Click on the slideshows for details of the art in the Picasa slideshows.
Rain Forest, Vancouver Island inspired
After spending a week touring Vancouver Island with sketch book in hand and camera on the ready, visiting sights from the old growth forest in Cathedral Grove south to Victoria and the Goldstream Park, I returned home and worked using colours and textures seen. I focused on the cedars (the cornerstone of NW Coast aboriginal culture and of great spiritual significance) and ferns deep in the rainforest where the blues and greens are interrupted by the bright shafts of sun shining through. My base for these works are a fulled 100 year old woolen blanket given to me out of a friend's grandparents' attic. My favourite tree was the Arbutus with its peeling bark and lime-green skin hidden underneath. Using hand dyed cotton as a base, I enhanced the background with hand stitching and free machine embroidery. This is the work you will find here.
Jewellery - Necklaces and Brooches
Since late prehistoric times native peoples have used talismans to bring luck and avert evil in a harsh and often bewildering world. This handmade KEEPSAKE POUCH has been crafted as a keeper of your personal amulets and talisman. The technique is called nalbinding and is an ancient knotless looping stitch, which predates knitting by centuries. From the time of the Pharaohs, this stitch has been used in every culture around the world. The bags contain polished semi-precious stones and come with a listing of spiritual properties. The brooches are leather-backed shaped pieces that are cut out of a 'made' fabric by fusing snippets of fibres and textiles, then embellished with beads and buttons, hand stitched and free machine embroidered.
Urban Textures, inspired by Winnipeg's Heritage Sites
A week in Winnipeg included studying the Exchange District and its heritage buildings with architectural details found in abundance; the gardens of Assiniboine Park; Oseredok Ukrainian Cultural Centre; Fort Garry and The Forks; and Old Saint Boniface and the French Quarter. In this study I focused upon the immigration issue in Canada at the turn of the century. European families leaving strife-ridden countries travelled to Canada on ships that dropped them off in either Halifax or Montreal. From there it was a train ride to Winnipeg (Gateway to the West) where they would stockup on a year's worth of provisions and set off across the Prairies in covered wagons to find their homesteads granted to them by the Canadian government. I also have pieces with architectural details from the faded signs half seen on 100 year old buildings, to column bases and cornices on 100 year old banks.
Fruits and Flowers Study
This study was inspired by the fruits and flowers of summer - the colours and textures.
Hand Dyed Silk Scarves
Hand Dyed Silk Scarves Devore scarves of silk and rayon were coloured using Altar Ego dyes where two different fibres (silk=protein fibres and rayon=plant fibres) can be dyed in one dye pot - quite the revolutionary technique!
ExtraOrdinary Places, Canada's UNESCO Sites
Canada has a growing list of outstanding examples of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Calgarian Fibre Artists Donna Clement and Lesley Turner have chosen some of their favourite sites and with this art exhibition they aim to increase awareness of, and advocate for, these special places in Canada. Using textiles as the starting point for artistic expression, the artists give their work a contemporary twist by incorporating a wide variety of techniques and materials to produce panels, wall hangings and three dimensional creations. The artists are united by a common commitment to explore innovative approaches to fibre art. In this exhibit they have been inspired by Viking settlements at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, hoodoo landforms in Dinosaur Provincial Park, and the architecture of railway hotels across Canada - telling narratives of the beauty, history, and science found across Canada.
Small Framed Pieces
Small Framed Pieces Fibre art pieces of my creation. I make brooches (see jewellery folder) and people tell me they don't wear them, so I frame some as another way of offering them. The rare square sequins are mounted on silk; the shaped pieces are cut out of a 'made' fabric by fusing snippets of fibres and textiles. They are mounted in 4"x6" tabletop frames.
Meta Incognita
As part of the community symposium offered in conjunction with the new opera 'Frobisher', the fibre arts group 'Articulation' presents Meta Incognita ('limits unknown'). The title, borrowed from the designation given to the lands where Martin Frobisher was to search for the elusive Northwest Passage, describes the spirit of Articulation as it seeks to explore uncharted territory in the visual arts. To design their artwork the members of Articulation researched the world of Martin Frobisher's arctic explorations and attended workshops as the opera was being created. Guided by the storyline and setting, Articulation chose to develop art based on the themes of northern lights, snow and ice, arctic landscapes, Elizabethan court, Inuit culture, and the exploration of the Northwest Passage.
Places I've Been
Living in Europe for four years made travelling in Europe all that much easier. Places my family have travelled: for a mother and son 16th birthday trip (Iceland), to exploring the heavy metal sounds of Scandinavia, to the visually stimulating art of Spain, to New Zealand and its greenery. I search out the UNESCO sites wherever I am and focus on the cultural and heritage treasures the different countries have to offer.
Mirrors
LINKS was the result of a long term group project whereby each member supplied the group with three words to form the basis of and inspire a work of art. Exciting things happen when eleven artists each interpret 'perplexed ~ purple ~ pipe cleaner' or 'wearable ~ multicolour ~ beads' or 'transition ~ red ~ paper' to name a few of these groups of words. While each group of works is linked by three words there is a wide diversity of materials used by the artists. For my interpretation I made all of my pieces into mirrors, designed in a Celtic theme. From the outer shapes to the inner designs each piece pulled from my love of Celtic lore.
Alberta Badlands
Few Albertans know they have one of the most important protected habitats on earth in their own backyard. A group of eleven artists, known as "Articulation," is about to change that with their exhibition Alberta Badlands - Fibre Impressions. To celebrate Alberta's birthday the UNESCO World Heritage Site at Dinosaur Provincial Park is the focus of the exhibition at The Station Cultural Centre, Okotoks during May 2005. The talented members of this art group, all graduates of the prestigious and demanding City and Guilds of London program, dye, tear, felt, wrap, sew, paint, burn and embroider any fibre, textile and material they can work with - wool, silk, cotton, animal hides, recycled garments, paper... They produce an astonishing range of works to stimulate, inspire and amuse viewers. From miniature line drawings to a fifteen foot textile installation both capture the essence of the hoodoo landform found in the Badlands landscape.
Art Bra
I am VERY pleased to tell you that the art bra (actually a mirror) that I made for the Cancer Society silent auction was sold to one of the owners of Fabric Cottage and she is donating it to the Tom Baker Cancer Centre here in Calgary (at the Foothills Hospital), having it framed, and including a plaque mounted beside it with the artist statement along with artist information. Title: Mastectomy and the Deconstructed Artist Statement: Mirror, mirror on the wall ... how does one define "the fairest of them all"? It is a question pondered by all women faced with the loss of a breast: what is fundamental to womanhood? The nipple, the areola, the plump curve of the breast - when these are gone, what is left? This deconstruction of that essential womanly armour, the bra, illustrates the reworking of the metaphysical assumptions all women have about femininity that becomes necessary at these times and encourages one to look beyond the superficial form to see through to the core of the soul. Materials: Bras cut into pieces - underwire, hook and eye, straps, and size labels. Breasts made out of fabric discs and beads, representing all different sizes and the different varieties. Quote: A woman is often measured by the things she cannot control. She is measured by the way her body curves or doesn't curve, by where she is flat or straight or round. She is measured by 36-24-36 and inches and ages and numbers, by all the outside things that don't ever add up to who she is on the inside. And so, if a woman is to be measured, let her be measured by the things she can control; by who she is and who she is trying to become. Because every woman knows, measurements are only statistics and statistics lie. - Janet Champ
Upcoming Studies
2008 - Prairie pattern in southern Saskatchewan
2009 - Women Rock, Canadian Rocky Mountains
2010 - Shoreline of the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
2012 - Toronto - Culture
2013 - Quebec City
2014 - WAR (100 anniversary of World War I)