Planet art
The Co-op launched its very own green art space this week just in time for Winter Magic’s Artstreet competition. The window gallery outside the Big Little Shop in Ha’Penny Lane Katoomba will feature local artists work with an environmental theme.
Our first exhibitor is Freedom Wilson from Laughing Bird Studio with her collections of prints and paper cut outs ‘Winter Solstice 231’.
Here’s Freedom’s artist statement about the work.
Winter Solstice 231
By Freedom Wilson
Artist Statement
As we enjoy the fun times that our coolest solstice brings to the Blue Mountains our native vegetation remembers the cooler temperatures and higher rainfall that we identify with winter. There have been 231 winter solstices since European colonization in Australia. Over that time the Blue Mountains National Park has played an increasingly important role in providing a repository for threatened and endangered plant species as we clear magnificent wilderness areas in New South Wales to create contrived agricultural, urban, industrial and suburban environments. These monoprint works pay tribute to two endangered plant species – the Caladenia arenaria – a small spider orchid that was once prolific in this area but is now only found in five locations from Urana to Narrandera, and the Isopogon fletcheri or Fletcher’s drumstick, which only exists in the moist conditions of the Grose Valley. The hand cut stencil work is a winter solstice celebration of some of the local vegetation which thrives at this cooler time of year.
The Co-op is inviting applications from local artists to exhibit in our window gallery. To enquire please email Jacqueline Forster at marketing@bmfoodcoop.org.au