Beautiful Me
Volunteer textile artist Lauren Shanley gives the textile programme a burst of adrenalin
An exhibition of textiles from the Pomegranate Textile Art group at The Bethesda Arts Centre
Guest speaker at the PWC exhibition last Autumn was the Foundation’s new patron, Sir Sydney Kentridge, who spoke of “the miracle that happened in Nieu Bethesda in 1999, when “a poet, with a poet’s vision, set up the Bethesda Arts Centre.” One of the guests listening to his speech, and looking at the wonderful quilts and wall hangings, was well-known UK textile artist, Lauren Shanley.
In January 2006, Lauren Shanley, (laurenshanley@zoom.co.uk) came to the centre as a volunteer to share her considerable skill and talent with the Pomegranate women. She brought with her a very generous donation of beautiful fabric fragments, along with many years of experience, and an irrepressible love of brilliance and sparkle. Her gift to the textile project was increased by generous donations from some of her clients.
Building on the work of previous volunteer Julia Chamberlain who set up Pomegranate, and Orla O’Flanagan, who nursed it through its middle phase, Lauren found herself working with the sixteen excited, dedicated and thoughtful women who now make up the Pomegranate group at the Centre.
Lauren’s own work is characterised by a passion for colour and sparkle, and her love of textures and vivid colours was backed up with a bulging suitcase of silks laces and metallic threads. The response to these riches, and Lauren’s bubbling personality, was instant. Suddenly a riot of colour was released in the women’s work – vivid wall hangings, cushion covers, and two more enormous quilts. The first, Big Story, depicts each woman’s favourite bible story in a traditional Pomegranate design inspired by rose windows in stained glass (one of Julia’s designs for Pomegranate).
The second, Beautiful Me, was a further development of the Centre’s mission – to help people who have lost all sense of identity to find a voice. In a society where desperate poverty remains the dominant collective experience, the theme of Beautiful Me took on a special poignancy. Lauren loves incorporating figures into her own work, and was particularly interested in the self-portraits the women were making. The theme of Beautiful Me also found fertile ground in the women’s own longings and dreams to transcend the bleakness of their lives. Vibrant pieces poured out of the studio - women splendidly attired in silks and beads, families decked in dreamt of finery, ordinary women transformed into princesses and queens – each artist expressing her unique creativity. Anyone interested in buying a quilt or wall-hanging should contact pomegranate@bethesdafoundation.org or Jeni@bethesdafoundation.org
Have you seen? Pomegranate’s range of textile designs |
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