The Fruits of Summer Show in Nectar Desserts

Donna, Nancy, husband Ron & I hung The Fruits of Summer show at Nectar Desserts this morning. Nancy painted 2 series of works featuring apples & cherries and some watercolour flowers with her calligraphy. Donna examined cross sections of fruits in fibre...

and worked flowers in her signature tissue paper drawing technique. I made little confections inspired by my memories of hydrangeas in my Nana's Garden series. I think they look like Nectar Desserts' executive chef, Rebekah Pearse's, fruit tart creations. If you click on the title of this post to visit her website, you will see what inspired me.

Rebekah wasn't coming in until this afternoon to get ready for a class she is teaching tonight so when we finished the hanging she hadn't seen it yet. We made groupings of works in the same shapes as the collections of furniture in front of them. We hope she likes what we did to her place.

Leighton Artists Colony

Here is a view from our studio looking out towards the neighbouring one which is designed for an artist working with sound.

Here we are last March, all bundled up in our winter gear, heading to our studio for a mornings work.

Click on the title of this post to find out more information about this wonderful programme the Banff Centre offers artists. We will be doing an Independent Residency in The Gerin-Lajoie Studio which is a space specially designed for visual artists. The light coming into the studio is perfect.

At the same time we have many services and facilities available to us at the Banff Centre, including a large arts-focused library/archives, exhibition space and printing/media departments. All of our personal needs are taken care of with private, serviced, hotel-like rooms, meals in a spectacular eagle-nest type restaurant, full fitness centre and ozone drenched mountain air everywhere.

Imagine having all of your personal needs & physical requirements being taken care, being surrounded by mountains & trees, & being continually supported by colleagues who speak the same language - for a whole month!

With these conditions, I predict some amazing work is going to be produced by Articulation.

Banff Centre , Leighton Studios

Exciting news! Articulation, the fibre arts group I belong to, has been accepted into the Artist in Residence program in the Leighton Studios for the whole month of March next year, 2009.
Last March we spent 2 weeks in our studio in the trees carrying out research for our 'Women Rock' study. We are all now back in our studios across Canada developing our ideas, sampling & gathering materials. Come March we will return to our goup studio in the mountains to make the body of work. We already have bookings to exhibit our 'Women Rock' work which will complete the last phase of this large group project.

Nana's Garden Series

Here is fabric ready to be sewn into another work for my Nana's Garden series. I am fascinated by the way hydrangeas are like litmus paper and indicate the ph of the soil. It is like flamingos eating shrimp.
My Nana used to put special stuff under her hydrangea bushes to make different coloured blossoms and I can remember being impressed with her knowledge of gardening.

Red Deer College - Series

This summer I am working on the Visual Studies module of the Opus BA(Hons) programme I am enrolled in. It is highly recommened one takes a figure drawing class. My drawing skills are poorly developed, to say the least, so I attended a 5 day long open drawing studio session at Red Deer College's summer art programme, Series, in the hope that total immersion would produce some observational drawings I could use in my assignments.
What a time I had. With Ross Bradley's organisation and years of live drawing experience we had a different model every day from 9 in the morning until 10 at night, with breaks to consume food & drink coffee. It was quite a unique experience, in this day, to be able to totally focus on one activity for a sustained period.
Another bonus for me was the calibre of the other drawers in the studio. Studying their work was an education for me. And each one was such an interesting person and most pleasant company. I looked forward to joining them in the studio each morning.

While in Red Deer Collage, I stayed in residence. Over the week, as I walked to and from the studio, I enjoyed the drama of Canadian prairie skies.

This storm caused hail damage to crops and there was a tornado warning over the radio. I was too busy drawing to follow up on whether it touched down or not. That's how absorbing this whole drawing experience was.

Nana's Garden 1 - Finished

Here is Nana's Garden 1 finished & framed in a shadow box. I kept track of the hours it took to make - a total of 23 hours - so now I will be able to answer that question if anyone asks. It will be hung in Nectar Desserts for the month of August along with other flower & fruit themed work by Donna Clement & Nancy Dormer.

Progress On Nana's Garden 1

Here is Nana's Garden 1 after 14 hours. I am enjoying the stitching only I miss not being outside where I normally stitch when it is warm. Those summer breezes would play havoc with the tiny pieces of fabric I am working with.

Nana's Garden is Moving Along

The design is done, samples made, pattern transfered, ground fabric prepared, threads gathered up, fabric ironed & cut. Now for the hand stitching. A question people often ask me is how long a particular work took to make so I am keeping track of the time I am spending on this work; to date -7 hours.

Nana's Garden

I am developing a series of works using my memories of & associations with hydrangeas. I photographed many blossoms in the last days of their splendid show when I was in New Zealand this past May. The low angle of the late afternoon sun set off their fading glory.

A Strange Thing Happened Last Week

...while visiting in Vancouver. I came across this sculpture while walking along the waterfront. I couldn't find any information about what it was called or who the artist was so I snapped some images and thought I would Google it when I got home.

The morning after I returned home to Calgary, I opened up the morning paper to see a photo of the sculpture & the headline 'A big win for Calgary'. "Residents near where the sculpture 'Device to Root Out Evil' was located complained it blocked the view" so Vancouver is getting rid of it and the Glenbow Museum in Calgary has snapped it up even though they don't know where to put it yet.
Dennis Oppenheim is the artist of this controversial work that has been bumped from one place to the next since 1997. I'll post some images of the upside down church when it comes to rest in its new home here in Calgary.

A Show in a Boardroom

Donna Clement & I set up a show of our work in the boardroom of TD Waterhouse, Calgary, during their Customer Appreciation Day.

With the downtown skyscrapers in the background and lots of light it was an ideal place to show our work.

We talked to many people about fibre art and received many favourable comments about our work.

Toronto Dominion Bank continues to be one of Articulation's major supporters so the show was a great opportunity to show the staff and their customers what we do.

Home From the McMullen Gallery

After packing up our work in the McMullen Gallery, Donna & I had to battle through several typical prairie summer thunderstorms on the drive back to Calgary. Strong winds, heavy rain, lightening all around & a tornado warning with 2 of my biggest work in the back of a pick up was a bit of a worry but we all made it safely.

McMullen Gallery, University of Alberta Hospital

The show is over and it is time to take the exhibition down. It has been a most enjoyable experience to exhibit in this gallery. The staff & volunteers couldn't do enough for us, the ambience of the space is nurturing and the visitors so appreciative. Donna & I are looking forward to exhibiting with our group Articulation in the McMullen in April/May/June 2009 with a new body of work resulting from our week together studying the architecture of downtown Winnipeg.

Hand Printing Blocks, India

This highly skilled craftsman carves intricate blocks for printing fabric.

He carves ancient designs and he takes on commissions for new designs. See the Canadian designs on the left. He is making blocks for a Canadian textile artist.

Hand Block Resist Dyed Textile

Stage 9 - Dabu mud-resist is applied where the 1st shade of indigo blue needs to be kept. Dabu can withstand a maximum of 4 dips into the indigo vat.

Stage 10 - The textile is immersed again into the indigo vat & spread in the sun to develop the colour.

Stage 11 - The textile is washed to remove the mud & loose dye. The result is a textile with 2 shades of red, 2 shades of blue, black on white background & magenta where indigo over-dyes red.