Handle With Care - Lea-Anne Sheather

Lea-Anne Sheather explores the wonder within nature and the unguarded, transcendent moments she has with the natural world.

Sheather’s current practice involves creating 2D and 3D textile and collaged art. These works include highly detailed fabrications that depict an imaginary construct called Island of Woo. These small-scale constructions are a direct response to the abundance of life she witnesses every day when she regularly explores the beach and bush reserves near her home. She pays close attention to details, which she describes as being like mini landscapes. She describes how even the smallest of space can teem with exuberant layers of life. Island of Woo is a visual depiction for her imagining of lively, interactive connectivity on Earth.

Larger works continue to explore our interconnectedness and interdependency with all life forms. They include freeform embroideries and collages. They depict the lines, patterns, and wave-like layers that she saw in dreams and visions which reveal what interconnections might look like. Some of the works are created on recycled woolen blankets and others are created on canvases with recycled paper.
Sheather has won and been a finalist in several art awards within Aotearoa New Zealand, including the Miles Art Award 2014 (Supreme winner), the Parkin Art Award 2022 (Highly Commended), the Molly Morpeth Canaday Art Award 2019 (Highly Commended winner) as well as a finalist in the Walker and Hall Waiheke Art Award, and Rotorua Museum Art Award.
Sheather completed a Master of Fine Arts at Whitecliffe College of Arts and Design, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland in 2014.

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