I am taking a break from posting blogs about my textile experiences during a recent trip to India because I am heading up to the Banff Centre in the Canadian Rockies with my exhibiting group Articulation.
We have been granted a 2-week stay as Artists-in-Residence where we will collect information and inspiration and start developing our ideas on the theme 'Women Rock'. We have all sorts of interesting people coming up to work with us: Dr Jennifer Salahub, a craft historian (among many other things), Willi Schmidt, a professional photographer, Margaret Anne Knowles a museum curator, Ben Gadd, an environmentalist, Tara Moran, a glaciologist, Paul Mackay a geologist and more.
We have a huge studio, nestled in the trees all by itself, to work in. We have full access to the Centre's extensive archives on mountain culture which includes all of the films shown during the annual Mountain Film Festival, so lots of movie nights are planned. We will attend the concerts on at the Centre during our stay including the ballet 'Anastasia' and a Tin Alley String Quartet performance. We will visit many of the museums and art galleries in the town of Banff, including the treasure trove of archives in the the Whyte Museum. We will experience what it was like for women last century when they stayed in the Banff Springs Hotel to take in the mountain air and have high tea in the Rundle Lounge which takes in the world famous Bow Valley view.
We will then work in our own studios for the next 11 months where we will develop our bodies of work. We are planning to return to the Centre in 2009 for a month to work on making the work. The 4th phase of our 'Women Rock' plan is to exhibit the work widely in Canada.
My response was to make some close-up charcoal drawings of parts of the image.
