Creative Obsesssions

Creative Obsessions exhibition features
“Home Grown” timber

Local couple Jenny and Roger Gifkins will hold their Creative Obsessions exhibition at the Gladstone community Gallery for 3 weeks from the 15th of March, featuring Jenny’s Japanese Textiles and Roger’s Woodwork and Astrophotography. One feature of the exhibition will be woodwork using timbers from trees they have planted on their Belmore River property over the past 42 years.

Woodwork – Roger Gifkins

Roger and Jenny have been planting cabinet timbers on their property on Belmore River since 1976. Whilst the intention was re-afforestation and to learn about the local timbers and how they grew, over the years some trees have died or blown over. Roger has collected, milled and air dried some of these timbers and is now using the wood in some of his creations. A number of Roger’s pieces in the “Creative Obsessions” exhibition will feature timber from trees they planted as seedlings in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. This gives Roger a connection to the timber he works with, that is possibly unique amongst woodworkers.

As a woodworker Roger has specialized in detailed joinery and boxmaking for the past 35 years. His earlier Scandinavian influenced designs have evolved over the years towards more oriental designs with a strong Japanese theme.

Japanese Textiles - Jenny Gifkins

Jenny’s work has evolved through a lifelong love of textiles and fibre, and a constant enjoyment of making things. She has explored lots of different craft mediums including spinning, weaving, dyeing, macramé, embroidery, pottery, paper-making, basketry, beading etc, but has always come back to fabric in some shape or form. For many years she has been collecting Japanese fabrics and learning more about Japanese style and techniques. She has a love of their traditional designs, motifs, the texture of the fabrics and the attention to detail in their designs. So her work for this exhibition has a distinctly Japanese flavour, using Japanese prints, in cottons and silks, hand-dyes fabrics and even some recycled from old Japanese clothing.

Some fabrics she has used are rust -dyed, and also some dyed using shibori techniques. Along with her use of mostly Japanese fabrics, she incorporates both traditional and a more modern take on Japanese techniques such as sashiko, boro, shibori, as well as embroidery, applique, paper-piecing, meshwork and quilting.

Astrophotography – Roger Gifkins

Roger’s other obsession is Astrophotography, and the exhibition will include numerous framed prints of Galaxies and Nebula. Roger is now exploring long exposure astrophotography, using tools and techniques developed for the Hubble Space Telescope, to capture as much faint detail as possible in these distant galaxies, with one recent image incorporating over 70 hours of exposures collected over a 2-month period.

5 Kinchela St Gladstone ph 6567 5092 (Gallery) or 0428 674 312 (Roger)

10:30am to 4:00 pm Wednesday to Sunday plus Easter Monday – Free entry

Official Opening 4:00 pm Saturday 17 th March