Tracy Boness - Love Tokens and Bad Pennies

Tracy Boness at #unsettledgallery No.9

Does love endure forever? Does a bad penny always turn up? During this Valentine month the artists and writers from CollectConnect explore this flip-sided theme with an exhibition of 32 miniature sculptures. These objects are placed in public places (#unsettledgallery), helping us to remember those who we hold dear - or cast off those who we would rather forget. Every day throughout February we will be featuring one of these tokens/pennies on this website. A writer will also use the art as inspiration to create something new and fresh.

Artist - Tracy Boness / Words -  Natalie Low

Golden feathers about her face

With imperfection none,

The day I met my one true love,

The day my soul passed on.

A doubly afflicted soul,

My body wracked with fever,

My heart's insides wracked with desire

For that sweet maid forever.

One feather fell from her soft hair,

My hand around it curled.

“Leave it with him”, my Dear one said,

“He's not long for this world.”

I died that night, my Love spake true,

But Heav’n I did trust

For now I knew that angels lived

And walked on earth with us.

The darkest part of me did hope

I passed my sickness on

Into my angel so that she

Would join me here anon.

But when the Lord bade me come near

And asked me what I wished,

It was that my sweet Love would have

A full life accomplished.

And then he asked me what it was

That I was clutching there?

The golden feather, pure and clean,

That late had touched her hair.

My Lord he knows the worth of love

And is a master kind.

He gives me leave to visit earth

And see her time to time.

I choose to sit in Autumn's trees

To shake them from above

And watch the golden feather'd leaves

Cascade around my love.

Tracy Boness

You can see Tracy Boness' artwork on an old tree beside the River Crane at #unsettledgallery No.9. If you can find it then you can take it home, or perhaps you will leave it for someone else to discover. The River Crane runs through the slim woodland and pasture area of Crane Park in Twickenham. It is managed to encourage wildlife, Marsh Frogs and the scarce water vole breed on the banks of the river. You can also find important industrial archaeology with relics from the Hounslow Gunpowder Works (1760s) at the western end of the park.

#unsettledgallery No.9

Tracy Boness (b. Canningtown, East London) studied for a BTEC National Diploma in Art & Design at East Ham Community College then a BA Hons Degree Fine Art at West Surrey Institute of Art & Design. She consistently exhibits her work, undertaking commissions and taking part in community based workshops. Painting and drawing are essential to her work practice. Recent black and white drawings take inspiration from 18th Century engravings and botanical drawings of the era. Boness also likes to experiment with new materials, sometimes sewing and layering surfaces to create tactile pieces of work.

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/craftylittlehouse100/

Natalie Low enjoys putting words on paper and believes that everyone has a book of some sort inside them. She has published two chapbooks, Dementia (2015) and School Run (2017). She also appears in this exhibition as an artist/maker.

Tracy Boness at #unsettledgallery No.9

Don't forget to submit to our next exhibition. The Art of Caring is accepting submission until the 7th April 2019. More HERE.