30 September, 2013

This poster is a homage to Fonnie, who was the sister of my great uncle.

Fonnie and her Aunt used to run the Town & Country Bookshop in St George Terrace, Perth for many years. After retirement she took up screenprinting, and all I can say she was fantastic. I didn’t realise for many years that the various towels, teatowels and bags floating around the WA side of our family all came from a single source. It was her marvellous swan design that I used for the Swans Premiership poster last year.

Here’s Fonnie’s teatowel swan:

And here’s the final print. All I did was change the colours – you don’t mess with a design that beautiful:

This penguin handtowel was a favourite of mine as a child:

And this teatowel was recently given to me by Aunty Alison. She had wisely never used it because it was too lovely:

 I just love this image. So simple, so elegant, and so beautifully printed. Just look at those grasshopper legs

There’s also more abstract and wildflower designs but sadly, there’s no other AFL related animals she printed (though that penguin looks like it could barrack for Geelong).

So, this is a poster that I started with the thought of “What might Fonnie have done?” and tried to design the most elegant possible Hawk I could. The overlapping though in my head was of the incredible power of Art Deco hood ornaments (Lalique version below) and I tried to work in some of that sense of movement in the wing tips, without it becoming too “deco”

The final touch, with the repeated overlapping hawks is all me rather than Fonnie. She would never have let the outlines get that tangled (though it’s an effect I love). Mind you, she wouldn’t have tried to pop eleven hawks in a piece either:

Afterthought:

In an odd sporting connection, I remember being at a dinner at Fonnie’s house as a teenager, when everyone suddenly retired to the lounge room and the tv was turned on. It was the Bodyline miniseries (with Hugo Weaving and Gary Sweet). It was pre-VCRs being common, and no-one was going to miss a minute of it.