Wednesday, May 03, 2006

A quilt of owls





from Wendy
When visiting my aunt in Mt Eliza yesterday, she showed me an exquisitely made quilt of about thirty individual carefully stitched owls. This was made by her artistic beautiful daughter. I would love to have a photo of it. Anyway, I said, put it on your wall. 'Oh no, we have so many pictures already.' Soft landscapes of the Australian bush, pretty flowers, in a very femininely decorated house. My ego went down of course when I contrasted these delicately designed spaces with my own mayhem of multi-purpose office/lounge spaces frequented by people drinking kava or reading large newspapers.

Anyway, about owls. I found my pastel drawing of an owl that stared at me. One day I had sketched it as it sat on a branch in a small tree in Ryrie Street Geelong. Now,I don't like that stare, and it still looks at me from its frame in our lounge room, follows me around the room in fact.

Normally I dislike feathered creatures near me, shudder when I think of their feathers or beaks touching me. This possibly comes from an incident when I was about five, staying on a wheat farm in Annuella with a small friend's grandmother. I was chased around the paddock by a clutch of turkeys!

3 Comments:

Blogger Peceli and Wendy's Blog said...

A Quilt of owls

The name in Fijian is lulu ni bogi means a night owls. in Fiji when the lulu cries a loud it means something good luck or bad

In Australia its just a wise bird

Peceli

4:37 AM  
Blogger Pandabonium said...

Beautiful pastel sketch. On Maui we have owls, 'pueo' in Hawaiian. They condsidered sacred. Their name is used in phrases which indicate the beliefs about them as protectors in battle or as looking after children.

4:21 AM  
Blogger Peceli and Wendy's Blog said...

Panda,
Peceli doesn't like my picture of an owl, not only because of the eyes following you, but its references in Fiji to foretelling death, disaster, etc. I guess the idea of 'I heard the owl call my name' is is the mythology of many cultures. I just like the great shapes, textures of this creature.
W.

3:02 PM  

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