I managed to keep somewhat ‘sane’ during the last months of renting before moving onto our property in June by creating these small artworks for the Trailing the Trappist’s Exhibition: 5th ‘till 12th November which will be hosted at the St Anne’s Hall at the Mariannhill Monastery. 

This has been an initiative by Maggie Strachan, where 16 artists will be soon be showing their beautiful works in response to visiting the various mission stations.  You can preview and purchase works by visiting the Facebook page titled Trailing the Trappists.  

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Along with my husband Patrick and studio companion Hugo, I have recently moved to live on our new property: Hope Streams, in the misty hills and valley of Assagay. My life has changed radically over the past three years, where for about the same time I have blissfully laboured on these small but treasured artworks that have brought me joy, solace, centeredness and meaning.

For quite some time I have been investigating the concept of ‘transition’; of moving beyond or through a space, a place, a context; be it of a physical state, an emotional or spiritual one. I have a fascination with ‘time’ and ‘dimension’, and of ‘connection’ … and of the existence ‘beyond’ these concepts.

The subject matter of gates and doors from the Reichenau Mission and Mariannhill Monastery formed the basis for the theme of ‘transition’ for me in this exhibition.

I have combined printed photographs in a mixed media format; where the foregrounds leading to the doorways suggest that they could very well be that of an exterior or interior scape. The lines between the present and the future, between the internal and the external are intentionally blurred.

We are all ‘transitioning’ in one way or another; through grand doors, other times through side rickety gates, at the end of sand paths, slippery slopes, stone steps or concrete walkways. We are continuously on a journey, on one path or another, climbing steep unsteady ladders or by gentle turns along grassed paths where we oftentimes unexpectedly find ourselves anew.

In the end, either way, we are changed.

And the trail continues.