Bronwyn Cant

Renmark, South Australia

I come from a long line of story tellers.   When my family get together, we tell stories, exaggerate and sometimes, laugh until we hurt.  My mother says we treat the truth with elasticity.

My mother, a trained nurse, taught me to cook, sew, knit and garden, and my father, an art teacher, showed me that I could create.  I’ve been a financial adviser for the last 30 years and worked in our family citrus-growing business, which never left much time for other things.  I really didn’t get to the creative part until I retired.

I learned to sew on a Singer Treadle, taught by my mother, who made all the clothes for me and my two younger sisters. Twice a year, summer and winter, one pattern, 3 sizes, 3 different colourways of a floral pattern fabric.  As the eldest and tallest, I only ever wore one version; my youngest sister got to wear all three.

I make textile art, which I call quilts.  I am not a good technical sewer because I have no patience and do not care about precision.   I discovered that fabric could be used like paint if you ignored all the normal quilty rules; and embarked on an exploration of all kinds of things that could be sewn, as I tried to work out how to tell a story with a quilt, and manifest some of the ideas that constantly bubble inside my head.

Looking back, I can see the grounding was always there; to make do and mend, to recycle, reuse, repurpose, reinvent, redirect, and reallocate.  But mostly to value and give expression to our creativity and sense of style.

IG: @cactusbron