My love of patterns

(Working design for Middle Earth digital print by Ali Davies)

Patterns fascinate me and I can’t help myself from creating them. It’s a therapeutic form of making chaos into order. It's a way of enhancing an experience by using repetition. It also illustrates infinity, giving clues to an underlying order. To me this underlying order represents equality. A motif, in repetition, becomes equal to each other.

By definition a pattern is an object, motif or symbol all over the canvas, be it in a painting or a surface such as a wall, textile or floor. Whatever the medium it can be a work of art.

Elements of unity, proportion, colour, size, and number are worked and reworked in order to relate well together. Patterns can emphasize one idea through the use of multiple images of the same thing. At the same time, they can create drama and friction by relating two or more ideas next to each other.

Patterns grab our attention and can be subtle or very obvious. Patterns are satisfying to me in either way they are presented as they allow my own imagination to create a new story or a new experience.

My Patterns of New Zealand range is simply a conversation with the nature of New Zealand, the flora and fauna of Aotearoa. I follow two ideas when creating the patterns, I do this so that all the different designs work together. The two themes are ‘unity’ and ‘be the hero’. Unity allows for an equal repetition of a motif and symbolically represents the fundamental equality we have with each other. The 'be the hero' theme shines a light on what is unique about a particular experience or object of nature.

Nature itself is the best author of patterns and my work is merely a vehicle for us to share this phenomenon with others and enjoy it in our own homes.