Works woven from forests, fibres & communities

The beginning of Forest Ambassadors. Through a series of workshops in handmade papermaking and creative writing, and in collaboration with 18 children from Cromer Public Primary School and writer Zena Shapter, a poem and a scroll-like work containing their multiple messages were created — marking the birth of the Manual of Kindness. The endangered endemic Spotted Gum eucalyptus forest of Pittwater inspired the initiation of the forest-like installation — handmade papers and layered fibres rising into the first of what would become an ever-growing series of tree trunk-like structures.

The BigCi residency unfolded across two sessions. Session one was dedicated to connecting with Bilpin Public Primary School — developing a plan of action with the children and exploring the ancient Gardens of Stone National Park and Blue Mountains, a landscape marked by devastating deforestation and the legacy of the mining industry. This session culminated in its own exhibition.

Session two took place during the Covid pandemic — Gloria connected with the children and teachers by video link from a distance. Together they developed the children's artwork while Gloria continued developing the forest-like installation, this time weaving local fibres marked by the ferocious bushfires that had swept through the Blue Mountains. This session also culminated in a separate exhibition.

Across both sessions the Manual of Kindness continued to grow, with children contributing meaningful messages woven into the ever-expanding work. At the opening exhibition, the public was also invited to participate — adding their own messages to the Manual of Kindness and becoming part of the living installation.

Incredibly grateful to be one of five artists and five scientists invited to connect, explore and create — together or individually — in the land of Djerassi in the Santa Cruz Mountains. During this five-week residency Gloria explored the remarkable journey of the eucalyptus tree from Australia to California — and how its arrival over 150 years ago has shaped culture, landscape, and endemic habitat with serious ecological consequences.

In collaboration with Dr Teresa Marie Connors (multimedia artist, Canada), an audiovisual was created depicting this journey and its consequences, projected through the forest-like installation as the exhibition opened. The residency also included participation in public and academic forums, and culminated in published blogs and articles in Leonardo/ISAST's journal, published by MIT Press. The Manual of Kindness continued to grow here — through insightful conversations with a Californian community profoundly divided: those who want to eradicate the eucalyptus, and those who want to protect trees that have now been part of their culture and lives for over 150 years.

This chapter of Forest Ambassadors became an opportunity to bring together the voices gathered in California and Taiwan — combining their messages into another scroll-like page of the Manual of Kindness. It is remarkable and deeply touching to read these messages, now written in multiple languages: English, Spanish, Korean, Chinese — a connection across a diverse world, held together in a single work.

It was also a time to explore the magical land of Bundanon, located on the Shoalhaven River, Illaroo NSW — a place donated to the Australian people by beloved Australian painter Arthur Boyd — and to connect to Country, to listen, and to let the land speak into the work. This included the profound privilege of connecting with Elders from the Dharrawal people, the traditional custodians of the land. Bundanon organised a conference on biodiversity that brought together First Nations Elders, biologists, botanists, and scientists united in the protection of the region — a profound gathering of knowledge, culture, and care for the natural world that Gloria was privileged to participate in and learn from.

The Manual of Kindness scroll created at Bundanon — uniting the messages from Djerassi and Taiwan into a single work — was subsequently lent to the Bob Brown Foundation for use across multiple campaigns for the protection of forests. A testament to the power of art as a voice for advocacy, and to the living nature of a work that keeps travelling and giving.

WE marked the beginning of Gloria's deep exploration of sustainable papermaking. During her residency in Puebla and Oaxaca, Mexico (2012), she focused on learning the ancient papel amate technique used by the Aztecs and Mayans to create codices, as well as eco dye methods. Back at the University of Sydney during her MFA research (2013–2015), she explored sustainable printmaking alternatives using Kombucha SCOBY — a living material that became a medium for monoprint experimentation.

From these experiments, WE II was formed: large format prints created from Kombucha monoprint experimentations, further developed into collage during her residency at the Venice Printmaking Studio (2014). The totality of this research forms part of Gloria's MFA thesis at the University of Sydney, Sydney College of the Arts. WE II was subsequently selected for the International Biennial of Paper Fibre Art — Eco-Sublime 2017/2018 at the National Taiwan Craft Design Hall.

Web of Being was born from a confronting moment — a neighbour removing a large number of mature eucalyptus trees. The anger and frustration were invested entirely into the creation of this large-scale mixed media collage of paper and fabric, a work that took four years to complete.

The work is formed by multiple prints of the Spotted Gum eucalyptus forest, layered into a large collage that resolves into a circular form at its centre. When illuminated from behind, the centre glows a deep red — and through hundreds of pinholes, the silhouette of the Regent Honeyeater appears across the surface like shining stars. A work that holds darkness and light, anger and wonder, loss and beauty in a single suspended moment.

When exhibited with a large window behind it, the work transforms with the rhythm of the day. In daylight, sunlight pours through the circular centre — those inside can explore the multiple layers and intricate details of the collage in full warmth. At night, the interior light reverses the experience entirely — from outside, the work appears deep black, the Regent Honeyeater silhouettes shining through the pinholes like stars on a clear night. Two works in one — an invitation to return, to look again, to see differently.

It became a finalist for the Coal Loader Sustainability Award, and was selected for the International Biennial of Paper Fibre Art — Transfiguration 2021/2022 at the National Taiwan Craft Design Hall. Gloria intends to donate the work to a meaningful environmental cause — in support of the protection of the forests that inspired it.

"This work does not reflect anger or frustration — but rather an invitation for contemplation."

During her presentation at Homeward Bound — Project 2060 (Coal Loader Tunnel, 2021), a gentleman from the audience approached Gloria after she had spoken about the anger and frustration behind the work. His words stopped everything. That moment became pivotal — the realisation that art, in the hands of the audience, becomes something beyond its maker's intention. It was the beginning of Gloria's voice as an advocate for the natural world, and the seed from which Forest Ambassadors grew.

A deeply meaningful residency that connected Gloria with members of the Zapotec community — one of Mexico's oldest First Nations peoples — to learn from their approach to plant dyeing using local botanicals, and to explore their ancient traditions of papermaking. This was an immersive cultural exchange that went far beyond technique, opening a dialogue between art, ecology, and indigenous knowledge.

Closely studied was the Zapotec tradition of loom weaving — an art form passed down through generations, still alive and practised today. Watching this knowledge travel through hands, through time, through community was a profound experience that would resonate deeply in Gloria's later textile work and in the philosophy of Forest Ambassadors.

A particularly transformative moment came during a workshop with a master papermaker — where Gloria learned to move away from the traditional mould and frame. Rather than being constrained by its size, she discovered the freedom of creating large paper veils directly from any fibre, allowing the pulp to dry in open, expanded forms. This liberation from structure became fundamental to her practice — the beginning of working at a scale and with a material freedom that would later define the forest-like installations of Forest Ambassadors.

This residency is closely connected to Forest Ambassadors in its core methodology — connecting with First Nations communities, learning from ancient environmental techniques, and honouring the knowledge held within living cultural traditions. The research into papel amate, eco dye, and sustainable papermaking begun here became the foundation of Gloria's MFA thesis.

A challenging winter residency — the cold, sharp and unrelenting, demanded a particular kind of focus. Perhaps it was precisely this that gave the energy to concentrate the mind on large, ambitious projects that required great physical and creative effort. The end result was deeply rewarding.

Two significant large-format works were created. The first resolved the long-developing questions of WE II — consolidating years of research into Kombucha monoprinting and sustainable papermaking into one large collage installation, a work that continued to evolve on Gloria's return to the University of Sydney. The second was an abstract geometric woodcut series — a work that still lives in the studio today, waiting to be finalised.

The Child Within Us (2016) consists of four double-page structures that open outward like four arms, creating the form that holds the work itself. The base is a mirror — and in it, the image of a journey: children walking toward the sky on a clear moonlit night, and as they reach the moon they play on swings, walk around it holding hands — the scene repeating into the infinite. Created from Kombucha monoprints on Fabriano paper, the work is both intimate and boundless — a meditation on wonder, play, and the inner child that never disappears.

The work was a semifinalist for the Northern Beaches Artist Book Award and exhibited at the Manly Art Gallery and Museum.

An artist book transformed into a childhood memory. In the backyard of the family home, two clotheslines crossed the flat open space — and there, like a magic act, multiple chrysalises appeared. Little by little, slowly and quietly, a butterfly emerged, opening its wings to life. A long thread of paper begins inside the book and continues growing away from it — extending out into space, symbolising the journey through life: fragile, continuous, and full of transformation.

A site-specific work created for the entrance bridge of the Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, Waverton. Living Tapestry consisted of 100 metres of redwood intertwined around the bridge structure like a spider's web — evoking Indra's Net, the ancient Vedic metaphor of infinite interconnectedness, where every jewel reflects every other in an endless cosmic web. A work about our journey through life, and our deep connectivity to the universe.

The work was a finalist for the North Sydney Environmental Art Prize — recognised for its poetic engagement with place, material, and the natural world.

Underground Wonderland was an initiative created by North Sydney Arts and Culture, inviting 24 female artists — all previous award recipients — to create new works in the dramatic tunnel spaces of the Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability, Waverton. Gloria was honoured to be among those invited.

800 Guardians was a large-scale installation of 800+ totem-like structures, each containing bird, fish and rabbit bones and bird nests — standing like soldiers, guardians of the natural world, filling the tunnels with a quiet and powerful presence.

Homeward Bound was a major collaborative curatorial initiative by Arts & Culture North Sydney — part of Project 2060 — celebrating creative activity across the North Sydney area. The project responded to the profound changes brought by the pandemic, exploring how the notion of home had shifted as the boundaries between work, home, and play blurred.

Gloria was invited to show Web of Being in Homely Offerings — an exhibition held in the Coal Loader Tunnel, Waverton, where 43 artists and 6 groups transformed the underground chambers into a series of interactive and immersive spaces. ▶ Watch the exhibition video

Specially designed for the Graduate School Gallery at Sydney College of the Arts, Global Veins was a large-scale installation consisting of 780 red wool crocheted threads intertwining feathers, cicada shells, bones, bird nests, dry flowers, leaves, small tree branches, seeds and roots — suspended and installed throughout the open gallery space.

Viewers were invited to walk through this diverse cosmos — to observe in detail the intricate forms of bones, the fragility of feathers and cicada shells, and the ever-changing, ephemeral quality of leaf matter. A meditation on nature's interconnected systems, on fragility and permanence, on the beauty held within what is often overlooked. The red thread — vivid, continuous, relentless — bound all things together.

In the wake of her mother's passing, Gloria Florez sought solace in creating Ghosts of the Gum Trees. In silence, and through contemplation of nature's ever-evolving beauty, this vestment slowly emerged. Over the course of a year, thread by thread, the silhouettes of the endangered Regent Honeyeater, Swift Parrot, Greater Glider, Platypus and Echidna took shape — fragile lives woven into a diminishing habitat, erased tree by tree.

The Regent Honeyeater is losing its song — its call fading as its habitat disappears, its brilliant yellow and black plumage a colour that may soon exist only in memory. The Swift Parrot carries a living palette of greens, reds and blues — vibrant colours vanishing with every tree that falls. These are not abstract losses. They are colours, sounds, and presences being quietly erased from the world.

As the work evolved, so too did its purpose. Wearing it during the Bob Brown Foundation's 2026 March for Forests in Sydney was transformative — uniting art, advocacy and human kindness. The figure wearing the vestment becomes part of the landscape, anonymous and ghostly, carrying the endangered species through the living world. Through this work, Gloria seeks to honour what has been lost and inspire urgent action to protect what remains at risk.

The work functions both as a wearable vestment — worn in public space as an act of advocacy — and as a textile installation in gallery contexts, where its full scale, embroidered habitats and extraordinary detail can be contemplated in stillness.

"It takes a tsunami to open hearts to free Mother Earth from mankind's subjugation."

During a creative field study at the Montreal Goldfields as part of the Four Winds Bermagui Project, while walking along the remains of a gold mine from the gold rush period, Gloria looked through metal bars blocking access to one of its dark tunnels. A small and vibrant pink orchid — Dipodium punctatum — caught her attention. As she raised her camera, the person guiding the group shone her torch into the tunnel at precisely the same moment — a pure coincidence that illuminated the orchid in the darkness. The image that emerged shows nature's resilience and desire to survive despite humankind's insatiable march to cut down, open up, dig up, seal up and modify millions of years of the barely touched natural world.

Madre Tierra is a 2-minute looped video — a utopian journey into what can happen if we reconsider our actions. ▶ Watch Madre Tierra

Part of the Four Winds Fresh Salt Bermagui Project — a collaborative initiative bringing together Yuin people, scientists, historians, authors and artists to celebrate eight estuaries between the sacred mountains of Gulaga and Mumbulla on the NSW south coast. A great honour was to be taken by a Yuin Elder to their sacred place: Mount Gulaga, the place of birth and creation. Faces painted, invited into silence — to open hearts, to listen, to contemplate the grandeur of the ancient geological rocks. As the Elder asked the ancestors for permission to enter the sacred land, Gloria felt profoundly moved and humbled. This encounter resonates through everything that followed in her practice.

An embroidered textile work in development — the silhouettes of five endangered Australian species woven thread by thread into a diminishing habitat: the Regent Honeyeater, the Swift Parrot, the Greater Glider, the Platypus and the Echidna. Worn during the Bob Brown Foundation March for Forests in Sydney — a powerful experience that united art, advocacy and human kindness.

The work functions both as a wearable vestment in public space and as a textile installation in gallery contexts.

Begun during the Venice Printmaking Studio residency in 2014, this large-format abstract geometric woodcut series has lived in the studio ever since — waiting for the right moment to be finalised. That moment is approaching. A body of work that has been quietly maturing for over a decade, carrying with it the energy of a challenging winter in Venice and the focus it demanded.

Forest Ambassadors continues to grow. Gloria's aspiration is to take the project to new forests and communities abroad — to share, learn, and continue evolving a vision of sustainability and profound respect for the natural world as a way of living.

Each new chapter will add to the ever-growing installation, the Manual of Kindness, and the collective voice of the project. Gloria is open to residency invitations, institutional partnerships, community collaborations, and exhibition opportunities that align with the values of Forest Ambassadors.