Heather McDermott
Coming from the Isle of Skye I draw much of my inspiration from the rugged coastal surroundings of my home. Everything from the discarded fishermen's gloves, bits of rope and broken creels to the dried grasses and heather of autumn inform my work.
In these pieces I have tried to fuse the more industrial landscape I arn now living in with the shapes and forms from my home. I have done this by u sing various sizes of rectangular silver wire to create very angular geometric forms. These geometric shapes provide the background to my pieces giving subtle hints of an industrial landscape underlying each piece. I have then built up layers of enamel on three dimensional copper wire structures to illustrate the organic influences and have then mounted groups of these structures on these geometric forms. The fluidic nature of the enamel reminds me of the ebb and flow of the tide which brings so much flotsam and jetsam to the shore.
So often the pieces washed ashore are brightly coloured and I love to introduce bright colour into my work. I have used resin, enamel, paint and thread to bring this mixture of organic and synthetic into my work and so mixing the coastal and urban environment.
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