Resilience

Scrim and Silk Botanical dyeing, illustrations on silk & stitching – My work explores fragility and strength of women through the work of the Scott Sisters, Harriet and Helena, who lived on Ash Island, Hunter River. Harriet and Helena were considered to be fragile and delicate. They weren’t permitted to attend university or join scientific societies, excluding them from formal education and professional circles (19th C). Yet for two decades from 1846 they showed strength and resilience in collecting, observing, recording and illustrating the flora, moths and butterflies surrounding their home.Their work came to prominence in the 1970s when the sisters’ illustrations and species list were discovered at the Australian Museum. 37cmx112cm