'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' - How she came about.

'Aunt Flow Speaks Out' - Artists Statement

Women menstruate.

If women did not menstruate, you and I would not be on this earth. We would not be alive.

Menstruation is a necessary part in our chain of life.

This artwork celebrates the humanity and acceptance of this monthly visitor. Aunt Flow comes to visit, sits on a tomato, and can’t go swimming on certain days. Strawberries, rabbits, Maggie the Red Bird is flying her colours. Speak about it, share words and stories, celebrate women, and this part of womanhood that just is, that makes life possible. We are enough, we are OK.

Menstruation Euphemisms penned by Kirsten Horel, website, artist and lettering artist.

After reading 'Flow: The Cultural Story of Menstruation' by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim, I had a strong urge to stimulate a conversation about this hidden subject.

It was time my collection of perfectly laundered handkerchiefs got to work.

I rubbed the centre of each handkerchief with red ochre to represent the blood.

I contacted Kirsten and asked if she wanted to work with me on the project. I was so pleased when she agreed to. She went to work researching and collecting more euphemisms and tested different ways of working the lettering with different inks and different pens. She also lettered the signs inviting the viewer to touch the handkerchiefs and to write their menstruation words and experiences in the red book. 

Together we worked on the artist statement where Kirsten's wonderful sense of humour lighted my rather heavy expression of indignation at yet another social injustice.

Each saying was printed on cloth and torn into a strip then a cotton thread was attached to the bottom.

Each handkerchief was nailed to the wall with its euphemism mostly hidden by the natural fold of the handkerchief hung on point.

I trialed different arrangements for hanging the handkerchiefs.

I wanted to give the feeling of lots, as though the installation could go on and on if there was enough room - to make the viewer ask why there were so many of these sayings.

I decided on this staggered arrangement then made a template out of gridded interfacing to show where each nail needed to go.

Satisfied I packed everything into a box and went looking for places to show 'Aunt Flow Speaks Out'.

Circumnavigation: Things To Do When Not Actually Sailing

Sketching in Roller Bay, Hope Island

Roller Bay, so named because the round stones roll in and out with the waves making such a distinctive noise.

Picking up debris on what should have been a pristine beach. I collected a bag of stuff to incorporate in a work about the world's plastic garbage issue.

And there was always knitting when not required by the skipper to pull my weight.

New Work - 'Forest Flowers'

I am working on a new work for a Surface Design Association exhibition. It involves a number of different steps and techniques.

Random dyeing the ground cloth.

All of the fabric is worn bed sheets.

Dyeing for an all-over mottled colour.

Another sheet dyed to get a more randomly patterned effect.

Sampling different fabric paints to screen print motifs onto the dyed ground.

Resist dyeing. I tied different sized seeds in the centre of torn squares of cloth. 

The tied thread acted as a resist when dyed.

Hand stitching the resist dyed squares.

I keep track of time spent making the work.

Etsy Shop - Ravenmade Works: My Process

I go to thrift stores, garage sales and estate auctions in search of embroideries, hand made works that have essentially been discarded. Each one has a story about its maker, its owner and its history but for most of them this provenance has been lost.

Sometimes, when I take a work out of it's dusty framing, I'll find a name and maybe a year. Sometimes the stitching has been completed but the work is not framed or finished.

Sometimes the work is unfinished, then I wonder what stopped the stitcher working on it.

Each work is soaked then washed according to the materials it is made from. It is dried quickly in a drying room so the colours don't get a chance to run. Once it is damp-dry, it is pressed and blocked with a steam-generating iron, until it is dry.

Works made from wool are fulled lightly during the washing process so they won't unravel during the cutting up stage.

Individual elements are cut out and grouped according to a colour scheme. 

Crewel embroideries work particularly well.

I go into my stash of vintage textiles to find a background that will work with the collected elements.

Elements are selected, auditioned and composed before I hand and machine stitch them in place.

With needlepoint works, I find 2 that work together then cut them into strips. The 2 different lots of strips are woven together to make a new image but the physiology of the female eye enables her to still see the 2 different embroidered images.

These small works are then mounted in black, shadow-box frames so they can be hung together in groupings or singly.

Body of Work: 'Regression'

'Regression'

48"w x 84" h x 10"d. Materials: cotton, wool, silk, polyester, nylon, paper cord, wood. Techniques: strip-piecing, couching, hand and machine stitching, knitting. Photographer: Tony Bounsall, Tony's website

'Regression' is the companion work of 'Succession', View "Succession" here

'Regression', detail. Photographer: Tony Bounsall

The removal of components such fallen leaves from under a tree or the disruption of natural process by clear felling a forest, puts the whole ecosystem in a state of unbalance. The complex web of interconnected elements and processes are no longer able to rejuvenate. The fabric of life begins to unravel just as it happens to knitting when a needle is pulled out.

I have used textiles and crafts associated with the home to link our actions in the home with our actions in the natural world, our shared home. To disrupt the natural world is pathological behaviour.

The Process

I used the same technique as for 'Succession'.

The fabric covered cord was knit with large sonotube cardboard 'needles'.

The Process

Couched strip-piecing wrapped around a cord.

Body of Work: 'Succession'

'Succession'

96"h x 60"w x 36"d / 244 cm h x 152 cm w x 92 cm d. Materials: cotton, wool, polyester, nylon, wood. Techniques: strip piecing, couching, knitting. Photographer: Tony Bounsall.

'Succession', detail. Photographer: Tony Bounsall.

The well-being of an ecosystem depends on an unbroken cycle of organic processes. This work is knit with a continuous length of yarn made from  textiles usually found in the home. The work can be viewed as a tree, a forest or a web of living organisms - human and botanical.

'Succession', detail. Photographer: Tony Bounsall.

The red is the dark forest floor and red blood cells. Complimentary green is the forest canopy and chlorophyll cells. The shape and structure of both types of cells are the same, which vividly illustrates our intimate human connection with the natural world. 

The Process

A length of cotton cord was covered with strip pieced and couched domestic textiles.

The Process

The ends of the covered cord were joined forming an unbroken circle.

Using large-sized cardboard 'needles', the 'yarn' was knit into a web-like fabric.

The fabric can be continually unraveled from the top with the resulting cord wound into a ball to feed the continual action of knitting from the bottom.

Studio News: Four New Projects Started

After a very busy summer with a family wedding and lots of company, I am back in the studio. With so much time off I need to re-establish a work routine. Having started 4 new projects this week is helping. I move from one project to the next and studio time flies by.

I can show you only a glimpse of what I am working on because

one is a commission and the commissioner would probably like to see the work before anyone else.

One is destined to be put in front of a jury in the hope of being selected for an exhibition. Until then it has to remain anonymous and unseen.

One is for an exhibition proposal and needs to be work as yet unseen by the public.

So sorry, this sneak-a-peek is all I can show for now. Keep checking and I will post images of the works as soon as I am allowed.

In the meantime I am back in my studio most days, which is a good thing.

Articulation's Victoria Study Session Continues

On the ferry, crossing to Saltspring Island for the day: to visit Articulation member, Shannon Wardroper's home and studio, to check out potential gallery space and time for a little retail therapy. 

Stitches Fibre Art Supplies, http://www.stitchesfibreartsupplies.ca/ very kindly opened up their store just for us, even though it was Sunday.

Continuing our study of railway hotels across Canada, we took a tour of the Empress Hotel.

This is the view from a 6th floor corner suite looking out over the inner harbour.

A table in the present day Empress tea room, set for their famous afternoon tea.

On the tour we learnt the tables were made from the original hotel floor boards after it was replaced.

Articulation taking the harbour ferry from the Inner Harbour, below the Empress hotel, up to the Upper Harbour.

We got off at Point Ellice House where we walked the grounds and toured inside the house with its intact, original contents. All chattels both inside the house and in their archives are thoroughly cataloged making it a perfect place to research the Victorian era in Victoria.

Leann Clifford

We did stop for afternoon tea while sitting out on the lawn but passed on a game of croquet.

We toured Fisherman's Wharf with its floating restaurants and floating houses that make up the village. 

We continued our driving tour around the Victoria peninsular, stopping and walking the historic sights, including Ogden Point breakwater without a breath of wind and barely a ripple of water.

After a week exploring and researching in Victoria we have returned to our respective studios across Canada to make a body of work for exhibition some time in the future.

Carole Sabiston 'Everything Below All of the Above'

There are 2 galleries full of Carole's work.

This one gave me a start because I used the same PK Page poem in my degree studies. 

'Planet Earth:after PK Page' 2013

It was so interesting to see how Carole worked with the same words.

'Connecting Threads: Arc of Carol Shields' 2013

This is a tribute to her friend, Carol Shields, the Noble prize winning writer of short stories.

This image doesn't do justice to the complexity of the silk layers.

3 friend, Esther, Kati, Sarah, all artists, enjoying looking through the large 'Touch Book.'

It is a large exhibition with lots to see, so I have visited twice so far and may go again.