Women of Fibre, at the Whyte - part 3

These are the pieces I have in the gallery:

GUIDE ME THROUGH THE DARK UNKNOWN 5
16" x 24"
Cotton - silk screening, discharge dying, hand embroidery, free machine embroidery.

Artist Statement: The charred remains of pine trees that are visible throughout the Rocky Mountains are signs of man's attempt to control the spread of the destruction caused by the Mountain Pine Beetle. Cross-sections of the growth rings of these burnt remains echo the shapes of the original scribbling of maps that the early explorers used to navigate the Rockies. With no roads, natives travelled along animal trails, and when the white man arrived, their native guides jotted jagged lines onto paper to direct them.

Description of archives: Early map drawn by natives to guide Mary Schaffer to Morraine Lake.

[The four other pieces in this series can be found in the gallery shop.]

MARY'S MOCCASIN
11" x 9" x 2"
Mixed animal hides, paper, waxed linen - bookbinding, hand painted papers.

Artist statement: As a response piece to a photo of Mary Schaffer, my eye was drawn to the lettering in the top right corner of the tent. Writing on the tent leads me to writing of a diary, and further research showed that Mary kept diligent accounts of her days on the trail. As a calligrapher and book artist, I am always drawn to the written word and an obvious extension of this was to recreate Mary's diary - with weathered and worn pages, marked with coffee stains and leaf impressions. Bound in a leather cover (echoing her well-worn buckskin jacket) and contained in a leather moccasin (the shoe being one of society's constraints that she was glad to throw off), this package portrays an upper-class Philadelphian grand dame in the Canadian wilds at the turn of the 19th century.

Description of archives: Mary Schaffer's buckskin jacket.
[located on the floor, under the table]

PRESERVED IMPRESSIONS 4
16" x 20"
Cotton - rust dyeing and silk screening.

Artist statement: The fossils contained in the Burgess Shale, which show the incredible array of life in the early Cambrian period, have amazed the world with their detail and diversity since their discovery in 1909. Concealed in compacted mud, muscles, gills and other soft body parts are revealed along with bones, teeth and shell, exposing the mysteries of the beginning of the Cambrian era. This piece attempts to convey the richness of the layers of live found there.

Description of archives: CD Walcott diaries and field notebook (1909 - 1923)

[The three other pieces in this series can be found in the gallery shop.]

Actual fossils from the Burgess Shale site upon Mount Stephen above Field, BC.

This exhibition is up until January 29, 2012. I encourage you to get to the mountains and take in some art!

Women of Fibre, at the Whyte - part 2

Photos of the six Articulation artists, along with their artist statements...

And here we all are, dressed in our artist black with identifying scarves, for the reception that evening.

Left to right: Vickie Newington, Ingrid Lincoln, Wendy Klotz, Gloria S. Daly, Donna Clement, Lesley Turner.

Women of Fibre, at the Whyte

As you walk into the gallery, this is what you see...

The museum director, Michale Lang and the curator, Mary Beth Laviolette did a wonderful job pairing and arranging artifacts and archives from the Whyte Collection to go along with Articulation's art works.

Catherine Whyte's engagement dress, shoes and portrait inspired Ingrid Lincoln.

Right - Burgess Shale fossils inspired Donna Clement; central - Mary Vaux's photographs inspired Wendy Klotz into making felted hats; left - Mary Shaffer's jacket inspired a response piece from everyone.

And Lesley Turner has an installation based upon women's work being unaccounted for and largely unnoticed in society.

Show at the Whyte Museum of the Rockies

November 26 was the opening of our latest exhibition in Banff, Alberta at the Whyte Museum. Called WOMEN OF FIBRE, we shared the main gallery with 94 year old Mary Garnham Andrews, a local weaver who has just donated her life's work to the Whyte.

The signage outside:

and walking into the gallery:

 Gloria S. Daly's piece titled Glacier.

and Vickie Newington's felt and glass pieces.

Exhibition Opening 'ARTICULATION'

Exciting news is of our exhibition opening this Saturday night (November 26th) at 7pm at the Whyte Museum of the Rockies in Banff with my textile group "Articulation".

The exhibition at the Whyte Museum is the result of our two artist residencies at the Leighton Studios at the Banff Centre for the Arts back in 2008 and 2009. The show is based upon mountain culture and women who have lived through the years in the Rocky Mountains. Our working title was WOMEN ROCK.

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 "ARTICULATION"
Where? Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff AB
When? November 26, 2011 to January 29, 2012

Opening Reception - Saturday, November 26 at 7pm with all 6 participating Articulation artists attending. Demos will also be done throughout the evening by Articulation.

Attending artists:
Donna Clement
Gloria S. Daly
Ingrid Lincoln
Lesley Turner
Vickie Newington
Wendy Klotz

Keepsake Pouches

When I am not working on larger pieces for specific exhibitions, I continue to work on smaller things that I can sell at art sales through the year. One of these things are my Keepsake Pouches, a handmade pouch made out of waxed Irish Linen that can be used as a keeper of one's personal amulets and talisman.

The last group of these were made for the Women Rock study and were made in the colours of rock (black), ice (white) and blue Alberta skies (blue). After spending approximately 8 hours making one of these (all done with needle and thread) I then pick beads, buttons and charms to decorate them and then fill them with colour coordinated crystals and semi-precious stones. They are then hung on an adjustable leather thong.

The ones shown above are all sold, and the ones below are some I still have around at the moment.

New Addition to the Blog!

Just to let you know I have added the sidebar (along the top!) with my gallery of art. Have just started putting pieces up, so there will be more to come, but these are my newer pieces that are not on my web site yet.

I am busy finishing up my very newest work for the 2011 exhibit at the Whyte Museum of the Rockies in Banff this fall. This all started with our artist retreats to the Leighton Artist Colony at the Banff Centre in 2008 and 2009.

In 2008 Articulation invited specialty speakers (Ben Gadd, Tara Moran, Jennifer Salahub, Willi Schmidt, Paul MacKay) on mountain culture and had several tours of surrounding geology and general terrain. In 2009 we rented studio space and were able to do large production work using silk screening, printing, and dyeing.

After two years of researching (Whyte Museum Archives) and coming up with design ideas, I currently have ten pieces on the go at the moment!

Banff - Day 26

Dyeing silk - ahhhh, love it!

It is so nice to be back getting instantaneous results in the dye studio. I was dyeing silk and viscose devore scarves today and the colour by the end of the day hanging on the lines!!!

But first we had to light the pilot and engage the safety value on the bank of three industrial propane burners - this is not an easy job. It involves a huge wooden mallet, a lighter, your knee and two thumbs. Almost impossible for one person to do alone so we got everyone involved. Here is Wendy manning the mallet to hold the pilot light on...


Lesley and I started the day by using the dyes in their pure colours to test dye samples she had stitched with various cotton and silk fabrics and threads. Here we are mixing the chemicals...


Then the fabrics are heated to a simmer...

And after we finished the samples, I started combining colours and adding my devore scarves to the pots...

I did almost twenty scarves today and will finish the rest tomorrow. These photos do not do justice to the shine that silk has - the lustre is amazing!

But we had to quit for the night early to head out to the CBC Radio 2 concert to hear the compositions (see the March 24th post for details on the composition competition). The five pieces were all amazing and one of the most interesting parts of the evening was how each of the five composers used the ensemble instruments in such different ways - it was the first time I had ever heard a bowl of water being played (amazing); or the inside of the piano (I have heard a couple of strings being plunked but this was even more); and the percussionist was my favourite player (he had half the stage filled with all his instruments, including an old fashioned typewriter). The composer I picked for viewer choice was the one who took home the big pot of money - Andrew Staniland with his piece "Devolution" in three parts. Congratulations to all five of the young men.

Tomorrow we hang our work-in-progress from the last month for our exhibit "Loose Threads" in the Other Gallery in Gylde Hall. Come and join us for our artist reception from 4 to 6 pm Friday evening. The show is up until Sunday night. If you can't make the opening but are in town on the weekend, feel free to get in touch for a personal tour.

Banff - Day 21

A gorgeous day in the mountains today, so I went out and did some photography. Here is some growth of conifer and juniper with berries that have survived through the winter.



Then I started focusing on the bark of the pine trees around our studio. Some with lichen growing in it, some with sap running down, and just all the different patterns in the bark itself.






But the worst of all was the evidence of the mountain pine beetle which is decimating the forests throughout the Rockies. Where do they live? Right here...


Read about the beetle on Parks Canada website here.
But some good news on the horizon helping Alberta's fight, read the latest news and the results of our cold winter.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/mountain-pine-beetles.html

I am working on six pieces for a series based upon the results of the beetle for the Women Rock study. Did lots of hand stitching today on my pieces, but never took any photos of them... maybe tomorrow.

Banff - Day 10

Remember the dyeing I did the other day and was waiting to be surprised about how it turned out? Here are picture of the rinsing buckets - I did three colourways: (1) purple, blue and black (2) orange, brown, yellow and black, and (3) red, magenta, black - in a mix of cotton fabrics and cheesecloth.


And here it is hanging on the line drying. Got some lovely rich colour combinations.


And the stack of them all folded and colour coded:


The red one above (which is interesting but looks a little too much like tie-dye) was calling me, so today I covered it with another layer of different coloured dyes - will see what happens to it tomorrow.

Today in the dye studio I did another deconstructed screen - actually my third one - they just keep getting better! Here are two close ups from screen #2 (which I dyed yesterday but rinsed and dried today.) I focused on different sized squares and dots. I love this one!