Introduction
“In Transit” combines figurative rendering in acrylic paint with fabric and stitch-work to represent persons in transit on buses, at bus stops and on bicycles. As in my previous series “Archways and Stitch-lines” patchwork and embroidery are used to explore the effort to be at home in urban environments.“In Transit” deals with the difficulty faced by an increasing number of people who find themselves continually on the move, between jobs, unsure if they will by necessity change apartments and neighbourhoods yet again. When we are unable to put down roots we must search for means to carry our homes on our back. The warmth and textures of the fabric in this series represents the desire to build nests even when moving from place to place. Though we often make friends or at least acquaintances of people we meet on the sideways bench of the bus’s priority seating, we more often retreat to comfortable anonymity, wrapped in the cocoons of our winter clothing. Though in close physical contact we are content to remain in personal obscurity.
Though often without faces the figures in my work are subjects rather than objects. Their character is depicted through gesture and clothing rather than facial features. Like the strangers on the street, we may not know these persons as individuals but there is much about them that is familiar, none-the-less. The stitch-lines, which connect the figures in my work, evoke anonymous collectivity.
