through the added exploration of text that I have been able to come to terms with the complexity and saturation of imagery in every day life within a garden.
What a delight to know that works will make their way across great swathes of ocean to Houston, Texas USA and England, while those in Australia will travel to Fraser Island, Noosa, Tweed and throughout the suburbs of Brisbane.
Another delightful exhibition . . . now onto BIRDS
Wheel throwing
Mooloolabah weekend. 
