Fundy Study

I have started working on a new body of work

It began with an Articulation study week, where we explored the Bay of Fundy.
Here we are stopped for a roadside lunch

I have decided to explore all things red because it struck me as the dominant colour whereever we went around the coastline.
Fields of red-leafed low-bush blueberries.

The earth is red

The sea is red

I have started collecting red threads
It is a start....

Articulation Demos & Tours

After a successful opening night, Articulation members conducted tours . . . here's Wendy leading a tour . . .

. . . demonstrations . . . Ingrid demonstrated collage techniques while Wendy and I hand stitched on her creations. Audience members sometimes took over the stitching and were delighted when they were given a sample.

Donna and I did the tours and demos the 2nd weekend and gave tours to a number of different groups the following week.

People watching the demos practiced making backgrounds on burlap.

Badlands & Rainforest

As you walk into the first room, on the left is Donna's 'Fallen Leaves' and Ingrid's 'Forest Vessel'

Here is Ingrid talking about her work while leading a tour of about 40 people around the exhibition.

Next, along the wall (a covered blackboard) is Donna's 'Arbutus' and my 'Fossil Bed'.

Back to the Rainforest with my 'Regression' and Donna's 'Yellow Cedar' and 'Sitka Spruce'.

First Exhibition Space

This is the view on the right as one enters the 1st of 3 exhibition spaces.
'Reading The Past II' - mine
'Hoodoos' - Ingrid Lincoln
'A Hole of My Own' - Vickie Newington
'A Walk in the Park' - Leann Clifford

'Fallen Leaves' - Donna
'Sucession' - mine

'Sleeping Giants' - mine
'Outwash' - mine

This is a poor image and you can't see the works but it gives you an idea of how we worked with the space to find the best place for each work.
The 2 square works are Donna's and the round one is Miriam Birkenthal's.
This collection of 3 illustrates the wide range of materials and techniques Articulation members use to express their ideas and to tell their stories.

Hanging

... after the coffee break, back to hanging.
Wendy has her own personal engineer who solves the technical difficulties of installing her work in the wide variety of venues Articulation exhibits in.

...hmmmm what to put where, next....?

The hanging team had lunch at 4:00 in a nearby cafe.....

...then back to hanging.....

Narrative Articulations

The morning of the hanging began with looking at each of the spaces we had to hang work in the college then unwrapping the works and putting them in the rooms where they would would be hung.

The work was grouped into 5 bodies of work: Badlands - Dinosaur provincial park, Alberta, Frobisher - ice and northern lights and the Canadian opera 'Frobisher', Winnipeg - architecture in downtown Winnipeg, Rain Forest - forest ecosystems on Vancouver Island, LINKS - small work inspired by 3 words we each gave each other, a colour, a material and an inspiration.
We also had 2 works from our next body of work - Farm - a study of the Saskatchewan prairies and farm life.
The 3 Articulation members had their wonderful husbands to help with the hanging.

Barbara McCaffrey, the Textile Arts member of the College Advisory Committee and Professor Peter Such, President of the college, worked together with Nancy Ruffolo, Vice President, to produce a catalogue for the exhibition. Barbara also produced all of the labels for the 60 works.

Derek and Wendy during our welcome coffee break mid-afternoon.

Victoria College of Art Exhibition

The post office delivered more art work yesterday. This morning I have been gathering up all of the things we will need to hang the show.
Wendy and Derek will be in the middle of the Rockies at the moment as they drive over to the island today.
I am about to go out to the airport to pick up Ingrid and Bob who are flying to the island.

I have also spent the morning planning the exhibition layout.
This is the Drawing Room at the college where I plan to hang Articulation's most recent body of work, Rainforest. This probably where the Opening Reception/Open House will be held and the location of all the demos and workshop help over the 2 weekends the exhibition is up.
During the Open House on Friday evening, 6:30 p.m. to whenever, most of the faculty will be present also so people interested in taking a course at the college can meet up with the instructors. Of course there will be nibbles and drinks too so it should be a great evening.

This is the Photography/Print Room (de-blacked out) where I plan to install the Winnipeg body of work. It is down stairs in the lower level.

This is the Art History/Art Therapy Room where the Links body of work will go.
That's the plan anyway. It is always good to go into a project with a plan and then keep flexible. Ultimately we will put the work where it looks its best. And it will all look so good in this lovely 100 year old building that was built as a place of learning.

More Articulation work at CQA

I am posting images of the Articulation exhibition at CQA on 2 different blogs - mine and Articulation's.
Left - Ingrid's "Night" is an abstract response to the city she has lived in for many years. There are lots of layers here: screen printing, applique, mark making by hand.
Middle - Gloria's work started as a black piece of cloth that she discharged, cut up and reassembled. The black boarder is lost on the black curtain.
Right - My work. While I was researching the Tyndall stone quarried just outside Winnipeg, I found a reference to it also being known as 'Tapestry Stone', which just begged me to make a stone block in a tapestry technique.

Here are 2 different responses to being in the rain forest.
On the left is Donna's work and I find her response as a prairie girl most interesting. With a life-long perspective of the flora being below her knees, she has emphasised the continual falling of leaves and debris from above as a unique aspect of the rain forest ecosystem.
The work on the right is Vickie's. Her perspective is as a more distant observer looking at the rain forest as details move in and out of focus. She has a more atmospheric response.

The work on the right is Leann's, another life-long prairie girl, and like Donna, she too responded to the mass of many greens and leaves falling from overhead.
The work on the left is Donna's from the Winnipeg body of work. She explored in a number of works the ethnic diversity of the immigrants to Canada as they came to claim their grid-surveyed plot of land.

While in the rain forest on Vancouver Island, Vickie looked down and in the decay of an old stump saw new life growing. She layered 9 fabrics and, using the reverse applique technique, she revealed the stump's growth rings and rotting core. She used stump work techniques to show the new sapling (nice pun there).

CQA Conference

Wendy Klotz talks about her work.

I talk about my work.

Gloria Daly's 'Stalwart' and Donna Clement's response to the arbutus tree, both works from the Rain forest body of work.

Ingrid Lincoln' 'Graffiti' and 'Cityscape' from the Winnipeg collection and my 'Meadow' from the Rocky Mountain collection

Articulation at Canadian Quilters' Assoc. Conference

Before the conference opened, Articulation members took turns speaking about their work to the group.
Here is Ingrid Lincoln.

Donna Clement

Gloria Daly

Vickie Newington