WAR: A Personal Response, Body of Work, 'Home Comfort'

Home Comfort

Wool, cotton, plastic; hand knitting.

Chrome Island as seen from Blue Shift's deck

2 years ago my husband and I took a month to sail around Vancouver Island. I took a knitting project to work on every day. I wanted to feel what it was like for the ones who stayed at home to be encouraged, implored and urged to use every spare moment to knit garments for those fighting overseas.

In preparation for the voyage, I went through my stash gathering up all yarns in 'serviceable' colours resolved to use only what I had to follow the wartime mantra of 'making do.'

Provisioning and refueling stop.

During WWII, the Royal Airforce put out a call out for more scarves for plane crews. Planes were getting larger, flying higher and for longer creating long periods of bitterly cold conditions for crew members in cramped, noisy quarters. My grandmother Florence must have been pleased to be able to make something to help her 3 boys in the airforce, something to help keep them warm and comforted knowing someone at home was thinking of them.

Another provisioning stop is a chance to lay out and see what I have knit so far.

I had in mind to make one long, long scarf to suggest the idea of 'mindless knitting.' When both hands are engaged in an activity the mind is free to wander, to get into the zone where there is a comforting flow back and forward between both sides of the brain. In this state, the emotions are calmed and one loses the ability to keep track of time. Knitting becomes a soothing, timeless activity.

Florence would have found great comfort in getting lost in such a revery where she could process her trauma, calm her grief-weary mind and take comfort in caring for her boys while publically appearing to support the war effort.

Knitting is one of the few activities that can be picked up and worked on when it is smooth sailing and can also be thrown down without harm when there is a crisis to manage. 

I can knit when it is cold and sunny though every so often I need to hold a hot cup of tea to warm my hands.

I can knit when it is hot and sunny. 

The wool doesn't mind getting wet with rain or salt water.

The colours I work with have several layers of meaning. During WWI and WWII each military force had its own distinctive colours: airforce blue, navy blue which is almost a black, and army khaki yellow. In European cultures, black is the colour of death, grief, and mourning and blue is associated with depression. The personal levels of meaning are black for Florence's grief in losing her husband, eldest son and a brother-in-law to war, airforce blue as a reminder of her 3 sons risking their lives in the airforce, Khaki yellow of infantry man's uniform is a reminder of her fiance away fighting.

Installation

I had in mind this endless knitting would unroll throughout the room I created. But no matter how I placed the knitting it didn't work. It didn't create the mindless knitting revery feeling. I ended up stacking up folds of knitting on the ground in front of the chair. It gets the idea across but I must admit it does not have the impact I thought it would. I thought this work would be the strongest one out of the 10 items in the room. As it turns out, and to my surprise, other works have a stronger impact which I will talk about in later posts.

Here is the 'Home Comfort' story from the booklet produced for this exhibition.

The WWII War Office's request for knitted garments known a 'home comforts' provide Florence with the opportunity to publically appear to be supporting the war effort. Privately, knitting gave her time to grieve over her family's decimation - the death's of her husband and eldest son; the absence of two sons away at war. Florence worked in a conflicted state to rationalise and emotionally resolve the duality of supporting the war effort while sacrificing her sons. She had to come to terms with enabling her children to put their lives at risk while battling the strength of the mother-child bond. Florence took to knitting to physically keep her sons warm, emotionally connect with them, do her patriotic duty and provide a means of processing the traumas of war. Endless knitting became a repeated prayer, a meditative chant of 'knit one purl one,' a mantra to calm a battle-weary mind - a home comfort. 

Nana Knitting: New Body of Work Begins with an Announcement

The first project for my Nana Knitting body of work began after a thrilling announcement.

Daughter Katherine made a surprise visit for my birthday. I opened her gift which included a card with the note - "I need this by July 2018." Inside were 2 skeins of yarn. Distracted by the prospect of a new knitting project I think I was the last family member to 'get it.' Katherine was pregnant and due in July. Our first grandchild, how exciting. 

And so my 'Nana Knitting' body of work began. 

I made the rabbit hat using the Rowan Kidsilk Haze yarn in my gift box but combined with an ancient skein of Lavenda 3 ply crisp crepe wool from my sock yarn stash.

I used the Ancient Arts Hat Trick Semi-solid, Ride the Pine skein in my gift box to make a jacket. 

Here it is washed and blocked.

I made up the checkered pattern to give it texture. The pattern is designed with ties at the back. Even though I made thin ties I still don't think it would be comfortable for a young baby to lie on the open back. I suggested to the mother it may be more comfortable worn with the opening in the front.

With the leftover yarn I made a pair of booties with rabbit fur lining the insides of the soles and a pompom for the toes.

Katherine loves rabbits and has had a number of them while growing up. Recently Katherine and Sebastion had a much-loved rabbit called Mango, hence all of the rabbit references.

With outfit #1 made there is no stopping me now. I feel as though the start flag has been lowered in front of me and I am off. There is a lot more Nana Knitting to come off my needles.

Photo Shoot in the Green Shed by Tony Bounsall

Tony Bounsall - Tony Bounsall Photo Design came to the Green Shed for a photo shoot.

Tony has been photographing my work for years because he really knows how to capture textiles.

Here he is setting up to photograph Barbara McCaffrey's large work.

I thought this work would be a challenge because it is solid buttons that turn shiny under lights but Tony was up to it and produced a lovely image.

I pushed back all of the furniture to make a large space in front of the design wall.

I invited 3 other artists to also have their work photographed in the same session.

We were all applying for the juried exhibition 'Eco-Threads' and wanted our work to look the best.

Laura Feeleus, Barbara McCaffrey, Sarah Mclaren

I moved the furniture around in the studio again to be able to block some loooong knitting. I had to build up the lower cutting table to extend the flat surface to block on.

To block knitting I use wires to hold the edges out straight while the fabric is drying. Wool has memory and will hold this shape once it is dry.

I use a t-pins to hold the wires at the corners and at a few places along the edges.

I had made 2 bias knit scarves in kid mohair and hand dyed merino for birthday gifts. The birthdays were happening soon so I needed to get these finished and in the post.

Then it was back to continue working on the Synesthesia series.

The flexible studio space was put to the test this week and proved to work well.

SCAD Fiber Department Tour continues

The Sewing Machine Studio

Students learn to work with electronic, digitised machines...

...and old-school machines for sewing, knitting, embroidery and serging.

The Weaving Studio

I have very limited knowledge on looms but could see the room was filled with many different types - small and large. The largest one in the back is the only such machine in North America - having come from Scandinavia. 

The Surface Design Studio

I have never seen a cleaner surface design room. It was simple and perfectly set up. The above image shows only one side of one of the rooms.

The screen cleaning set up is quite unique. They have worked within the limits of an old building basement to come up with a simple solution.

The SCAD tour was an exciting start to the Textile Society of America's Symposium 2016.

Teasels - a cloth worker's tool.

This year's teasel harvest

I refreshed the teasels at the front door. 

This is my shingle.

elserine is a weaver. 

During a Vancouver Island Surface Design Assoc meeting elserine demonstrated how the teasel was/is used to full woven or knit garments to make them soft. Gently stroking the cloth with a tied teasel bundle raises the nap. Commercially they have been replaced by steel combs but some woolen workers continue to prefer to use teasels because they are kinder to the cloth, the teasel hook breaking when meeting resistance and so avoiding damage to the fibers.

In parts of the USA, the teasel is considered noxious because it out-competes native plants. I have noticed teasels grow where soil has been disturbed and damaged so I consider them 'band-aid' plants. They have long tap roots capable of bringing minerals up from lower soil levels to the surface and they produce a lot of stem and leaves which are useful for the 'chop and drop' permaculture method of soil building. As the plant material decays, it releases organic matter and minerals into the soil making them available for other plants.

In our garden, I believe the teasel will serve its purpose until soil conditions improve and the plant is no longer suited to the site and its seeds, with a two-year viability, will no longer germinate. 

Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens Exhibition 2016, New Zealand

While in New Zealand recently we visited the Kaipara Coast Sculpture Gardens to see the 2016 exhibition.

This was one of my favourites.

After walking along the hydrangea avenue one sees at the end Janette Cevin's 'Hydrangeas'.

Large-scale hydrangea paintings with their glossy highly decorative metal surfaces covered in acrylic and resin are larger than life and draw the viewer in.

Audrey Boyle's 'Kareao (Supplejack)' is made of steel to mimic nature.

Jane and Mario Downes 'Taraxacum Forest' is also made of steel and mimics nature in an overblown scale.

Marlyne Jackson's 'Beneath the Willow Tree'

Reminiscent of yarn bombing, Marlyne works to express the struggles of recent immigrants...

...making a new life for themselves.

Margaret Johnston's 'Sleep Out' is like a miniature Janet Morton installation...

...until one gets up close to it. 

Margaret remembers childhood summers spent sleeping in a pup tent in the back yard and playing beside the sea. She feels sad about how these activities are now polluted by the huge amount of dumped waste from the telecommunications industries. She knit the tent from this waste.

"What are we doing to our land?"

'Small Expressions' Opens in Tulista Gallery, Sidney BC

The Community Arts Council of Saanich Peninsula is hosting its annual 'Small Expressions' exhibition in the Community Arts Centre at Tulista Park, Sidney BC, March 4 - 30, Tuesdays to Sundays, 10:00 to 4:00 pm.

A team of us spent 9 hours the first-day accepting work and hanging the show.

One of the challenges with hanging the show is all of the works are small. 

Artists were challenged to work within a 12" x 12" x 12" framework. This is not always easy when one is used to expressing ideas in a much larger format.

It is interesting to see how many of the artists take the opportunity to explore a new technique or medium. They take more risks and they make discoveries. I wonder if for some this Small Expressions exhibition works as a catalyst or a jumping off point to head in a new direction.

When planning the hanging we had to forget about going for contrast in size and focus more on themes, colour contrasts and compatibility and how different works influenced each other. 

With all the works being small we hung them close together and in groupings ensuring each work sit comfortably with the others.

That is why it took 9 hours the first day and more hours the next day to straighten, adjust, fine tune, tweak, and add labels. I wasn't able to help the second day because I was out at Sooke hanging the VISDA 'Current Threads: Garden Tapestry' exhibition I posted about here 

One of this exhibition's charms is how it makes the viewer  physically get up close to the works. Each work enters the viewer's personal space creating a feeling of intimacy. Having to look at one work at a time slows the viewer down and encourages contemplation. Long distant scanning of the walls is unsatisfying. There is an absence of the usual back-and-forward dance in front of the wall. Instead, the viewer moves along the wall with their nose nearly touching the works.

Circumnavigation: West Coast Vancouver Island

By the time we were on the west coast my knitting had grown much longer.

And I was working my way through the pile of stowed books. They included a few about and by Emily Carr because this was the country she traveled through and worked in.

Kerry Mason Dodd's book 'Sunlight in the Shadows. The Landscape of Emily Carr' is full of photographs of places Emily visited. It gave us clues as to where Emily visited and we were able to stop at a few of those places.

Emily Carr, Indian Church', 1927, oil on canvas, 108.6 x 68.9cm. Art Gallery fo Ontario.

photographed from Sharyn Rohlfsen Udall's 'Carr, O'Keeffe, Kahlo. Places of their Own.'

Emily Carr did sketches for this painting when she visited Friendly Cove, Nootka Island.

We anchored in Friendly Cove, puttered ashore and went in search of the church. We learnt from the resident warden that particular church burnt down in 1954. The above church was built as a replacement 2 years later on a new site further towards the point. It is now a museum for the local First Nations band's collection of artefacts.

Also in Friendly Cove is the Nootka Light Station.

Emily Carr sketched the light station buildings during a later visit, in 1929. 

I found this image in Doris Shadbolt's 'The Sketchbooks of Emily Carr. Seven Journeys.' 

Reading about Emily Carr, Georgia O'Keeffe and Frida Khalo, 3 artists with intense connections to nature and long attachments to specific places, helped me during the month at sea to look longer and deeper at the water, land and sky that is home and a source of inspiration for my work. As a result, I have a sketchbook of ideas to work with.