A Woman's Connection by Mandy Draper
Fashion
A Woman's Connection by Mandy Draper
TEAGAN KUM SING
april 24, 2023
Our latest range from Mandy Draper:
A Woman’s Connection
Mandy describes the piece as “a representation of the bond between mothers, carers, parents, and the connection that they have with children”. Perfect for Mother’s Day or for the mother figures in your life, the collection celebrates the power of feminine love, strength and wisdom.
Yarn commissioned this design from Mandy for Mother’s Day, and she wanted to capture the complexity and love within the parent/caregiver and child relationship, and how this extends to the community as a whole. Her and her daughter Abigail came into the studio to speak about her work and model a few of her pieces. Abigail had a great time, as you can see above!
Available across our full range, A Woman’s Connection features a design from proud Darug artist Mandy Draper. Mandy has lived on Gubbi Gubbi country for over 25 years in the Sunshine Coast, where she raises her two beautiful children. Mandy’s business Deadly Dot Pots has been her passion project to explore and expand her painting skills, which she credits as being incredibly beneficial to her mental health and well-being.
"This artwork represents strong resilient women... and the children that they love and care for"
About the Design
Mandy’s technical skill and use of symbols imbues the design with endless storytelling and details. She describes her process of creating the design digitally as extremely satisfying, especially the ability to zoom in and magnify it so that she can work in the tiniest intricacies. “I always like to work through [the piece] from a zoomed in space,” she says. “You can see the very small lines that have been added in, the symbols and fine dot painting details.”
Her process allows her to shape the design into a piece of art with layers of interpretation. “I start with a colour background first. And then it's adding in, you know, the big symbols and then working my way from there. So adding in all the small little dots that you can see, and the finer lines. Just going through and working them all together, so that it blends.”
It’s a balancing act, she says, “I’m also keeping in mind the story I'm adding in. You want to make sure that you’re keeping the important symbols, and making sure that you can still see them and they’re not being lost in particular colours. Just making sure that they really stand out.”
At this point Mandy says she can get lost in the small details, endlessly tweaking to add more and more layers of meaning. “I like to really get in there,” she admits with a giggle. “It’s the fine details I love. But then eventually it just kind of comes together. And zooming it out at the end, to see such a beautiful piece come through… It's just really, really cool.”
Artwork Story
All the detailed work Mandy adds in tells as story. As she explains in her artwork description, this piece “represents strong resilient women as Mothers, Grandmothers, Aunties, Carers and the connection that is shared to the children that they love and care for. The lines and waves represent the flowing love towards one another, the continuous journey that a woman experiences for their children.”
The piece features soft, warm colours to give a feminine and loving energy. And Mandy quotes “the continuous love and strength I have for my two children” as her inspiration. She also reflects that “there are so many inspiring women around me, in my life. I can't name just one particular one, I have so many!”
The design is so powerful because it manages to capture the broader relationships between children and their community. It also respects the interconnected nature of families, and the support and love a child can receive from a variety of maternal figures.
"The inspiration for this painting is the continuous love and strength I have for my two children"
"Journey lines represent the ups and downs of the relationship"
Symbolism
To communicate in the piece, Mandy works in symbols like large gathering circles with women and children around them, and journey lines flowing between them.
“There's a lot of gathering circles,” she explains, “they represent gathering places for women and mothers, carers, aunts, and grandmothers, and then their children.”
Around them are the semi-circular woman symbols and the smaller symbols for children. Connecting everything are lines of energy, history, and connection. “the flowing lines that are throughout this image are journey lines," Mandy says. "Journey lines represent the ups and downs of the relationship, and the endless love of connection between mother, children, grandmothers, aunties, caregivers.”
Yarn x Mandy Draper:
A Woman’s Connection
Mandy’s rich and detailed design is now available on polos, tees, scarves and more. Explore her creations below and support Mandy’s work. Ideal for showing your love and appreciation for the maternal figures in your life.
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