Patricia Kelly- B.A. Honours degree, Fine Craft Design, 1986, University of Ulster, Belfast Diploma in Art Education, 1988, University of Ulster, Jordanstown

I explore the subject of landscape through the use of discarded clothing belonging to family and friends. 

The work is metaphorical rather than a direct translation of the landscape, exploring memory, emotion and inner feelings. Scenes explored have become closer to home. Person and place have become increasingly important. Recent work featuring," Granda's Windbreak and My Son's School Shirt" is reminiscent of my own personal heritage and has been completed using clothing from three generations of my family. The use of worn clothes has a double purpose. They give the piece a life before the piece is even started. The materials had another life, another existence, not spiritual but physical.

I hope that the use of clothing, complete with buttons, pockets, seams and evidence of wear and tear may encourage the viewer to look beyond the work to consider the story of it's making, people and situations. The clothes intertwined in the pieces bring to mind the many previous generations who walked, shared and enjoyed these same scenes. The worn clothes with their history of previous lives make visible the invisible threads that connect us with the past.

The use of needle and thread in the making is reminiscent of repairing, of mending, of making do. On one level it reminds us of the traditional occupation shared by many women in the past but on another level it reminds us of the ever present need to heal, to repair. I identify with the remark made by Louise Bourgeois,

" I've always had a fascination with the needle; the magic power of the needle, the needle is used to repair the damage. It's a claim to forgiveness."