From the edge of the sea, 16 April, 2020

A quiet overcast day, with all the life of the city held in suspension. A dried piece of twisted kelp stalk suggests a natural weaving. It was picked up with a cockle shell and cuttlefish bone  in the summer on a vast North Coast beach. 

The  edge of the sea was considered a magical border zone by the Celts. In this place between water and land you could suspend your ordinary pattern and make changes and promises that might transform everything. Kelp covers beaches after storms, torn up by fierce seas from the great forests in the ocean. Tasmanian women have always made water carriers stitched  from a flat piece of bull kelp. This contorted strand  looks like a sign or message from another world.

Diana Wood Conroy, 'From the edge of the sea',watercolour on Canzon paper 15 x 21 cm, 16 April, 2020