Christine Ball: Pattern Maker

May 9 2010 — July 18 2010

Recent ceramics largely inspired by the patterns of my youth in the 1950s and  1960s. Among the patterns I remember and use are:

The ceramic tiles on the bathroom floor, the lino tiles on the kitchen floor,the brickwork around the garden beds and in the chimney and fieplace, the beautiful markings of my firstcat, the cast terracotta ventilation bricks, the Christmas bells, the shadows left on the walls by trees and leaves through the venetian blinds in the bedroom of my firsthome, Collaroy Plateau. The polygons in simple geometry and Anthony’s fair isle jumpers at Collaroy Plateau West Primary School.The stone walls and buildings where Grandma worked at Hunters Hill. The feathers from Auntie Jean’s peacocks. Auntie Dorothy’s crocheted rug.The patterns in Mum’s cotton summer dresses, our beach towels and the raised up patterns on all our rubber thongs.The intricate patterns in Mum’s camellias and ferns. The wooden spoked wheels and the radiator of Dad’s first carMum’s tea towels. Stoffels handkerchiefs. The sandstone war memorial at the War Veterans’ Home, Collaroy Plateau.The fish,shells and fossils at Long Reef. The cotton shirt bought on a high school excursion to Noumea. Auntie Toni’s brick paths and leadlight windows at Randwick. Auntie Em’s tessellated tiles on her verandah at Northbridge. Auntie Shirley’s Persian rugs, the Attic red and black fgure pottery and ancient mosaics in her Italian art books. The cast metal PMG and utility covers and grates in the concrete paths and roads of Sydney. Pressed metal ceilings in some of the old Sydney shops.The stained glass windows in the church at Dee Why and in Aunt Flora’s kitchen cabinet.The study of art history at Narrabeen Girls’  High where I frst saw the work of MC Escher.