Taking notice:
The making special of humble things

It takes a bit of slowing down to truly notice what is around us and what is beneath our feet.  Aesthetics philosopher Yuriko Saito observes that in natural landscapes we tend to favour the spectacular over the more humble ecologies we encounter in our everyday surroundings and in more ‘mundane’ landscapes - often to the detriment of these rich ecologies.  

In this work, small, found natural materials that were once part of a fuller life form, and that would normally go unnoticed, are honoured in a way that invites closer attention to very ordinary, yet vital, aspects of the natural forms around us.  There is recognition also of their impermanence: their being honoured here before they disintegrate and become once again part of the earth.  

Found natural materials, watercolour pencil and graphite on paper