California

Carpet shop signage, West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles 

South African Embroidered Panel at the Fowler Museum, Los Angeles 

Mexican Human Skull Mosaicwork, LACMA, Los Angeles 

Jenny's, Chinatown Alleyway, San Francisco 

Ricky Henderson Planter Mosaic, Temescal, Oakland 

 San Francisco Botanical Gardens, Golden Gate Park

Night palms in Westwood, Los Angeles 

Chris Burden and Me, LACMA, Los Angeles

Scenes from my time in California, September 2014.

Alexandra Brownell's Sweet Fibre at Needlework

At the beginning of this year, I had the awesome opportunity to visit a 3rd year textiles seminar class at Sheridan College as a guest curator thanks to friend and colleague Thea Haines, an instructor in their department of Crafts and Design.  I gave a talk about my work as an independent curator with a deep love and appreciation for textiles.  I also helped design and present an assignment to students where they were to prepare a submissions package for a call that I wrote around the theme of cotton.  All the students in the class were asked to think critically about cotton-- as a raw material, the history and politics of its production, and its qualities as a textile-- towards proposing an installation that they would create in the window of fantastic Hamilton textile shop, Needlework.

After all submissions were received and graded by Thea, Liz and Kate from Needlework and myself got together to jury the submissions.  Though so many submissions were thoughtful and worthy, we eventually decided on a proposal by the talented Alexandra Brownell who, inspired by archival photos at the Hamilton Local History Archives, created a nostalgic and whimsical tapestry that paid tribute to the carefree quality of cotton, outdoor fairs and the pleasure of summertime. I supported Alex through the process of planning her installation and writing an artist's statement, which was a great experience!

Sweet Fibre went up a few weeks ago, and is up for another week or two.  Spin around to check it out before it's too late! And congrats to Alex on a wonderful first solo show!

The Pulling Strings Reference Library

There's lots of amazing stuff brewing with my textile-based collective, Pulling Strings.  A few weeks ago our newest project, The Pulling Strings Reference Library, had its soft launch at Needlework.  A growing collection of eclectic textile-related publications have been installed in Needlework's window along with a cozy chair for browsing and lounging.  After April, the library will become an ongoing fixture at Needlework as a semi-permanent community reference of textile art, theory and how-to books, zines and catalogues both old and new, weird and wonderful.

There are other great library goings-on happening until the end of April as well.  Every Tuesday and Thursday, our blog will feature reviews of books from the personal collections of some of our textile heroes.  This series kicked off last week with reviews by Robyn Love, Kate Jackson and Grant Heaps with many more lined up (previews of a few of the books that will be featured above!). At the end of April, we'll have a reading event at Needlework where an impressive group of textile enthusiasts will read aloud from their fave textile books.  More details to come soon!

http://pullingstringshamilton.blogspot.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/pullingstringshamilton

(becoming) The Logic of Memory at Hamilton Artist's Inc.

Image: Corinne Duchesne, Sybil, 2013. Mixed media drawing on mylar.

I'm unbelievably excited about the following exhibition which opens at The Inc. next week, featuring the work of Corinne Duchesne, Peter Horvath and one of my textile art heros of all time, Anna Torma.  It was an honour and a privilege to be asked to write the catalogue essay for this show.  Don't miss this one, folks!

*****

[becoming] The Logic of Memory
Corinne Duchesne, Peter Horvath, Anna Torma

January 23 – March 1, 2014

Opening reception: Thursday, January 23, 7:00 – 9:30pm

Art Crawl: Friday, February 14, 7:00 – 11:00pm

To paraphrase Deleuze, we can only function in the present, but we are always in motion, always becoming. Our past makes up who we are, but by contemplating these moments of the past, we are no longer remembering, we are constructing something new, in turn effecting our future understanding of the present.

Each of the artists in this exhibition explore the concept of memory. Their diverse perspectives weave together and encourage visitors to consider notions of memory, nostalgia, time and loss. Corinne Duchesne’s layered mixed media drawings on mylar philosophically consider loss as a locative site of memory, using grief as an anchor to merge anthropomorphic forms with objects. Peter Horvath’s 2-channel video installation, Memoir, compares and juxtaposes the biographical similarities between his mother Eva and friend Denise, who both emigrated to Canada from Hungary, albeit decades apart. The installation is structured to reflect upon the nature of memory, manipulating the space between truth and fiction, past and present. Anna Torma’s technically rich textile installations reflect on the nostalgia of home, her immigrant heritage, the natural environment and maps the human body recalling the synapses of the brain.

Combined, through the use of these personal assemblages, the works in this exhibition reflect on the location and constructed nature of memory and it’s ability to influence and shape our understanding of ourselves in the present.

A catalogue essay by Tara Bursey will accompany the exhibition.

Hamilton Artists Inc.
155 James Street North, Hamilton
http://theinc.ca/

Introducing Pulling Strings!

In the middle of the whirlwind of exhibitions happening this month, this little golden nugget is launching and I am very excited-- it's a project that has been in the works for a while.  Pulling Strings is a collective and quarterly event series organized by Jen Anisef (who I worked with on Toronto Craft Alert), Thea Haines (who's art I've always admired) and I.  The aim of Pulling Strings is to "investigate contemporary cultural themes through textile-linked lectures, panel discussions, exhibitions, workshops, and fieldtrips.  Motivated by a belief that textiles tell us a lot about our culture, and inspired by Hamilton’s creative community’s contribution to downtown renewal and civic engagement, Pulling Strings aims to create an accessible and dynamic space for people of various stripes to come together and engage in the exchange of ideas."

I'm really proud and excited to continue my critical work with textiles through this project, and to situate it in Hamilton, my new home.  Our first event is a talk and workshop with artist, educator, publications maven and crochet fiend Shannon Gerard, and it's happening this Saturday.  Don't miss out-- details about the event and pre-registration below.

AND an additional side note for Torontonians-- the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef project (Shannon is a contributor) will be showing in the Gallery 1313 window box for the month of December!

*****

After months of coffee shop scheming and logo napkin doodles, we are pretty dang excited to be getting Pulling Strings off the ground with a talk and workshop led by Shannon Gerard! Shannon was a natural choice for a first speaker in the series – her playful approach to her practice is never stuffy or alienating but always makes you think about things not previously considered – exactly what we are trying to achieve with Pulling Strings.

Next Saturday (November 23) Shannon will give a talk and Q&A at the Hamilton Artists Inc, followed by a hands-on workshop at Needlework. We are super grateful to both spots for giving Pulling Strings, a roving series, its first home.

Recognized for her engaging teaching and speaking style, Shannon will share the evolution of her crochet practice from recognizable objects with a decorative or educational function to forms that graph concepts of hyperbolic space or chart biographical and emotional journeys.  Following the talk, anyone is invited to push the boundaries typically associated with crochet as a functional pastime in a conceptual crochet workshop - no crochet experience necessary! As spaces are limited, we'll need you to register beforehand by emailing us at pullingstringshamilton@gmail.com.

Here are the details:
Who: Shannon Gerard (http://shannongerard.tumblr.com)
When: Saturday November 23, 2013; Talk and Q&A (2:00-3:30pm); Workshop (4:00-5:30pm)
Where: Talk and Q&A – Hamilton Artists Inc. 155 James N Hamilton, ON (@ Cannon); Workshop – Needlework, 174 James St N Hamilton, ON
Cost: Talk - FREE; Workshop - $10
Registration: Talk – all are welcome, no RSVP required; Workshop – contact pullingstringshamilton@gmail.com to register.

A bit about Shannon: In addition to teaching courses in print media and nano-publishing at OCAD University in Toronto, Shannon Gerard makes artist's books about magic, hope, faith and human frailty and produces large-scale installations that incorporate stop-motion animations and digital print. Shannon spends at least 50% of her waking life crocheting soft sculptures, which include Boobs and Dinks, Plants You Can’t Kill, and contributions to the Toronto Hyperbolic Coral Reef.

Colleen McCarten and Shannon Lea Doyle at Gallery 1313

I organized the following window installation of work by OCAD's Material Art and Design 2013 medal winner, Colleen McCarten which opens tomorrow.  Pop by the gallery between 7-10 pm to check it out, as well as the other exhibitions opening in Gallery 1313's main space, cell and process galleries.  As always, I will write an exhibition text to accompany the installation, which can be scooped up at the gallery.

Colleen McCarten
FABRICATE
Gallery 1313 Window Box
September 2013

Colleen McCarten’s installation Knit Wire is part of a larger body of work titled Fabricate, a multi-media textile exploration that investigates the intersection of textiles and assumed value. Across a variety of media, this project employs a recurring technique of line and repetition to signify the basic components of textile construction. Through decontextualized representations of textiles, this exploration asks:  Does changing the material, scale, or technique alter the value of the piece?  If so, is it a sexist devaluation of a medium, or merely about the ability to understand the time and effort put into another process?

Colleen McCarten is a textile artist and designer based out of Toronto. She recently obtained a BDes from OCAD University, where she was awarded a medal recognizing her thesis work in Material Art and Design. Prior to attending OCAD, Colleen studied Horticulture at Niagara College and received a Diploma in Fashion Design from George Brown College.

Sadly, with all the whirlwind activity pertaining to both the Fear of Punk//Fear of Art show and our recent move, I didn't have a chance to post here about the last exhibition in Gallery 1313's vitrine.  Shannon Lea Doyle has a few things with Colleen McC-- she is also an OCAD medal winner and her work shares an interest in textile-related techniques.  Here is a photo of her ethereal installation, Somehow Connected, which came down a couple of days ago and looked incredible in the late afternoon sun.

This Week

Two shows I'm involved with in some capacity are opening this week.  On Wednesday, Ancestry and Artistry: Maya Textiles from Guatemala opens at the Textile Museum.  I've worked as Curatorial Assistant on this (amazing) project on and off since 2011, so this is huge deal.  Still more work to do before Wednesday, but the show is shaping up beautifully.

James Gardner's FRANK is a window installation at Gallery 1313 and will mark the first installation I programmed for the gallery's window box.  This one opens the next day, Thursday the 30th, from 7-10pm.  From the release:

FRANK is an ever-evolving entity of insulation foam. He has been built up, cut apart and stuffed into rooms and awkward spaces again and again, and will continue to be again and again. The sculpture in its many incarnations is an experiment in the language of abstract sculpture and undermines conceptions of a finished and static work of art.  FRANK aims to achieve a complexity of form and colour through a constant reworking of material and by visually exploiting and developing the affects of duration and exposure on an unstable medium.

James Gardner is an artist and member of VSVSVS, a collective and artist-run centre based out of a warehouse in the portlands of Toronto.


Action!

Kim Stanford at Gallery 1313

Wanted to plug my friend Kim's upcoming show at Gallery 1313 here.  I wrote an exhibition text for the window box component of her show, that will be available on G1313's website after the show opens.  Congrats, Kim!

Kim Stanford
Dirty
Process Gallery
May 15th - 26th 2013


Reception: Thursday May 16th, 7-10pm

Gallery 1313 is pleased to present a new installation exhibition by member Kim Stanford entitled Dirty.

Stanford's inspiration for this series of works developed through her frustration with picking up others' dirty socks multiple times a day, and continues her investigation into how a monumental repetition of tiny mundane moments informs relations with self and others. Through material exploration and repetition, Stanford mutates a small familiar object - used socks - into larger, absurd work that both attracts and repels, and opens a conversation about the universal dialectic between the taken-for-granted and a search for meaning.

Stanford studied visual art at the Toronto School of Art (TSA) and OCADU, as well as critical social theory in her graduate degree at the University of Toronto. This installation is generously supported by a Toronto Arts Council emerging artist grant. Writings by Stephanie D'Amico and Tara Bursey accompany the exhibit.

Advance press:  http://tinyurl.com/c53qkzr and http://tinyurl.com/cgxzg89
For more information, visit: www.kimstanford.com

Marimekko at the TMC

This week, an exhibition of Marimekko fabric, fashions and ephemera opened at the Textile Museum of Canada.  I'm proud to say that I worked a wee bit on this exhibition and that as a bonafide 60s art and culture buff, it was a totally fascinating and visually delicious experience working and living with the items highlighted in the exhibition several hours a week at work.  For those of you who don't already know, Marimekko is a Finnish design house founded by Armi and Vijo Ratia during the post-war period, and whose heyday was in the 1960s and 70s (though they are certainly going strong today).  The influential and visionary company helped usher in a distinctive, Scandinavian brand of Modernism that was fun, bold and combined geometric and organic references to excellent effect.

I just found this cool little video produced by Maclean's Magazine which features an interview with Marimekko With Love Curator and TMC Directress/Boss Lady Shauna McCabe, as well as cameos by many of my fabulous co-workers.  For those of you who are interested in checking out the exhibition, it's up until March.

Slow Art Day at the Textile Museum of Canada

I am proud to announce that the Textile Museum of Canada has invited me be their host for Slow Art Day 2012. Haven't heard of Slow Art Day?  Don't worry, I hadn't either until they asked me to help them out with it...

Slow Art Day is a worldwide event that will take place around lunchtime on April 28th.  Guests are invited to pay admission to their local participating museum and take their time looking at four or five pre-selected objects from the museum's current exhibitions.  After an hour or so, guests will then gather somewhere for lunch and casually discuss their thoughts about the work.  The point is to take some time to unplug, relax, enjoy yourself, and appreciate some glorious examples of art, craft and creative genius from around the world.  The point is also to gather and talk about art-- no experience required!

On the 28th, we will be viewing objects from the TMC's current exhibitions: Portable Mosques: The Sacred Space of the Prayer Rug and Perpetual Motion: Material Reuse in the Spirit of Thrift, Utility and Beauty.  For more information on these exhibitions, check out the Textile Museum's website.   Objects will be announced to registrants within the next week or so.

After viewing the objects, guests will meet on the TMC Mezzanine for lunch and discussion.  I was thinking in addition to bringing your own lunch, it would be nice if everyone could bring something edible to share with the group potluck-style, if possible.  Also, feel free to bring along any textiles or objects you own that employ reused materials in an interesting way for discussion and admiration.

Preregistration is required-- you can do this here:

http://slowarttmc2012.eventbrite.com/

Hope to see some of you there!  Also, please spread the word!

Image: Indigo Robe from Nigeria (detail), 20th Century

The Feedback Quilt Project

I'm going to step back in time a bit to post some documentation of a participatory activity I designed for the TMC that was up in the museum for the month of August. The quilt was part of a larger project I did for the museum, doing qualitative research about visitor engagement and satisfaction. Inspired by some of the ideas in Nina Simon's book, The Participatory Museum, I thought I would make an in-museum project that would serve as something of an interactive guestbook. Here is a short summary I wrote about the quilt that explains it a bit more. I'm happy to report that by the end of my contract on August 19th, the quilt was almost completely done!

The purpose of The Feedback Quilt Project is to create a participatory visitor feedback activity for the museum space. Its goals are to collect and preserve visitor content, to create a more interactive museum environment, to educate visitors about a particular material practice (quilt structure and construction) and to become a “town square,” essentially creating an alternative portrait of our visitorship.

A 3-colour hourglass quilt structure (http://quilting.about.com/od/blockofthemonth/ss/cal-hourglass-quilt-block_2.htm) was mapped out on an 8’ X 4’ piece of Foamcore with a 1/2", dark-coloured masking tape. The board was mounted to a wall facing the 2nd floor elevators and stairwell. The activity requires that visitors answer at least one of three questions:


1. Describe your ‘Fantasy Museum.” 
2. What keeps you from going to museums? 
3. What do you want out of a museum for textiles? 


Each question has a corresponding coloured “quilt block” sticky note. Using a dry-mounted, colour-coded quilt legend, visitors placed a sticky note with their response in the appropriate position on the quilt template, almost like a large paint by numbers or cross-stitch kit. In doing so they are building a large quilt form together, and the more questions they respond to, the more the “quilt” starts to take shape. The quilt form was chosen as a basis for the activity due to the connections between quilting, community and communication.

Responses to this activity were revealing.  Many people took the opportunity to spill their guts about what they felt museums were and weren't giving them as visitors.  Many focused on the price and hours of operation of museums not being accessible.  A few came up with truly amazing ideas for fantasy museums-- a museum of smells, a snowglobe museum, a "museum of everything in the entire world." I came away from the project at the end of my contract realizing that museum visitors will reveal a lot to you if you make the effort to stray away from the same old prescribed questions, such as "are you a return visitor?" and "how did you hear about our museum?"

My sincerest thanks goes out to the museum for giving me the chance to basically make art and talk to enthusiastic museum-goers and textile fans all summer.  Funnest job ever!

For more documentation of the quilt, check out the TMC's fantastic Facebook Page.

On Ownership

My Crossed Stitches project has officially come full circle-- someone else made a William Morris cross stitch kit, and is selling them for $82.00 at the BMA gift shop!!  "Needlepoint designed exclusively for The Baltimore Museum of Art."  Unbelievably annoying...but also totally hilarious and ironic.

Photo Credit: B. Needham

Heir/Looms

Last week, my project Crossed Stitches was included in the exhibition Heir/looms, curated by Nicole Dawkins for Studio Beluga in Montreal.  The exhibition seems to have gone off without a hitch...congratulations Nicole, and thanks so much for including me!

A really gorgeous and engrossing catalogue accompanied the exhibition, packed with artist interviews, images and multiple exhibition essays.  It was a real honour to be included in it.  The catalogue is a super limited edition, so I thought I'd include my complete catalogue interview and artists statement here for anyone who is interested in me nattering on and on about myself and my family...

How much can we really claim to “own” our ideas?  The repeating, reworking and re-contextualizing of ideas from the past is part of the postmodern condition.  So many ideas have come to fruition over the course of history-- when we make something, what are the odds that it hasn’t been made before?  Anyone who has come across the work of another artist that is uncannily similar to their own knows what it means to have their sense of ownership over an idea thwarted.    Perhaps the solution to this dilemma is to forfeit ownership altogether.

My piece, Crossed Stitches, explores these ideas.  Focussing on a wallpaper design by William Morris-- a designer whose level of influence cannot be overestimated-- I went through the painstaking process of creating an accurate and fully-functional cross-stitch pattern that corresponds to his original design.  This process involved transferring each design onto a large grid and translating each pattern so that it is comprised of squares on a grid.  These large-scale grid drawings were then used to make a cross-stitch pattern on another piece of grid paper, dividing the colours of the pattern into symbols as “real” cross-stitch patterns do.  This final pattern was then included in hand-made cross-stitch kits, so people can make their own William Morris “fabric swatches.”

Crossed Stitches has been paired with an embroidered piece by my mother, created for me in 1989 from a commercial cross-stitch pattern from a book called Patterns From the Past.  Both pieces represent different views on the issues of authorship and authenticity.

How did you come to work with fibre-based materials?
When I think back to the very first pieces of sculptural work I made as a student long ago, I remember using materials that weren't "artists" materials, probably because I wanted to make the work that I was envisioning without having the equipment, or the technical know-how attached to sculptural materials such as clay and plaster. I remember making sculptures out of crumpled up tin foil, ceramic tiles, coffee filters, paper-- materials that are very rooted in the domestic and "every day." Early on, I was inspired by artists like Robert Rauschenberg (still one of my very favourite artists), and I think this work was partially inspired by artists like him who worked with simple, cheap found materials poached from every day life. Then about 6 or 7 years ago I made a leap from attempting to make art that was like pure sculpture to making work involving garments. I would buy used garments and speculate who the owner used to be, and how the garment might be a reflection of who that person was and what they did with their lives. I would sometimes attach used garments to found old photos and create narratives with installations centred around the found garment. While this body of work didn't last long I consider it my first serious body of work, and it definitely set the stones for a long-standing interest in garments, textiles and fibre art which has been a part of my work to varying degrees for quite a while now.

How does the materiality and practices of working with your chosen medium affect the conceptual focus of your work? 
I work in many different media. Generally I will get an idea for work, and will work in whatever medium I have to to get the work done, whether it be a drawing with ink, needlepoint or a sculpture made out of miniature shrimp that is inspired by lace. Sometimes the concept informs the choice of material, and sometimes an experiment with an interesting material will lead to a concept that is linked to what the materials are "doing" or can do. Both material and concept are very important and inextricably linked in my work. The Crossed Stitches work is a good example of this.

How or where did you learn to stitch or sew? 
My grandmother taught me to crochet and my mother taught me needlepoint. I remember being about 8 or 9, spending a ton of time doing both. I didn't keep up with either craft, but picked them both up later in life as part of my art practice.

Is there a tradition of craft/making in your family? 
Definitely. Growing up, I had a great deal of contact with my mother's side of the family, who are Macedonian. The main form of craft that my family engaged in was crochet. My grandmother crocheted these sock-like slippers for my mother, her sisters and all of my cousins (and I) every winter for most of her/our life. She even crocheted me a bra for one of my dolls once...!!!! Recently, my mother must have been having a particularly sentimental day (!) because she showed me a huge bin full of crocheted baby clothed and blankets that my grandmother, other relatives, and her old co-workers made me when I was a baby. My mind was blown and I was very humbled by the incredible skill and patience used in the making of these objects. As my mother pulled miniature sweater after miniature sweater made by many different people, I was amazed to recognize my grandmother's work immediately. The crocheted items she made were simpler, less decorative and more utilitarian than the rest of the baby clothes. My mother showed me a baby blanket my grandmother crocheted that was incredibly beautiful in it's simplicity. My mother said something along the lines of "your grandmother made that when they didn't have any money at all. She would just work and work on that blanket." That is the thing that I appreciate the most about the items crocheted items I've come across made by my grandmother and other family and people around me growing up. Many of these people didn't have much money, but they always found something to give...they were so generous. Usually these things were hand-made-- clothing, food, and things like that.

Interestingly, the side of my family that I don't have a lot of contact with-- the family from Newfoundland-- are even bigger makers than my Macedonian family. The culture of making and crafting in Newfoundland is such a rich one. This is something I'm starting to learn a bit about, and would love to learn about more in the future.

How does this affect your relationship to these materials and practices? 
I don't know how much it directly affects the work that I've done with craft materials. One thing that comes to mind immediately is that members of my family-- my mother for example-- who don't necessarily have a understanding of conceptual or contemporary art can relate to work that I've done that somehow employs the use of craft materials and processes. These materials and processes are accessible and easy to identify, thus opening up lines of communication and dialogue about the work. I really like that this is the case, because non-artists are generally very afraid to talk about art. I want such people to feel like they can take something from art...conceptual art, too. What is the point of making artwork that only other artists will look at?

How is your personal, family or cultural history reflected (or challenged/deconstructed) in your work? 
One thing I can identify in my work that reflects my upbringing is a sense of work and perseverance. I hope this doesn't come across as hokey, because it's totally true. I come from a stubbornly hard-working, blue collar family. Sometimes I feel like if a piece of work isn't hard to construct or doesn't take a million hours to make, it isn't worth doing. I love labour-intensive processes, and maybe subconsciously feel like work that is difficult or laborious will be appreciated more, or is more valid somehow. I should probably get over this!


Is the history of craftmaking or domestic arts important to your practice and to your work? 
The history of craftmaking and domestic arts actually aren't really all that important to my art practice. I am interested in materials and processes in general. Sometimes a process or a material will resonate with me, and it will find its way into my work somehow, either intentionally or unintentionally. I can see myself delving more into craft history in the future, but right now I approach craft mainly from a very visceral connection to making, creating, building and using my hands. I am interested far less in the historical domestic arts as I am in contemporary notions of crafting as an alternative to buying, it's ties to the do-it-yourself ethic, and the psychic rewards of doing slow work. Sometimes crafting feels like the only antidote to aspects of contemporary life that can be overwhelming or frustrating-- omnipresent technology, advertising, consumerism, rude people, crowded subways, etc.

How do you imagine your work will be positioned and passed on by future generations? 
I imagine that some of my work will be mistaken for garbage and thrown out! Seriously! That is why I document the hell out of my work, and write a fair bit about it. I want future generations to know that these strange things I've done-- with food, paper, and fragile materials in particular-- weren't just the product of a crazy person! It all took a fair bit of time and thought, and occasionally people found it interesting...ha, ha!

Moon Man Newfie

Here are some cell phone photos of me and my souvenir pillow-in-progress made at a workshop this afternoon at the Textile Museum of Canada. The workshop was held today by Andrew Hunter of the collaborative art duo, Dodolab. This pillow is inspired by the province of my forefathers and mothers (Newfoundland!) as well as the Stompin' Tom song, "Moon Man Newfie" and various NFLD culinary oddities. This weekend's workshops are a part of the TMC's newest exhibition, Cold Comfort: New and Improved Souvenirs of Canada. It's amazing-- go check it out!

Photos: Andrew Hunter

Shadow Box Exhibition at the TMC

I probably should have posted about this earlier, but I have a piece up in the Textile Museum of Canada's annual Shadow Box exhibition and auction right now. This is my fifth year in a row doing the event. The show us up until the night of the auction on March 3rd, so there is still a bit of time to see the work. All the work is posted online here along with all the info about the show.

Above is a photo of my rather simple piece for the show this year. It is made of garlic skin and it is called...you guessed it (or did you?)...A Breast.

Fresh, Local, Craft! at the Ontario Crafts Council

I am in the following show at the OCC which opens tomorrow! The Greenbelt Quilt is an amazing project that has toured Ontario over the past few months. Come and see it's unveiling!

Fresh, Local, Craft!

At the Ontario Crafts Council

990 Queen Street West

Toronto

November 4 - December 12

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 4th, 7:30 – 9:30 pm

Panel Discussion: Thursday, November 4th, 6:00 – 7:30 pm. The Great Hall, 1087 Queen St W, Toronto

Fresh, Local, Craft! is an exhibition that fuses community-building and environmental activism with the processes of craft making. Springing from a fruitful partnership, Fresh, Local, Craft! also constitutes the final tour stop for the Greenbelt Quilt of Possibilities project. The Quilt project originated through the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation’s request for assistance in creating a community work that celebrates and advocates for Ontario’s protected Greenbelt space. In response, the OCC organized and implemented the project with Kate Busby as curator, and has been running a tour of the Quilt throughout 2010 with noteworthy stops at Queen’s Park and the G8 Summit in Muskoka.

Underlying the connection between quilt-making and community building is the more widespread movement of craft as a popular medium for activism, where craftspeople and artists engage their creativity as a tool for change. Local economies, sustainability, recycling and up-cycling are addressed in different techniques, media and processes to question dominant norms of consumerism, worth and health. The Quilt contributors deal with these issues in their donated textile squares and reflections, and in Fresh, Local, Craft! their voices are accompanied by ten artists whose work expands on the question of stewardship through textiles, glass, ceramic, paper, wood and metal.

Fresh, Local, Craft! explores the dynamic between individual and communal processes of making in response to our relationship with the local environment. It celebrates the positive role that the Greenbelt plays in our lives, including its ability to bridge urban and rural life with the preservation of Ontario’s rich natural environment. Perhaps most importantly, the exhibition points in a direction where objects, food, air, water and soil are integrated into a society that no longer takes them for granted.

Fresh, Local, Craft! includes the work of: Glenna Agnew, Wendy Anderson Breedveld, Lizz Aston, Jayne Barrett, Tara Bursey, the Burr House Spinners and Weavers Guild, Maggie Butterfield Dickinson, Karen Chisvin, Natalie Drajewicz, Lise Downe, Roisin Fagan, Evann Frisque, Brette Gabel, Judy Gingrich, Fabienne Good, Margaret Gurica Hannigan, Clayton Haigh, Philip Hare, Beverley Hastings, Linda Heron, Pat Hertzberg, Kate Hunter, Mark Jaroszewicz, Sheila Jonah, Colleen Kennedy, Jen Kneulman, Mary Kroetsch, Katherine Laco, Sophia Lada, Kathy Lakatos, Kaitalin Lawford, Lory MacDonald, Nola McConnan, Valerie McLean, Karen Menzies, Lee Meszoros, Midori Nagai, Stacey Olson, Janet Patterson, Dorie Preston, Laura Preston, Julia Prime, Louisa Pucci, Danielle Reddick, Mary Ann Rich, Jean Pierre Schoss, Alison Seale, Brenda Secord, Don Stinson, Anastasia Tiller, Cheryl Trudeau, Catherine Vamvakas Lay, Linda Varekamp, Mary Walker, Wendy, Wallace, Helena Wehrstein, Liz Wilde, Erica Wilson, and Sandi Wong.

Drawing with Scissors and People Place Thing at the TMC

I went to the Textile Museum on Friday afternoon and finally saw the exhibition Person Place Thing, which showcases the work of Lia Cook, David R. Harper and Stephen Schofield. I saw David R. Harper's work earlier in the year at MKG 127, and was wondering how a reading of his work would change in a much bigger space.

Though I enjoyed seeing Harper's work in a larger space and appreciated the supplementary exhibition texts to guide me through his conceptual concerns, the real stand out of this show was Stephen Schofield. His work involves the stiffening of salvaged fabric with sugar water to create amazing three-dimensional inflated figures that not only have integrity to real human proportions and anatomy, but are also expressive, quirky, and incredibly playful.

Also up at the TMC is the exhibition Drawing with Scissors: Molas from Kuna Yala. This utterly packed exhibition showcases the decorative panels from the blouses of Kuna-- an autonomous ethnic group that is native to a small island off the coast of Panama. The molas are intricately embroidered and reverse-appliqued with handsewn geometric patterns and imagery as diverse as roosters, baseball players, labyrinth-like designs and Tony the Tiger. Through the history and subject matter/imagery of molas, the exhibition touches on themes such as colonialism, craft, spirituality, matrilocal customs and globalization.

Images, from top:

Stephen Schofield, Dibutade 1

Example of a Mola (A reimagining of the Victor/RCA logo?)

Lia Cook, Big Maze

David R. Harper, The Last to Win

Corn Maze

These images are of the 6" quilt square I made for the collaborative project Quilt of Possibilities: Celebrating Ontario's Greenbelt. It is made of 12 ears (!) worth of corn silk and japanese kozo paper. Here is a bluurb about the square:

Corn Maze is a representation of an aerial view of a corn maze made out of the corn silk of Ontario-grown corn. Corn mazes, like berry picking, are attractions commonly linked to agritourism or “agritainment.” As a city-dweller, my experiences of the Greenbelt growing up were limited to such forms of contact with rural life. Similarly, as an adult my connection to rural Ontario is almost entirely limited to my consumption of locally grown produce.

Corn Maze pokes fun at my unabashedly urban relationship with Ontario’s countryside.

For more on the Greenbelt Quilt project sponsored by the Ontario Crafts Council, look here.

Call for Submisisons: Quilt of Possibilities

I just received the following call from the Ontario Crafts Council for contributions of quilt squares for the following project celebrating Ontario's Greenbelt. Take a look!

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In celebration of the fifth anniversary of Ontario's Greenbelt, the Ontario Crafts Council (OCC) and the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation (GBF) are working together to develop a community quilt celebrating this diverse and vibrant green space.

Currently, we are seeking interest from craftspeople, artists, community groups and guilds to submit a handcrafted square to be included in the quilt.

Participants are encouraged to share their ideas and memories of what the Greenbelt means to them, how it has impacted and enriched their lives and to explore how possibilities grow in the Greenbelt. We are seeking submissions from individuals who have lived in, spent time in or have been greatly impacted by Ontario's Greenbelt. The completed quilt will be unveiled at the Greenbelt's marquee event in early March 2010. Following this it will then travel to various venues throughout the Greenbelt over the course of the following year.

About the Quilt

The quilt will explore our relationship with the Greenbelt, and how it inspires us! We want to celebrate the positive role that the Greenbelt plays in our lives; its ability to bridge urban and rural life with the preservation of Ontario's rich natural environment.

Craftspeople, artists, community groups and guilds from within and around the Greenbelt are invited to participate. We are looking for contributions of 12" and 6" quilt squares inspired by your interactions with the Greenbelt. Consider the role the Greenbelt plays in your life:

Do you find beauty in the natural environment? Are you inspired by the landscape; the woods, the water, the plants and animals? Do you hike the escarpment?

Do you find comfort in the clean air and clean water the Greenbelt provides?

The Greenbelt contains over one million acres of the richest farmland in the world. Do you buy locally grown produce? Visit farmers markets? Go apple picking?

Do you participate in festivals and events in rural towns?

Are you proud to recognize the culturally diverse population throughout the Greenbelt?

Submission Parameters and Conditions

1. We are looking for entries that represent different aspects of our relationship with the Greenbelt, with a focus on nature, agriculture, rural community, and diverse peoples. How does the Greenbelt inspire you?

2. The finished quilt will feature both 12" and 6" squares. Please allow for a 1/2" seam allowance on all sides of your square. This means the outside dimension of your submission will measure 13" x 13" or 7" x 7". Centre your design and do not allow it to extend beyond the 12" x 12" or 6" x 6" guideline.

3. The Greenbelt is rich and diverse, and the final quilt will be as well. As such, we are looking for squares to come from a diverse range of textile techniques and materials. Feel free to explore methods of traditional blocking, applique, hand and machine embroidery, silkscreen, felting, knitting or embellishment - be creative!

4. We ask that you please add support to your square by backing it in muslin, or the equivalent. We will not be quilting through your square, so please take this into account and avoid very heavy embellishment or layering.

5. We are interested in documenting the creation of the quilt; please include in your submission an artist statement (max. 150 words) explaining what inspired your piece. Though not mandatory, we would also love to see images of you with or working on your square.

6. As charitable organizations, both the GBF and the OCC are seeking these quilt squares to be donated. A marketing and communication plan is currently being developed and we can assure that participating individuals will be appropriately credited and promoted for the generosity of their contribution.

NOTE: Please respect that each square makes up a larger community and must be able to integrate into the pieced quilt. (The project curator holds the right to not include contributions that are inappropriate, do not meet the project requirements, or are unable to be integrated into the quilt format.)

All submitted quilt squares and supporting material become property of the GBF. Quilt squares may be photographed and used by the GBF or OCC in promotion and documentation of the quilt.

If you are interested in submitting a square, an expression of interest would be appreciated by January 14th, as to provide an initial perspective on numbers. Please contact Kate Busby, Project Curator, either by e-mail atgreenbeltquilt@gmail.com or by phone at 416-925-4222 ext. 228.

Deadline for submissions is 5:00 pm, Friday January 29th, 2010. Completed submission packages and squares should be delivered to:

Ontario Crafts Council
990 Queen St. W. Toronto, ON M6J 1H1

In your submission, please include:

• Your completed Quilt of Diversity submission form - please click here to download
• Your completed quilt square
• An artist statement (max. 150 words, relating your piece to the quilts theme)
• Optional: An image of you with or working on your square. Pictures should be .jpegs and be equal to or larger than 2550 x 3300 pixels at 300 dpi

About the Greenbelt

Created through provincial legislation in 2005, Ontario's Greenbelt is a world leading initiative. It is a living testimonial to Ontario's values and hopes for its people, and inspires us all to look at our world differently, to protect our future by preserving our past and present.

At 1.8 million acres - an area larger than Prince Edward Island - it is the largest and most diverse Greenbelt in the world. It encompasses the Niagara Escarpment, the Oak Ridges Moraine, Rouge Park, agricultural land, pristine environment, and hundreds of rural towns and villages.

For more information, please visit www.greenbelt.ca

To view a map of Ontario's Greenbelt regions click here.

Questions? Contact Kate Busby, Project Curator, either by e-mail at greenbeltquilt@gmail.com or by phone at 416-925-4222 ext. 228

Interview: Lizz Aston

I've posted yet another interview on the City of Craft blog, this time with fibre-based sculptor Lizz Aston. Her incredible work is simultaneously playful and austere...check out her interview here, which discusses her macrame fetish and the symbolism of knots, among other things....

Enjoy!

Pictured:  Decreasing Your Knot Vocabulary, collaged paper fibres, machine embroidery, burnout, 2009