In the Hedgerow

I was invited to make work for a group exhibition organised by the Inspired By.. Gallery which is based at the North York Moors National Park centre. It’s a stunning location. They organised a day of visiting farms to see the work that had been done to reinstate and manage hedgerows, led not just by the Gallery staff but also with land managers and ecologists so it was a wonderful chance to ask questions and learn such a lot about the importance of hedgerows. I did a lot of listening, and a bit of drawing on the spot. I then spent time reading and researching, reading poetry and prose. One particular piece of information really struck me, which was the huge range of insects and lepidoptera in particular which hedgerows support. Sometimes a small thing is enough to set off a whole chain of inspiration and that is what happened with the butterfly pieces I went on to make. I incorporated the latin names of the butterflies and moths that rely on hawthorn hedges. I wanted to capture that feeling of disturbing clouds of small moths when you are walking by a hedge. A large book sculpture was inspired simply by a glimpse deep into a hedgerow … into the shadowy heart of it, where the branches are more bare, where the birds can shelter and build their nests.