'Out The Rabbit Hole' by Toni Ann Ballenden

The imagery in Ballendens work is created from memories juxtaposed with her personal collection of icons and photographs. Ballendens subject matter has evolved with maturity and life experience; she feels a continual challenge to experiment with new techniques in her search to find a unique way of telling her story.

Using a process of deconstruction, old and new unresolved work is torn and cut up. Ballenden then finds the most engaging pieces of her drawings, paintings and etchings re-assembling them together with newly created images.
This process of collarging, cutting, tearing, sewing together, and re-constructing is a metaphor for the experience of her life. The completed works speak about slices of life reassembled.

The extraordinary tapestries of Ballendens life are multi layered and filled with metaphors and symbolism. The Ladders are about the difficult climb through life, sometimes we slip back on the rungs of the ladder only to begin the climb again. The Ladders reach between heaven and earth. The Rabbit and the Rocking Horse represents the universal inner child who is never quite healed. The image of the House speaks about the power and the secrets within the family. Ballenden cuts out shapes in the canvas and paper hinting at the missing parts of the emotional self.

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