Human Marks

"A stitch is a very credible mark." - Dorothy Caldwell

Free-hand stitched kantha sampler
Embroidery floss on
two layers of black cotton
4 x 7 inches

I stitched this in a two-day class called Human Marks taught by Dorothy Caldwell, offered through the Kingston Fibre Artists' Guild. The course was designed to run for five days so the two-day class was a somewhat condensed version. Nevertheless, I had the impression of things slowing way down. We worked with our fingers and ink, pens, brushes, candle smoke, wax, hammer and nail, and needle and thread to make marks of one sort and another, repeating them, overlapping them, changing speed and direction and so on.

It seems to me that most of what I produced, expressed by way of many discrete marks, suggested not so much a series of images, but something unintended or unconscious, the suggestion of something, perhaps something forgotten. An interesting couple of days, and a nice trip away from home.

If you find yourself in that neck-of-the-woods be sure to check out the Kingston Fibre Artists exhibit, Inspiration and Exploration currently at the Kingston Public Library, 130 Johnson Street, Feb 28 - March 30.

Radical Lace and Subversive Crochet

"I wanted to turn an oversize, macho, gas-guzzling vehicle into a technological ghost by shrouding it in a white, fuzzy cover reminiscent of women's hard work from another time, another place." - Jerilea Zempel

Fibre artist Jerilea Zempel, known for public art projects that take a humourous and for some, a provocative approach to subjects like violence, war and the environment, was featured on the comedy news show, the Colbert Report last week, in a skit called America’s Fragile Borders. Her art, part social satire, part political activism, challenges viewers to reflect on the meaning of traditional historical monuments, as well as our use of everything from guns to gas-guzzlers. Examples include a piece installed outside a Polish military museum in 1995 called Guns and Rosettes in which she shrouded a Soviet tank with what appears to be an enormous pink doily. The Colbert Report skit, a spoof on American Homeland Security, chronicles Zempel’s experience this past summer. Upon returning home to the U.S. from Canada, she was detained by U.S. customs agents at the border after drawings in her artist sketchbook, showing an SUV adorned in a lacy white coverlet (a piece she now calls Homeland Security Blanket) caused the customs agent to suspect her of being an industrial spy. In October, the Plattsburgh, New York newspaper, The Press Republican reported the details in this article, Keene artist had a hard time getting back into the U.S.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Nailed 'Em - Radical Knitting
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Red Onions

"Red Onions"
Commercial and hand dyed cottons
Raw edge applique, hand and machine quilted, hand tied
11 x 11"
2008

This piece is going out to Susie Monday of El Cielo Studio in partial fulfillment of my participation in the Pay it Forward Exchange. Another small piece that I did this year, called Hopscotch, will go out to Amy Moak of All My Stuff, who also signed up to receive something handmade from me, in return for her participation in the challenge. Thank you Susie and Amy for your interest.

And while I'm at it, I thought I'd mention the annual Shadowbox exhibit, which is currently on at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. Browse the textile art gems currently on display at the museum's website. The exhibit is a fundraiser and all works are for sale by bidding. Bid in person at the show or if you have the cash, attend the Shadowbox Auction and Cocktail Party. I especially like this one entitled Cutting Edge by Kate Hyde.

Quilting as a metaphor

"[In] my 'Secret Garden' series [link]...I take as a starting point, old memories of gardens of my childhood with their combination of water paths and foliage. This also becomes a metaphor for deeply embedded old memories that rise unbidden in our consciousness; sometimes clear and structured, sometimes vague and formless. Quilt-making with its multiple layers seems an ideal medium for exploring these ideas." - Rosalie Dace

I have an opportunity to take a one week class with Rosalie Dace who is teaching at Quilting by the Lake this year. I have looked at her work on line [link][link] and read about her on a handful of websites and blogs. Her quilts are absolutely sumptuous and appeal to me directly. As well, she appears to be a process person; no patterns or kits provided. On her website she states that her interest is in helping students to bring out what is personal to them in their work, and to encourage them to stretch beyond what they think is possible for them. Great! I am hesitating to proceed though, because I attended a class at the same conference last year and had a very mixed experience, largely because the class I took was poorly organized and, I thought, did not deliver what had been advertised. I would hate to set aside this kind of time and financial resource again for a repeat experience. However, all things in life present certain risk, along with the concomitant possibility of benefit or great gain. So, I'll ponder on it for a few more days and think about the benefits that this experience has to offer. It has long been personal challenge for me to let go of preconceived expectations about how things should or shouldn't be, a challenge which requires a heightened trust in life and in people, and a willingness to allow things to unfold as they may.

Wrap, Stitch & Burn

If you're in Toronto in May, textile artists Nieves Carrasco and Valerie Knapp will exhibit at the *new* gallery in Toronto. "A monochromatic palette captures the unique qualities of resist-dyed Japanese paper" says Nieves Carrasco about her work.

Visible time

Hand stitching is slow. It's one stitch at a time. It's thoughtful. It's a repeated caress. It’s visible time. - Judith Martin

I have done some hand-quilting on each of the quilts that I have made since I picked up quilting again in 2006. While I have challenged myself to become a better free-motion machine quilter I am also in love with the soft, ephemeral quality of hand quilting and am determined to do more of it.

I have been reading Judy Martin's blog for some time now and it's one of my favourite places to visit. Rich with images, her posts are usually brief but potent. A Canadian artist living on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada, Judy writes, among other things, about being an artist, teacher, mother and daughter. Two summers ago, I met a young woman who was working in an art gallery in Haliburton, Ontario. We got talking about the Textile Surface Design Certificate offered at the Haliburton School of the Arts, where Judy Martin has taught. The woman, whose name escapes me, told me that if I ever get the opportunity to study with Judy, to jump. Hopefully, someday I will.

Pay it Forward

Today is my lucky day. Lisa Call offered to send a piece of textile art to the first three people who commented on her Pay it Forward post and I am lucky number two, yes! Thanks Lisa. Here's the deal, in return I am joining the pay it forward exchange as follows:

I will send a handmade gift (most probably a piece of textile art) to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

When you leave your comment, please also do one of two things: leave your post address or e-mail it to me.

And now, we're off to my eldest daughter's first piano recital where I will be accompanying her for two of her pieces, at the request of her piano teacher. Wish me a good go because I'm just a teensy-tiny-bit-nervous.

Promoting an understanding of human identity through textiles

While browsing the Textile Museum of Canada's website I discovered two additional sites related to the museum that I found interesting. The first is the Textile Museum of Canada's Online Collection. What's nice about this database is that it has thousands of items and each includes a detailed description of the object as well as a very high resolution photograph. When you zoom in on the image the detail you get with some of the objects is amazing. Try keywords like bead or basket, to get an idea. They also have a nice Advanced Search interface. One difficulty that I had with this databases is that there is no obvious way to return to the main information page. The best way is to navigate is with carefully chosen keywords. Try a country name, such as Peru or China, or a keyword related to textiles like indigo, quilt or tapestry.

The second site, located on the same server, is called Canadian Tapestry: The Fabric of Cultural Diversity. This site has entries grouped into five categories: places, origins, stories, bridges, workings, and functions as a front end to the Textile Museum's online collection since it links to similar objects in the bigger collection. It has extensive information about each object, and seems geared to senior elementary or middle school students in its language and organization. At the bottom of each entry page are some activities related to making textiles that also seem to be geared to this age group. I enjoyed playing "Make a mola" for a little while.

Textile Museum of Canada

Last week we took a four day trip to Toronto and found a real treasure when we visited the Textile Museum of Canada. There is a permanent hands on multi-media exhibit there called Fibrespace, complete with several working looms including a treadle loom that you can weave on. My daughters loved this. We also saw a fantastic exhibit called The Blues which tells the ancient and contemporary story of the colour blue (check out this video review by Peter Goddard, visual arts columnist for the Toronto Star). Also, showing as part of this exhibit is a beautiful new documentary called Indigo, A world of blue shot on an indigo farm in southern India produced by Maiwa Productions. The exhibit is on until March 2008 and well worth the visit.

Also on exhibit was Shadowbox 2007, a silent auction and fund raiser for the museum in which more than 150 original fibre art pieces were displayed for sale. Each one was approximately eight inches square. What really struck me about this show was the variety of the media used in the works as well as the uniqueness of each piece. I fell in love with a shadow box by Susan Strachan Johnson, who kindly gave me permission to post a photo of it here. She describes the process she used to create the piece this way, "The ground is a computer print on muslin of a colour sketch from a photograph. It is then appliquéd with distressed, hand-dyed fabrics, and hand embroidered." While browsing Susan's webpages I noticed that she does something interesting in her studio, located near Toronto, called Play for a Day. If you're in the area, check her out.

The Life Drawing Class

by Susan Strachan Johnson
Fibre