Marguerite: Dry Daisies in a Pot
Marguerite: Dry Daisies in a Pot, 2010
marguerite, 2010, pen and coffee on paper doilies, 26 x 26 cm each
point road, 2012, hand stitch and coffee on fabric, 40 x 91cm
“Marguerite: Dry Daisies in a Pot” is a series of 28 vignettes drawn on delicate paper doilies, where time feels suspended and memories gently bloom like fragile petals. Made with black pen and coffee, each piece captures a quiet moment from the lives of older generations. Each circular piece becomes a small stage where time softens, and moments once lived are re-imagined with tenderness and care.
At the centre of the series is nostalgia—not as sentimentality, but as a practice of remembering and re-seeing. The figures that inhabit these doilies are drawn in a dance of ink lines and coffee stains. Their heads, cut from old black and white photographs, seem to emerge from the past itself, while their hand-drawn bodies stretch forward in motion: cooking, playing, fishing, hugging, dancing. These are not grand or heroic gestures, but small acts of connection and domesticity. Moments that might seem trivial at first glance are imbued with dignity and grace.
The first image in the series presents the works as an installation: long, dry tree branches sit in a pot, with the doilies hanging gently like blossoms or faded leaves. It is a memory tree, each "flower" a frozen scene, blooming not in spring, but in reflection.
The final piece, Point Road is stitched in black thread on fabric, once again infused with coffee. It unfolds like a fabric of memory, a stitched neighbourhood scene full of familiar rhythms: conversations over coffee, children in motion, horses and bicycles weaving through the street. The title is a reference to Glebe Point Road, where I once lived, and the work imagines the street as it might have been 50 or 60 years ago. It is both a homage and a reconstruction; a way of honouring the layered lives that make up a place. Through this series, I aim to trace the quiet poetry of ordinary life and elevate the overlooked. In these imagined yet familiar scenes, there is a deep respect for ageing, for continuity, and for the intimacy of shared routines.
Marguerite is a meditation on age, memory, and the quiet rituals that shape a life. Like dried daisies pressed in a book, these scenes hold warmth long after their moment has passed.