'Walls Talk's' Narrative

'Walls Talk' has come back from South Korea where it was in the Canadian pavilion at the 2009 Cheongju International Craft Biennale.
It is made up of panels in the same Julia Caprara technique as 'Meadow' but in this work it is the actual materials that tell the story.
The theme of the Canadian exhibition at the biennale was 'Unity and Diversity.' With this work I commented on the nature of Canada's population and geology in those terms.

This is the artist statement for the work.

A wall is built of Tyndall stone, distinctive and unique to Canada. Fibre is stitched to suggest the myriad of marine life in the vast sea that covered central Canada, now captured in limestone. Also known as Tapestry Stone, the blocks tell the story of European settlement of western Canada.
Unlike traditional Fibre craft work, where the emphasis has been on the demonstration of mastery of technique, I have worked with minimal technique to focus on the materials as content. I acknowledge the intrinsic meanings in each textile to provoke the viewer's memories of their own textile experiences. My goal is to stimulate a dialogue between the work and the viewer.

The theme of unity and diversity is found in several levels of the work. The diversity of marine life is unified and preserved in stone as geological history. The diversity of fibres and textiles reads as a stone wall, while closer attention reveals the complex fabric of Canadian society, reference to its social history and deference to its acceptance of cultural diversity within a unified country.

'Meadow's' Narrative

This work is another in a series where i have been using a technique developed by the co-founder and co-principal of the Opus School of Textile Arts, Julia Caprara. (Since Julia's death the school is known as the Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts, of which I am a student)
.Julia published a series of articles in Quilting Arts magazine where she demonstrated several of her distinctive techniques, if you want to see how this work is done.

This work has two stories, one from my interests as a geographer and the other from my interest in the Blackfoot Nation's stories.

The Fireweed plant is known as a 'first coloniser' after an area has been disturbed by natural occurrences such as avalanches, floods, fires and man-made disturbances such as forestry, road works, urban development. Fireweed moves in and stabilises the ground so other plants can then take root.

I have continued to explore this natural process of succession and how humans fit in with it as a concept in some of the new work to be shown in Calgary next week.

At another level, i see the Fireweed as an enabler and nurturer of others, a traditional role taken on by women in our society, which is why it is appropriate for the work to be made from fabric and thread and stitched, traditionally the media used by women in their homes.

The second story comes form the Blackfoot people. A woman went to a campsite of a group of braves who had captured and tied up her lover. She started a fire in the prairie grasses at one end of the camp to distract the braves and ran around to the other side of the camp to untie and rescue her lover. They both then ran across the prairies and headed for the mountains.
When the braves had worked out how they had been tricked, they started to chase the couple. They were gaining on the couple until they came across a string of fires that blocked their way. The fires sprang up where ever the woman's moccasins touched the ground and so protected them from getting caught. After the fires died down Fireweed grew in the place of her footsteps.

If you look at any image of the Fireweed you will see magenta flowers and blue-green leaves. In this work i really pushed the intensity of these colours because i wanted it to appear strong and full of life.

BA (Hons) Embroidered Textiles & 'Friends' Shawl

I've been very busy this past week working at finishing off this semester's module for my BA(Hons) studies. This semester I did Professional Practice, a practical module that sets me up to run the business side of my art practice so I will hit the ground running straight after I graduate.
This year there has been a change in the school that runs the programme. Julia and Alex Caprara set the school up and ran it as co-principals - Opus School of Stitched Textiles. After Julia died last year, Alex decided to close the school. That's when Winy Smit-Vuijk and Sandra Flower picked up the BA(Hons) part and formed the Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts. Thanks to them our studies weren't interrupted.


I found this lovely woven shawl in a thrift store. I Googled the words on the label but haven't been able to find out anything about the company.

If you recognise this label or know anything about the company, could you please contact me, ravenmade@gmail.com

Walls Talk Goes to Korea

I posted updates about this work, Walls Talk, during its creation. When it was complete I entered it in the 2009 Cheongju International Craft Biennale in Korea. This event is the Cannes Film Festival of Fine Craft - the work of over 1000 artists from more than 40 countries is exhibitied . Canada is the guest country this time (Italy was last time), so the Koreans have built the Canada Pavilion, a 10,000 sq ft gallery space. So Canadian Crafts Federation ran a competition called 'Unity and Diversity' to get work to fill the space. When I read the theme of the juried competition I knew they were thinking of my Tyndall stone wall. So I entered it. And it was accepted!

Yesterday, as I wrote out the 4 pages of instructions on how to install it and while I packaged it up, I said goodbye to it just as Martha Cole has recommended we do to our work. It was the last I will see of it for nearly 4 years. It will hang in the Alberta Craft Council gallery along with 29 other Alberta works, until June. Then it will be crated up and shipped to Korea where it will be on exhibit for the 40 days of the biennale, until November.

After Korea there are a number of opportunities for it, depending on which event it is picked for. There is going to be a book published on the 120 pieces being sent from Canada. Dr Sandra Alfoldy is writing an essay for the book about the state of craft in Canada based on the work and there will be bios on all of the artists. All great stuff.
I'll give you reports on Walls Talk's journeying whenever I hear anything.

Tyndall Stone Wall

I am making a Tyndall Stone wall.

I have prepared my palette, just as Julia Caprara says to do. Torn strips of fabric...

..lengths of thick yarns, tapes, ribbons & threads are ready for building up in layers on the burlap base. I have 3 stone blocks under way. I'm not sure how many I will need to make a wall.
I'm now thinking the title should be something like 'Walls Talk'.

Good News Re Julia's Books

Avril, a member of our BA(Hons) Embroidered Textiles group, posted a comment on my last post that is such good news. Through Alex's work we can look forward to learning more from Julia in the future. Thanks for the good news, Avril.
Now I have the goal to get through all of the projects in 'Exploring Colour' before the next in the series is published.

Exploring Colour by Julia Caprara

Yahoo! My copy of Julia's new book has arrived and it is as inspirational as everyone says it is. It is really a workbook to keep you learning about colour for years to come. I have already got the sketchbook to begin the first Colour School project. I am going to do a study of my favourite colour - a warm blue.
The saddest part of the book is the last sentence Julia wrote,
'I hope that you will have found these chapters useful in mapping your own route for your personal colour journey and will join me again in the future to explore the next stage along the Path of Colour.'
I guess we will all have to continue on our paths on our own. But if we take this book along I am sure it will continue to be an inspiration.

Julia Caprara's Funeral

It was Julia's funeral yesterday. On and off, all day, I was thinking of her, her family and all of their friends and how sad they must be feeling. It has been a help to me to get stuck into some stitching, particularly when this new work is in Julia's buttonhole textile technique.

I have worked the first layer of torn fabric strips and lightly felted wool by weaving into a burlap backing. The late afternoon sun has made it look a bit yellower than it is in reality.

I have assembled the palette for the next layer which will be thick yarns threaded through loops of the first layer. The photograph is my inspiration - a fossil in a chunk of Tyndall stone.

Julia Caprara's Buttonhole Textile

I found some more images of the work I posted yesterday. This close up shows the work with the 3rd layer - the buttonhole stitch starting to be built up.

The buttonhole stitch works to blend and highlight specific areas of the textile.

This is another work using Julia's technique. It is a Rockies scene where fireweed is colonising an alluvial deposit. I still need to work in more of the buttonhole stitched flowers before it is finished.

Julia Caprara's Stitching Techniques

Back in 2005 Quilting Arts Magazine featured a series of articles written by Julia Caprara. In the Winter issue, Julia wrote about the importance of all textile students building their own personal "touch palette". Since reading the article, I have followed Julia's advice and used the technique she described as "painting with fabric, thread, and stitches".

This work, called The Day the Queen Came to Tea, has the 2 outer panels worked in Julia's technique to give the feel of what Baffin Island valleys, in Northern Canada, look like in the fall. One early explorer recorded the valleys had the richness of a Persian carpet.

Torn strips of fabric were woven into an open-weave burlap to make the first layer of the textile.

Next, thicker yarns, cords and ribbons are threaded through the woven fabric to make the next 1 or 2 layers.

Then finer threads are worked in buttonhole stitch to make another layer. As the final layer I attached shisha mirrors to this work. [Mirrors to represent the tarns (glacial lakes) and the mirrors the Elizabethans traded with the Inuit that remained after the visitors left.]
In her article, Julia explains how a stitcher can change all of the variables to get many different effects. It is an exciting technique to play around with.

Maggie's Interview with Julia Caprara

I have just reread the interview Maggi Grey did with Julia Caprara in her Workshop on the Web e-zine, May 2007. It is such a good interview. You can hear Julia's enthusiasm and zest for life as she talks.

It hints at all of the things Julia was involved in. The background of her and her husband, Alex's setting up of the Opus School of Textile Arts is most interesting. With Julia's typically gentle spirit what doesn't come across is the influence she and Alex have had on the lives of literally hundreds and hundreds of textile students over the years.

A valuable section of the interview is where Maggie asks Julia to explain how she goes about curating and hanging the huge annual Prism exhibition in the Mall Galleries in London. Maggie is right, Julia's answer was inspirational to anyone involved in displaying art work.
Thanks Maggie for this lovely memory of Julia.

These images for Julia are from a trip I made to India, earlier this year. If you would like to see more, click on Lesley's Galleries at the top right to get into my public web albums.

More Colour for Julia Caprara

...from India

Last week I ordered Julia's new 'Exploring Colour' book from D4daisy,http://www.d4daisy.com/. I have read so many positive reviews of it. Each time the doorbell goes I think it must be the postman with my book . I must be patient.
But, when it arrives I am going to stop everything, make a cup of tea and sit down for a long read.

Julia Caprara & Symbols

Julia was interested in symbols left behind by ancient peoples. So here are some Canadian petroglyphs and pictographs for Julia.


Canadian Rockies, Alberta

Saint Victor, Saskatchewan

Nanaimo, Vancouver Island

Julia Caprara: Julia By the Sea

Julia's idea of the perfect place to be while working in her sketchbooks was to be warm while sitting beside water. So here are some perfect spots for Julia.

Cuba

Torbay, New Zealand

Vancouver Island, Canada

Just before Julia got sick, she and Alex planned to travel across Canada giving workshops then finshing with a few days beside the sea on Vancouver Island. Julia was working on her colour book and was looking forward to exploring the colours of the Pacific Coast.
If you have ever seen Julia's sketchbooks you would have seen evidence of her special ablity to capture the feeling of a place with colour. She then translated this feeling to her embroideries.

Julia Caprara

I am filling my blog space with colour today to remember Julia Caprara who passed away on Friday. Julia was one of the doyennes of the art world. People all around the planet will be feeling a sense of loss. Many will be wondering how they will cope without her. But no one more than Alex, her husband who has been beside her through her long illness.