Description

I’ve become captured by Maori provers & stories of late. Maori is beautiful to hear spoken. I'm sorry to say I don’t speak it (yet) but I hope to in this lifetime. The stories and proverbs within Maori culture are rich with imagery, allegory, and metaphor. Recently I came across the creation story of Rangi, Papa & Tanemahuta. Tanemahuta... (God / father of the forest, trees & animals... ) is the offspring of Rangi (father sky) and Papa (mother earth). Tane who grew up and separated Rangi from Papa who wrestle in longing for each other to this day.

I created Tane (represented by the tree) stretching / holding apart the top and bottom of the blanket. The leaves were made from a hand tea dyed blanket, and my fantail (bird) was ready… but I knew the blanket was lacking the emotional dynamic… the distress / wrestling of Rangi and Papa who are being held apart…

As I was talking about my latest project, and the story, with friends, one of them said to me, Rangi cried tears for Papa… his tears, are the rain. The rain drops fell into place… quite literally. As I cut each rain drop out and tossed them beside me onto the blanket, the random way in which they fell felt so appropriate and so Rangi’s tears were formed… and the blanket’s title born.

I found the exquisit brown wool blanket used for the tree, in an army surplus store. I tea dyed a wool cream blanket which I got given from a friend of my 80+ Nana's "it's been in my cupboard for years".... which was used to create the leaf and fantail. And the base cream blanket was rescued from a thrift store.

The photos don't come close to capturing the exquisit textures and feel of this large blanket (170cm x 227cm).