Summerstones
Title: Summerstones
Size: 55cms w x 120cms h
Date: 2001
SUMMERSTONES is the main piece in a series of tapestries inspired by my first visit to Orkney. I'd read about Orkney's magnificant archaeological remains for years and felt as if I knew what they would look like, but no photograph can prepare you for how the stones of Stenness and Brodgar sit into their landscape so modestly, so comfortably. My first though, when I saw the stones from a distance was that they staple the land and the water to the sky. When you get close up their size creates a different response, they tower over you. This tapestry was an attempt to show both these responses in the one composition. When I was about half way up the tapestry 9/11 happened and I needed to mark it, so instead of just a plain border with the shadow of the big stone within it, I found myself weaving clouds of solid looking smoke with the two towers behind and through the ancient stone. The juxtaposition seemed right but I have no idea what it might mean.