What a wonderful prompt to generate ideas about the times we live in and so many options to go back in time. Initially, I was locked in the 1960’s, Dylan and Baez echoing in my memory.  Industrialisation and its’ representation by Steam Punk then jumped to the fore.  Finally, my thoughts and emotions returned to the present day and the storm occurring around the world as politics of chaos seems to blow through our lives.

Australia had a federal election in early May and rejected the more right leaning conservative party and returned the more centre-left Labour party to power in a landslide.  It is going to take many years and several election cycles for a change in power to occur.  We have rejected perceived chaos in our governance here but will of course be impacted by decisions made by the other citizens of the world.  Globalisation ensures that we are all impacted by what happens elsewhere.

My final choice for the prompt was to represent a hot air balloon, peacefully floating at altitude, above a clouded lower sky below.  I have called it Suspended, recognising that the world is balanced on an edge at present.

The threads of thoughts that contributed to this representation of the Winds of Change, in no order, are:

• A successful flight in a hot air balloon is very dependent upon suitable winds.  The balloon rides the different layers of wind with the burner decreasing the weight of the air within the balloon to create lift.
• A change in the wind, or winds that are too strong, can cause a flight to be cancelled because it is too dangerous for the people involved, either through risks in navigation or destination (and crashing)!
• The first hot air balloons were launched aloft in the 1780’s.  They were early forms of flight and were used for travel, in atmospheric study, meteorology and scientific experiments and even had military uses during the French Revolution and American Civil wars for aerial reconnaissance.
• The balloon represents the movement (or change) from pre-flight to Industrial Revolution to redundancy due to technology.
• Yet the balloon has retained a place as an unmanned atmospheric and meteorological tool and valuable resource, though it appears some people view them as alien spacecraft, so I have tried to introduce an element of alienization into my balloon. (I made that word up, so complain to the universe if there is a problem).
• The image is of a peaceful and quiet balloon suspended at altitude, floating quietly above all the noise that we generate down here.  I wonder, if we screw it up, whether all the balloons can just float away?

Completed:        May 2025

Dimensions:      1020mm H X 465mm W

Materials:          Commercial printed cottons; 12wt and 28wt white threads.

Techniques:       Iron-on applique.