About
Contents
2. Themes
5. Memory as Light in the Landscape
6. About the Art in the Galleries on this site
Georges Braque:
· “I have always had (a hankering) to touch things as well as to see them”
· ”If there is no mystery there is no poetry”
Odilon Redon:
· “The artist yields often to the stimuli of materials that will transmit his spirit.”
My imagination is always drawn to what lies beneath surfaces. By exploiting the layering possibilities of paint, digital prints, fibres and stitched threads, I try to express what may be possible to see with inner eyes. Some of my work (e.g, In The Drowned Lands series and the Green Mysteries series) concerns what might lie hidden in familiar landscapes like the waters and terrain of the Rideau Canal.
Other work, also nature-focused, looks close-up at seeds and cell structures and refers to the beauty in decontextualized forms and colour arrangements. The fact that we can be attracted to abstract, non-representational patterns and arrangements of colour is intriguing to me. Digital photography, high powered telescopes and the electron scanning microscope are opening artists to worlds of beauty formerly invisible to the physical eye; they help me make connections between art, science and technology.
The abstract art-like patternings in cell structures under a microscope prompts me to speculate that humanity might have another kind of vision, a kind of "Deja Vu", that allows us to recognize as familiar the cells that living matter is made of. Perhaps this special way of seeing, less mysterious thanks to science, is one of the sources of our appreciation of art, especially abstract art. Art, like science, uncovers what is hidden.
Textile artists have always sought to convey the special nature of their attraction to patterns and tactile mediums. The unique expressive possibilities of fibre and textile invite me to create textured abstract works with a new dimensionality not possible with painting materials alone.
My works contain expressions of both personal and universal symbols that are described here for the sake of interested viewers; for those unconcerned with analysis of the artist's inner life, I invite you to enjoy the works on their own terms.
My art is inspired by landscapes both grand and intimate. I am touched by the heritage landscapes of the Rideau Canal corridor; by remembrance of long-dead canal builders; by garden plants, seed collecting and seed growing; and by my responses to music. I find all these themes interconnect as sources for my art.
I live and garden beside the Rideau Canal in Ottawa and love its beauty in every season. When the canal is drained for the skating season, I collect canal stone rubble to build walls, paths and sculptures in my garden. In this way, I feel I can somehow touch the lives of the canal’s long-passed builders. I am alert to intimations in the stones that might tell about the builders’ work, struggles and dreams. I have grieved for their deaths from malaria or industrial accidents, far from home, as well as for the ingratitude of officialdom towards their efforts. I am grateful that the landscape we have inherited from their hands brings us peace and beauty and that the canal they built has never been used in war as originally purposed. The canal landscape’s layered beauty and human connections holds lasting inspiration for my art.
Many of the plants in my canal-side garden are grown from seeds I have collected myself or that were shared by other gardeners. I support seed saving projects whose aims are to preserve seed (thus grower autonomy) for the benefit of future generations all over the world. I deplore agricidal practices such as the development and use of “terminator” seeds. Ideas about seed abundance and the beauty of plant life from cell to seed to bloom to compost easily find their way into my work. With the help of my camera I can look very closely at the plants and creatures in my garden and use the images as inspiration for my work.
While I work in my studio, I listen to music, often Mozart and Bach. Sometimes the music distracts me from the current work because I begin to see the music as colours and forms and I feel compelled to stop and stitch and paint it.
Textile art traditionally concerns itself with patterning or markings and I have placed myself inside this tradition with many of my works. Appreciation for the beauties of patterns in nature is a deeply human experience motivated not only by attraction to visual beauty but by cognitive processes that enable us to recognize and engage in patterning activities like using language , making music, writing computer code, etc. The marks on the coat of a bean or the skin of a toad, the rings and bark of a tree, cell patterns seen under a microscope, all constantly bring new life to my artist’s vision.
The mysteries of life at the cell level, invisible to the naked eye, intrigue me as a fibre artist. Patterns in nature can carry more than just surface meaning and attraction. Several of my series consider both the Beauty and the Beast of cell life. The mediums of textile and print offer opportunities for layering colour, form and texture in exciting ways to express feelings and ideas about my themes.
I use many different art processes in my pieces and incorporate many kinds of fibres and textiles from my collection, including paper, metals, plastics and vinyl; in fact, any material may become “textile” by the use I make of it. Free machine embroidery is a characteristic component of my work as is printing and painting. I use dyes, paints and inks in combination with various fabrics and threads to create highly textured and coloured surfaces. I use my digital camera to photograph nature in every season. I photoshop the results to create compositions inspiring to my work. Currently I enjoy making marks with rust printing on old linen damask.
Colour and light are always in dialogue on my textile surfaces, intimately collaborating to create inviting tactile forms that invite both eye and hand to reach out and connect beyond the superficial. For me, the stitching in textile art alludes to the marks we make on earth in order to shape and record life; or it can suggest marks made on us, over which we have no control, and which have shaped us for better or worse. Light in a spiritual sense makes its own marks too, for it leaves traces on us that we struggle both to allow in and to keep out. That light can change how we view those other marks and possibly the scars or fractures they leave; and these impressions find their way into the work. As Leonard Cohen says, a crack is where the light gets in… The play of light across a textile work is a mystery which never reveals itself all at once but rewards a persistent search, a sustained conversation. The light can even be the main subject of a work sometimes, for as the light moves and changes throughout the day, new colours and forms are traced on its surface, and you notice how the shaped surface of a textile speaks differently according to the play of light. Each kind of textile surface has its own conversation with the light.
Memory as Light in the Landscape
In my work I try to connect the fugitive nature of fibre with memory’s ephemeral character. The perception of changing light on a layered textile surface is akin to the shifting action of memory: stories partly recalled, recreated, different layers of understanding uncovered or concealed each time memory is conjured; new dialogues that stitch together the former and the current to make the new, to remake and reform the old.
My impressionistic stitched canvases refer to personal stories retold or uncovered; journeys retraced; landscapes revisited; snatches of sound recalled as shapes and colours. I stitch dimensional, layered and tactile surfaces on fibre using the technique of free machine embroidery. Layered lines of thread, fragments of fibre, digital prints and skin-like layers of dye, ink or paint are intricately built up until I feel the fabric is complete and a new textile conveying its unique history has emerged.
My focus is also on the physical, psychological and spiritual connections I enjoy with my materials and which figure prominently in my artistic expression. I find making marks with stitch an enticing activity akin to the literate and physical delights of writing or painting. Cutting back layers of fibre, arranging them together or attaching them with stitching allows me the deep pleasure of making community of disparate fragments, thus referencing a creative womanly role. The complex layering possibilities in fabrics offer enduring metaphors through which I can reveal or conceal feelings and ideas about both transience and treasured memory.
The Rideau Canal waterway is now a world heritage site and I wanted tocelebrate that in my art. The “Green Mysteries” and “In the Drowned Lands” series explore ideas about the “drowned lands” area created in the early 19th century when whole forests were submerged to create a slackwater canal system. (cf. Ken Watson’s website) We still find evidence above and below the waterline of the forests’ former vibrant life. Flooded forests suggest to me hidden beauty, ever-changing shapes, live underlayers, penetrating light, shimmering surfaces, fish-scale transparent colours. Below the waterline, mysterious drowned forests created ideal fish breeding grounds; above the line, trees still stand as strange twisted presences while the surface of the reflecting waters holds in memory plants long drowned. These themes continually attract me, and here I interpret them richly with tactile and light reflective media.
“In The Drowned Lands” series: Lakes and forests flooded in the construction of the Rideau Canal.
"In The Drowned Lands 1" . 2007. 24" x 18"
Painted with thread on disperse-dyed polyester satin; rayon and cotton threads.
- Beneath the waters of a drowned landscape in the Rideau Canal corridor
"In The Drowned Lands 2” . 2007. 12" x 12"
Acrylics and lazertran digital transfer on paper; free machine stitching with rayon and cotton threads.
- Memories of wildflowers in drowned landscapes in the Rideau Canal corridor
"In The Drowned Lands 3" . 2007. 8" x 10"
Painted with thread on disperse-dyed on polyester satin
- Beneath the waters of a drowned landscape.
"In the Drowned Lands 4 (Streams in Blue and Gold)". 2008. 5” X 8”
Free machine embroidery on silk.
- Water in the land drowned in the building of the Rideau Canal.
“In the Drowned Lands 5 (Streams in Blue and Gold)” 2007 8" x 10"
Acrylics and free-machine stitch on paper; rayon and cotton threads
- Looking up to the surface of the water from lands drowned in the building of the Rideau Canal.
Green Mysteries
Life beneath the flooded lands along the Rideau Canal
.
"Green Mysteries 1" 2007. 16" x16".
Painted with rayon and cotton threads on disperse-dyed velvet.
- Life-bearing forests under the waters of lands drowned in the building of the Rideau Canal
"Green Mysteries 2" 2007. 8 x10".
Painted with rayon and cotton threads on digitally printed pellon.
- Life-bearing forests under the waters of lands drowned in the building of the Rideau Canal
"Green Mysteries 3" 2007.
Painted with thread on disperse-dyed velvet; rayon and cotton threads.
- Stone canal walls touch the rich waters of the drowned lands where fish-scale colours shimmer
Rideau Memorare
Standing in witness
"Rideau Memorare 1". 2007. 18" x 20".
Painted with rayon, cotton and metallic threads on hand-dyed cotton and digital transfer.
- Tree, stone and water stand in witness to the Rideau Canal's builders
"Rideau Memorare 2”. 2007. 24” X 24”.
Painted with rayon, cotton and metallic threads on hand-dyed cotton and digital transfer
- Stones stand in witness to the Rideau Canal's builders
Paradox.
This series explores patterning in malaria cells, beautiful maybe until we discover they can be killers. This group of works responds to the history of canal workers who died from malaria. Now as then, we continue to be threatened by the spread of disease
Paradox 1-7 (1 &2, 8” x 8”) ( 3-7, 8” x 10”)
Painted with thread on disperse-dyed poly-satin and velvet; cotton and rayon threads
-Without context, close-up images of malaria cells are strangely beautiful. Distance reveals a contradictory truth: the death of Rideau Canal workers from the malaria.
Paradox 8: Buzz By The Rideau
Installation
Wood window frame, 20” x 26”; three panels 15” X 33” each, polyester
Disperse dye print, free motion machine stitching, and cotton and rayon threads
- Art creates both ease and dis-ease, revealing new vision by disturbing our expectations. In this work, the oddly spaced mosquitoes, swamp grasses and microscopic malaria cell images printed on the net curtains deliberately disrupt the predicted patterning, offering the viewer an experience of unease. The patterns don’t look quite right; they are, in textile-talk, “off register”. The viewer will continue to feel “dis-ease-d, even while noting the warm hominess of the cottagey curtains, the comforting regularity of pane placement in the (closed) window frame and the straight, certain line of the black mourning band. The viewer is invited to consider on which side the mosquito net curtain is hung, what it is keeping out and what it is letting in.
Willows.
The beauty of willows along the Rideau Canal waterway in summer
Spring Willows 2006. 8" x 11"
Painted with thread on pellon; rayon, metallic and cotton threads
- Reflections of greening willows in the melting ice of the Rideau Canal
"Summer Willows 1" 2007. 6" x 12"
Painted with thread on painted pellon; cotton and rayon threads.
- Water and willows reflect each other
"Summer Willows 2" 2007. 6" x 12"
Painted with thread on painted pellon; rayon and cotton threads.
Water and willows reflect each other
Waterscapes
Rideau Canal waters in every season
City Walls, City Waters 2006. 8" x11"
Painted with thread; rayon, metallic and cotton threads.
- The beauty of the canal in every season as it flows through the city.
The Rideau Canal in every season inspires with beauty and tranquility and connects us with nature’s many manifestations. But beyond natural sight, it speaks of our spiritual connections to land, forest and rivers and which do not use our physical hand to channel their forces. If the military bureaucrats who condemned Colonel John By for having constructed an expensive folly had shared his vision, internal or external, they might have glimpsed a future in which the canal’s legacy, though proposed for war, would be a living peace. This work is my response to the timeless attraction of water, whether contained by the hand of the engineer or flowing unrestrained, perhaps in currents felt but unseen. In this work, water is contained in its urban environment, observed in captivity by an artist.
"Winter Waters" 2007. 8" x 10".
Mixed media: acrylics and free-motion stitch on paper and digitally printed silk and silk organza; rayon and cotton threads.
- The Rideau Canal Corridor in winter from the Ottawa River to the St. Lawrence.
“Summer Waters" 2007. 12" x 12".
Mixed media: acrylics and free-motion stitch on paper and digitally printed silk organza; rayon and cotton threads
- The Rideau Canal Corridor in summer from the Ottawa River to the St. Lawrence.
.
2. Seed Bank: Natural seed abundance, disappearing diversity.
The “Seed Bank” series expresses a personal passion for preserving seed diversity (I am a devoted gardener as well as an obsessive seed collector). It celebrates seeds' natural abundance as well as each generation's essential task of seed collecting as a legacy of generosity, a gift to humanity’s future, a legacy now tragically subverted and co-opted by commercial interests. I contrast the liberal character of natural seed distribution and respectful agricultural practices with the destructive, dead-end stratagems of businesses that try to force sales of “terminator” seeds.
Seed Bank 1 2007 12” x 32”
Mixed media: printed velvet (found fabric), hand and free machine-stitched, appliquéd on hand-printed (disperse dyes) satin polyester.
Seed Bank 2 2007 9”X12”
Mixed media: printed velvet (found fabric), hand-and free machine-stitched, appliquéd on hand-printed (disperse dyes) synthetic velvet.
Seed Bank 3 2007 9” X 12”
Mixed media: printed velvet (found fabric), hand-and free machine-stitched, appliquéd on hand-printed (disperse dyes) synthetic velvet.
Seed Bank 4 2007 12” x 12”
Mixed media: felted fibres, acrylic paint and metal foil on hand and machine stitched acrylic.
Seed Bank 5 2007 8” x 10”
Mixed media: felted fibres, acrylic paint, beads and metal foil on hand and machine stitched acrylic.
Seed Bank 6 2007 8” x 8”
Mixed media: felted fibres, acrylic paint and metal foil on hand and machine stitched acrylic.
3. Bye Bye Beans
Natural seed abundance, disappearing diversity.
The inherent qualities of textile and printing mediums are a commentary on the engineered disappearance of seed diversity that occurs in the production of genetically modified seeds. This series celebrates natural seed abundance while questioning disappearing diversity.
Bye Bye Beans 1 (16” x 48”)
Mixed media: hand-printed velvet (disperse dyes), hand and free machine-stitched, appliquéd on satin polyester.
This work comments on the engineered disappearance of seed diversity through the development of genetically modified seeds. The concept is expressed artistically by a repeated Scarlet Runner bean design printed on textile with disperse dye that characteristically exhausts itself after several impressions. In nature every Scarlet Runner bean is marked differently, like fingerprints, a sign that its survival is ensured by its diversity. In contrast, the G.M. bean's diversity is artificially exhausted and must be mechanically re-created, like my print of a single Scarlet Runner.
Bye Bye Beans 2 (Ritual Burial Cloth) 2007. 45” x 34”
Mixed media: rust-printed linen; “Solvy”, Scarlet Runner beans, free machine-embroidery.
This work is about hope; it is my version of a seed tape. It incorporates Scarlet Runner beans which I have grown and collected in my garden. The beans are stitched onto their shroud, a found liturgical textile, beautifully marked with life-death symbols in drawn-thread work inherited from an anonymous artist-maker. The see-through "cloth" into which the beans are stitched is water-soluble and is commonly used in the seed industry to make seed tape. The water soluble fabric is also a material used frequently by fibre artists to create needle-woven cloth without a loom, a technology that extends, not restricts, creative life. Underneath the “Solvy” is a found linen textile, perhaps formerly used for Christian liturgy. The exquisite hand-drawn threadwork depicting wheat sheaves recalls the gospel words" "Unless the grain of wheat die..." I have added my own “maker’s marks” to this cloth by rust printing and stitching it to recall its history, not to claim patents. The stitched marks speak of future worlds, incompletely known but hoped for; iconic rounded shapes that recall seed forms… Each time we bury a seed, we plant hope, not bury it.
4. Celluminations
Patterns of cell life hidden in leaf, plant stem and wood cells.
"Celluminations" is a joyful celebration of the patterns of cell life hidden in leaf, plant stem and wood cells. The beauty of life at the cell level reveals the allure of natural patterning and abstraction. The abstract, art-like, nature of cell structures under a microscope prompts me to speculate that humanity might possess another kind of vision, a kind of "deja vu" that allows us to recognize, to see as familiar, the cells of living matter. This special way of seeing, less mysterious thanks to science, could stimulate our appreciation of art, especially abstract art. Like science, art uncovers what is hidden.
“Celluminations” series 1- 4. 2008. 12” X12”
Mixed media: hand-printed (disperse dyes), hand and free machine-stitched, satin polyester.
“Celluminations” 5. 2008. 12” X 24”
Mixed media: hand-printed (disperse dyes), hand and free machine-stitched, satin polyester.
5. Landscapes
Contours and forests on the Rideau Canal waterway.
“Landscape With Trees” series 1- 4. 2007. 3” x 4.5”
Threads, hand-dyed fabrics and free-machine embroidery
- A path through the forest as witness to seeking.
“Contours” series 1- 4. 2004. 3.5” X 2.5”
Free machine embroidery of on painted (acrylics) paper.
- Impressions of the landscape of the Rideau Canal waterway.
6. Garden Cloth
Spirits of stone, water, plant and creature in my canal-side garden.
“Garden Cloth 1” 2009, 16” X 48”
Rust print and hand-dye on cotton; free machine embroidery; appliqué; foiling.
“Garden Cloth 2” 2009 16” X 48”
Rust print and hand-dye on cotton; free machine embroidery
“Garden Cloth 3” 2009 24" X 24"
Leaves hand printed (acrylics) on cotton and silk organza; free machine embroidery
7. Music
Music heard in colour and form.
Sometimes I see the music I hear in shapes and colours. It happens to meonly en passant that music and colour and shape come together in a kind of visitation. I can never force the association, any more than I can forecast or force the direction of the wind. The unity in music and form and colour that I perceive can evoke, from a tiny remnant, like a fragment of memory, a complete, fused and layered inner landscape that I strive to express in my art. I wanted to convey the sense of abstract, tactile inner landscapes impressed upon me after hearing quite by chance two small pieces of music. I needed to show strong fluid textured shapes in vivid colours against a layered backdrop.
Red Music 1 (Requiem) 17” X 20”
Appliqué, paint, dye, hand and free-motion stitching, couched threads on cotton.
- The Requiem
Aria in Green 12” X 12”
Brown paper, paint, fusible web, free motion machine stitching, free-motion embroidery appliqué.
-An aria heard by chance on a car radio
Concerto series, 1- 6, 2006. 5” X 7”
Mixed media: painted and stitched canvas.
-A concerto in stitch.
8. Markings
Coming soon.