Zoe Macdonell
Zoe once browsed beaches for scraps of rubbish or driftwood to see what they once were, and what they could become. Zoe talks about her work as an artist and textile designer, where she's drawn her inspiration from, and how she works as an artist in Sydney and exhibiting works.
The artist:
Zoe is a Sydney based artist and textile designer. She teaches part-time at university and Adult education. Her work combines techniques such as painting, drawing, printing, photography, stitching and collage on textiles and paper. She enjoys combining both traditional techniques with new technologies. She aims to push the boundaries of her materials to create something new.
About Zoe:
Zoe was born in the UK, and lived in a small village in Lincolnshire for her first 7 years. Her family relocated to Lincoln: a beautiful Roman town full of cobbled streets, which hosts its renowned cathedral and castle. She then lived in Bath for a couple of years before moving permanently to Sydney in 1993.
She is enthusiastic, creative, compassionate, ambitious and sweet-toothed. And admires artists that have achieved a full time art career, enlightened teachers such as the Dali Lama who share there wisdom and other friends and family that support her goals.
Her fabric designs are inspired by textures, mapping and topographical views on both a micro and a macro level. These include patterning inspired by found objects such as seedpods, pieces of patterned plastic and rusty bits of metal. The fabric incorporates recycled materials such as paper, trapping these like suspended memories. The fabrics are layered, drawing reference to the different experiences connected with travel.
The fabrics respond to the environment in which they are placed. Her works are subtle and versatile in use, enabling them to be viewed as an art work on the wall, or having the ability of a wider commercial use. She has accumulated treasures from around the world, which are arranged on surfaces and pinned to walls.
Her textile designs echo her collected miscellanea, with a certain layering of botany, memory and whimsy, pattern and image, to create a rich texture.
Her challenges have been finding the right space to work and at the beginning it is expensive making art work because of the cost of materials.
