Close to the Edge

A Souvenir for Meditation 

a personal memory of Epping Forest

Souvenir means memory aid, and this work is a souvenir based on images seen during walks in Epping Forest through late winter 2010.

 I have explored images of light dappling through the canopy. I see the woods as a shelter as a place of refuge and rejuvenation. Visually, the trees I have always loved are the beech and hornbeam, especially the shapes created by the pollarding, and having played in them as a child, I think of them as a safe haven. I’ve been looking at the colours of these trees that mean the most to me and created a personal memory of the forest as a souvenir.

Framed images of the hornbeams. The layered panels depict a glimpse of the woods when you stop and see light in the distance through the trees. Light is caught on coloured glass with layers of sandblasted and screen-printed images. These panels change with the natural light behind them.

Vessels inspired by the colours in the forest Motivated by watching the light through the beech and hornbeam branches, I made vessels echoing the pollarded trees of the forest by stretching coloured glass frit between layers of clear glass . The Italian 15th century designer, Alberti, talked about having something inside his home that represented or reminded him of what was in his garden. I think of the forest as an extension of the garden, so I decided to create a souvenir of the woods in glass to keep inside. I have always picnicked in the woods and began to find out about other people living and camping in the woods, both past and present, and the idea of a vessel suggesting this activity, a discarded vessel, came to me.