Colour: A Personal Response Exhibition - getting ready to hang

For the past 2 years, Sarah McLaren and I have been producing bodies of work based on how we feel about specific colours.

I have produced 24 works, each one exploring the energy I feel from a specific colour.

Sarah has explored each colour through the works of one of her favourite artists.

Here is her 'Modigliani in magenta' and my 'Synesthesia #5 Green'.

Earlier in the year, we set up a little taster of our exhibition in the gallery where we will be exhibiting next week - ArtSea Gallery at Tulista Park, Sidney BC, September 18th to 24th.

We both made colour cards in 24 different hues with shades, tints and tones in fabric on one side and paint on the other. We are busy packaging these up in sets to sell.

 We both made colour books, one to match each of our fibre works.

Here are my books laid out flat while the matte medium layer dries.

 I also made a second set of smaller books. 

The rack cards and poster have been designed, printed and distributed.

Many thanks to Sarah's daughter, Margo for all of the work she has done to promote the exhibition. 

In these last few days, we are working through our checklists of all those tasks that need to be done to mount an exhibition. Labels - check, print stickers - check, pick up cards - check, .....

Sunday evening we begin hanging. Sarah and I are very excited to see for the first time how our work looks together. I'll keep you posted.

'Colour: A Personal Response' 

September 18th to 24th, 2017

Artsea Gallery, Tulista Park, 9565 Fifth Street, Sidney BC

Open 10am to 4pm daily

Opening Reception September 19th, 2017 from 4 to 6pm

Sprinkle Dyeing and Sun Printing at VISA, Victoria

During a Mark Makers' summer residency at the Vancouver Island School of Art (VISA) website we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and have a dyeing day outside.

We set up tables and brought out buckets of water to the backyard of the school.

I set up my sophisticated system for working with dye powder safely and gave a quick demo on how to fill salt shaker-type containers with dye powder.

While the air was still we explored different sprinkle dye techniques using Procion MX. 

Wet soda-soaked natural fabrics were folded, rolled and scrunched before sprinkling dye powder over them.

Eileen sprinkles dye on flat fabric.

Brenda sprinkles dye on a linen fabric already cut to shape for a garment.

This is a great way to use up old batches of dye powder. It works best with dyes made up from a mix of colours. The different colours separate out and migrate through the damp fabric at different rates.

After lunch, Dale gave us a demo of sun printing using transparent fabric paints on damp cloth. She showed us how many different resists will work to leave an impression.

With the sun overhead, we all got clear impressions of the resists. Brenda is using plastic shapes she has cut out and leaves as a resist on linen fabric she has painted with fabric paint. Others used flowers, grasses, bubble wrap, paper and cotton doilies as resisits. 

The dyed cloth was covered with plastic and taken home to batch before being rinsed and ironed.

Gathering at the Edge - A Surface Design Association BC + Yukon Event, April 1 - 3, 2016

Gathering at the Edge committee members woman the registration desk in the Holiday Inn Express & Suites lobby.

Barbara McCaffery, Lesley Turner, Laura Feeleus. Susan Purney-Mark signs in.

Gatherers: Katie Stein Sather and Jennifer Love

'Gathering at the Edge' is a three-day event in conjunction with the national touring exhibition, 'Edge of the Forest,' where SDA BC + Yukon members will come together to create connection and build community.' Quote from the program.

Lori Mudrie, Elserine Sprenger, and Hugo Sprenger register in the hotel.

Many of the Gatherers stay in the hotel over the event.

Sheila Wex, the BC + Yukon representative for SDA, welcomes people to the Gathering during the celebration dinner held in the Coastal Offices Conference Room, next to the hotel.

It is a time to put faces to familiar names, to make new friendships and to renew old ones.

A common passion for fibre links and bonds everyone in the room and there is a spirit of celebration.

Special thanks to Judi McLeod for taking these photographs and continuing to document the whole event.

'Edge of the Forest' exhibition - Surface Design Association (SDA) Canada

 'Edge of the Forest' exhibition and 'Gathering at the Edge' event committee.

L to R- Gina Dingwell, Barbara McCaffrey, Lesley Turner, Laura Feeleus

After touring across Canada the 'Edge of the Forest' juried textile exhibition arrives on Vancouver Island to be hosted by the Vancouver Island Surface Design Association.

Here it is loaded up and ready to be taken to the Coast Collective's new gallery in Colwood.

Barbara and Laura

Every work was made to a specified size which made the collection a breeze to hang once Laura had done the math to fit in all the works so they were evenly spaced while filling all of the gallery's walls.

Barbara and Lesley

With the show hung we are ready for the public opening on 26th March 2016

Barbara was responsible for the food and beverages catering and the floral arrangements. She did a wonderful job.

And they came...

Lesley, Laura, Barbara

Here we are looking very pleased with ourselves after successfully hanging the exhibition and attracting the public to the opening event.
Many thanks to Judi McLeod for documenting the events with her camera.

All Beings Confluence - Martha Cole's Community Project in Victoria

Martha Cole, a Saskatchewan fibre artist, has brought her monumental community art project to Victoria for the first time. You can see it in the Cadboro Bay United Church until May.

"All Beings Confluence is a community-based, interactive project that was directly inspired by Carolyn McDade, a composer, social activist and environmentalist whose music has sustained and nourished many over the decades."

The opening reception at Cadboro Bay United Church was a moving experience. One could walk around and through the many panels while listening to music, singing and poetry readings.

Martha explained how the project came about and how she came to bring it to Victoria.

Next stop is Parksville, Vancouver Island.

When Martha arrives in a community she runs a workshop where people work on long sheer panels each depicting one being found on our planet. These panels are then hung together with previously made panels creating paths and a changing kaleidoscope of views through transparent layers.

Here is the website to learn more.