Julianfrontal

The Julian Centre in Adelaide is name for the Saint Julian of Norwich who lived circa 1342 - 1416. On 8 May 1373 when seriously ill she received a series of revelations from God. From these she wrote the book Revelations of Divine Love. She is the first writer in English who can be identified with certainty as a woman.

The Julian Centre in Adelaide is a place of Healing, Reconciliation and Spiritual Direction. One day its Director Fr Phillip Carter said to me..."Do you think you could make me an altar frontal for our chapel.?"

So after some thought.... I thought... A Celtic Tree of Life... that is what might be good and promptly researched and sent off designs and plans and ideas to be considered by Phillip. And that is what we got.... at Tree of Life.... ummm well the design parameters underwent some adjustment.

The trouble was that Phillip didn't like the celtic trees I liked and I didn't like the trees he liked and I was about to tear my hair out when I made the throw away line..."I guess we could do something Australian".... and went away and thought.

I began a long search for gum leaves and scenery. I had seen fabric by chance in Janome so I bought some that seemed to fit. I found some leaf patterns for a border but the centre was causing me grief. After every storm I went to the park and picked up leaves, twigs, branches etc etc just looking for the right thing.... and then one day I found it... after a particularly big blow... traced around it onto my graph paper and there it was. I went off to show the design to Phillip with trepidation because if he didn't like this idea... I had none left and to my great delight and sigh of relief he loved it. So off I went home to think "How am I going to do this!!!!

Well I did it and a friend Heather Ridley gave me a clue with strip piecing backgrounds and the Janes talked about a system of applique where you mark the back of the fabric rather than the front and off we went.

So what you have is an Australian Tree Of Life surrounded by Gum Leaves and Gum Flowers.. The idea is that you are standing under the tree in an oasis as you look out towards the Australian Red Heart. You can't see it in the photo but there is a little brown cat sitting at the bottom looking into the scene so that it is as if we are looking into the scene.

I am so pleased with this and so is
Fr Phillip. When I gave it to him he was delighted and says he often goes into the chapel to look at it with delight.

The Frontal will displayed at a Spirituality In Art Exhibition at the Adelaide College of Divinity in February 2002 as part of the Festival of arts.