The beautiful fabric of motherhood
Posted on
Tarquin Moon lost her mother Dana last year.
Last week she travelled from Queensland to Canberra with her nine-year-old daughter Aveda to pay homage to a part of her mother that she only grew to understand properly once she became a mum herself.
And that is, Dana was an artist to her very core, but she often sacrificed her creativity to the endless juggle of motherhood.
Dana’s work was admired, commissioned, and still holds the attention of passers-by where it is on display – namely the children’s reading room wall of the Erindale Library where a striking textile scene has hung since it was commissioned by the Department of Territories and Local Government (prior to Self Government) in 1984.
Tarquin and her daughter Aveda at her mother’s giant collage in Erindale Library
Tarquin has vague memories of friends and family recalling how passionately her mother worked on this enormous piece while she was a baby, but Tarquin was only able to appreciate it fully this week when she looked at it for the first time as an adult.
It was an emotional reunion with her mum, whose very essence is infused in the fabric and threads of the piece.
“She never called herself an artist, which I feel was a mistake. Her creativity was worthy of honoring,” says Tarquin, who nursed her mother through illness in her home for the last two years of her life.
While living in Canberra with her husband (a physicist with the Australian National University) and raising their young family, Dana worked as a window dresser for Youngs in Civic and Myer in Belconnen mall, creating large-scale scene-scapes of the latest fashions and accessories to draw the eyes of passers-by.
She created obsessively – thousand-piece log cabin quilts featuring panels of childhood and adult clothing to preserve memories. She would use fabric, stitches and pins to tell stories and used material in ways that far transcended clothing. Her work even caught the attention of sewing machine company Husqvarna in Switzerland after a photographic display of her work was displayed at Sew Simply in Kingston.
And even if she wasn’t making much money, Dana was always making art.
“My mother just saw the world differently, she noticed everything. My mum’s gift was that her eyes were always open and she taught me to open mine.”
Textile artist Dana Moon
As she sorted through her mother’s possessions following her death, Tarquin found diary entries which gave her further insights into how much her mother loved thinking and feeling in the visual realm.
“She spoke intimately about the creative challenges she faced. She was a complicated woman.”
Tarquin also remembered the times her mother relinquished the constraints of keeping the household running “letting the dishes pile high while she had a quilt on the go”.
As Tarquin examined every centimetre of the fabric collage at the Erindale Library, she remembered many things about her mum.
“She always had a soft spot for weeds, where other people would just focus on the flowers. Mum loved the ordinary things in life and she loved clover flowers. Most people think they are white flowers but mum always told me they had a lot of colour and you can see the pinks that mum has sewn and painted into this one.”
On top of sewing, Dana was an accomplished screen printer who often printed her own fabrics to be incorporated into artistic works and her window dressing.
When she was interviewed about her Erindale collage, which incorporates her design, sewing and screenprinting skills, by magazine Craft Australia in 1986, Dana outlined some of the techniques she used to make the work tactile and robust for “little figures” including a large dandelion with a fluffy centre lurking beneath the stiffer yellow petals.
Each petal is hand-stitched and still bright after 40 years.
She also loved birds (a love she shared with Tarquin who now works in the field of bird conservation) and featured a budgerigar with frayed poplin for feathers – still as bright and bold as the day it was hung.
According to the office of Arts and Creative Industries, Michael Pettersson “The panel continues to be a prominent feature in the children’s area of the library, admired and enjoyed by visitors of all ages. Its enduring presence reflects the library’s long-standing role as a cultural and educational hub, and the lasting impact of (Dana Moon’s) artistic contribution to public space”.
The Craft Australia magazine article on the work
The artwork is not heritage listed; however, it was captured in ArtsACT audit of artwork completed in 2020.
Tarquin remains sad that her mother never really considered herself an artist as she was not able to forge a “lucrative” career in the creative field. She always prioritised herself to raising Tarquin and her brother rather than chasing that dream.
But Tarquin is in no doubt that she had a magical talent, and the Erindale Library collage is testament to that.
