Friday 3 December 2021

LOUISE DONOVAN AND HER TEXTILE ART EXHIBITION AT THE CRYPT GALLERY IN NOVEMBER 2021 - PART TWO

In this second blogpost in the series, the focus is on 'Interconnections' - for Louise one of the most important pieces in the show. Press here for the link to the first blogpost, published last week.


'Interconnections' - Louise Donovan (2021)


And here is the guide (with some illustrative fleshing out!)


Interconnections

 

Silver grey with fifteen face masks

With movement restricted and friends unseen, Zoom became an important part of my life at times. This has been a period to reflect on who and what is important in my life – and what better vehicle

to spell out my conclusions than the life-saving face mask!


For you to find:

The flag of Wales wonderful north Wales has been one of our bolt-holes – Martin, the host at the Ty Gwyn inn outside Betws-y-Coed, providing  extraordinary food and lodging.

The flag of the USA in honour of my American artist friend, Jessica.


Louise and Rob Donovan by Jessica Raber (2020) - (from a photograph by Zoe Eaton) 

The flag of the Netherlands in honour of my Dutch friend, Ingrid.

The flag of Poland my nephew, Chris, and his Polish wife, Aga, are now living in Poland.

The flag of Greece – with thanks for all those nineteen vacations spent on the Aegean island of Patmos - and for the friends we have made there, not least Mikhail and Elvira, and Nico and Ritsa.



Louise Donovan in Hora on the holy island of Patmos in 2018



The flag of Greece, honouring the name of its greatest tennis star, Stefanos Tsitsipas – we all need heroes; Tsitsipas is one of mine.

The flag of New Zealand – my cousin, Barbara, and my friend, Sue, from Open University teaching  days, are both New Zealanders and I spent a wonderful month there a couple of decades ago with my father.

The flag of Scotland – memories of a seminal week in Edinburgh as an East Anglian representative at  a Quilters’ Guild conference.

The flag of Cornwall – St Ives is now our chosen home, and it was here that the late Roy Ray (1936- 2021), St Ives artist, taught me at the School of Painting and helped find the textile artist within me. Pete Giles and Zoe Eaton are two other St Ives artists who have played an important part in shaping my art.


A Tribute to Bobby Wotnot [aka Pete Giles] - a 2019 piece of textile art, exhibited by Louise Donovan in her November 2021 Crypt Gallery exhibition 



The flag of Northern Ireland my nephew, Alastair, is married to Rachel who comes from Enniskillen

  and there is another interconnected set of reasons for this flag: one of my sporting heroes is the late Alex Higgins, the snooker legend, and the finest drama I have ever seen was Richard Dormer’s  one-man show, ‘Hurricane’, in which he played the role of Alex Higgins - both Richard and Alex came from Belfast.



Alex Higgins (1949-2010) - the snooker legend - and Richard Dormer, the actor - together on stage after a performance of 'Hurricane' in 2003, the year Richard Dormer won The Stage award for Best Actor. 




The flag of the United Kingdom – I am a British citizen. When I was a child and off school with whooping cough, my mother took me into a fabric shop in Gerrard’s Cross and my love affair with quilting began. I became, in time, the maker of textile art wedding presents, not least for the lovely daughters   Jane, Emma, and Tamsyn of my dear cousin, Sally, and her husband, Keith.

The flag of Ireland My married name became Louise Donovan my husband has his roots in both Kent and Ireland.

The flag of Canada in honour of my friends, Mel and Dan, and their sons, Jake and Finn, who emigrated as a family to make a brilliant life for themselves in Ontario.

The flag of Norwich City football club – celebrating yet another return to the Premiership – I am the acting secretary of the St Ives branch of the NCFC supporters club. It has two members me and Rob.

The flag that gives pride of place to Bearded Collies above all, our beloved Ella dog.


Ella Donovan - 2020





I hope you have enjoyed this study of interconnections. We all have them - and they can be a joy.

Next week, in the last blog-post of the series, the focus will be on the pieces of textile art in the Crypt exhibition that were completed in 2019 and 2020 before the pandemic was invited to our island.




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