LISA EARLEY – “THE NATURE OF MENDING” – JULY 2016

Lisa opened her talk by speaking about her 15 year background as a textile designer for the fashion industry, as well as teaching Sixth Form and University students.  After completing an MA in Textiles in 2011 Lisa began concentrating on her own work and exhibiting with the Prism group of Textile Artists.
 
Prior to 2010 her work mainly comprised of etching and print making, but Lisa then moved onto fine art.  She experimented with metal leaf, acrylics, paper and cloth.  At this time Lisa’s work was influenced by the sculptures of Barbara Hepworth, with a theme of the vulnerability of children and the environment, using digital printing, collage and etching on embroidered cloth.

Lisa’s commission of The Nature of Mending project was inspired by the work of Anna Freud in relation to the children of the Kindertransport during WWII.   During her research for this project, Lisa encountered many moving stories of some of those children who came to the UK and settled here.  Some of the archived documents have been digitally printed onto cloth as part of Lisa’s installation for The Nature of Mending, showing how children who were “broken” by losing their families eventually were “mended”. 

Lisa concluded by telling us about the piece of Textile Art purchased by the Embroiderer’s Guild depicting poppies, which was inspired by the work of Paul Nash, a surrealist painter who became a war artist in WWII.  All in all, Lisa was a very interesting and inspiring speaker.

Thank you Ann K for this report.  Ros