Banff Centre Dye Studio

This is the Banff Art Centre dye studio.
It has everything one could want when working with fabric and dyes.
This morning I put some fabric to soak in soda ash to get it ready to dye.

Banff March 4

Here we all are at Banff with more of the group to join us at various times through out the month: (left) Gloria S. Daly, Ingrid Lincoln, Lesley Turner, Donna Clement, Wendy Klotz. We are standing in front of one of Donna's works, All That Glitters Is Not Gold that we put up yesterday in Other Gallery.

This morning Wendy Tokaryk explained to us how to use all of the silkscreen printing machines, which was like a mini-workshop. The image above is the lounge in Glyde Hall that we use when we are working in the dye/paper studio and the print studio

Banff March 3

There was great excitement today. While we were in the Glyde Building having our WHMIS orientation (safety training) so we could use the 2 studios we had booked, we noticed the small gallery, Other Gallery, was empty! We asked Wendy & Mikhail (above), our trainers, who was responsible for the space. They took us to meet Ed Bamiling and within a few minutes we had booked the space from that afternoon until 8th.

Over lunch we discussed the hanging, then we collected up the finished work we had brought with us and took it to the gallery.

We laid our work around the perimeter of the L-shaped gallery.

Ingrid & Gloria eyeball a work to make it level.

Within 3 hours we had filled that space. We are calling the exhibition "No More White Walls".

Banff March 1

March 1st is the 1st day of Articulation's residency in the Leighton Colony at The Banff Centre. We checked in, had our photo ID Artist cards made up and picked up the key to the studio. The weather cooperated as we carried load after load of our supplies through the trees to our studio.

Ingrid

Husbands were a great help unloading the cars.

Then we took the remainder of our car loads to Lloyd Hall where we each have a hotel type room.

Teaching Fibre Art to High School Students

For the past few weeks I have been working with a grades 11 & 12 art class as they learn how to dye and paint fabric. They random-dyed and painted backgrounds then thickened the dyes to paint, print, stencil and stamp for the 2nd & 3rd layers.

This student is cutting out letters from a random-dyed background and is going to applique them onto the pink & blue piece above.
This past week we worked on stitching using straight stitch to add texture, develop a focal point, emphasise line or shape and to balance the composition.
They are a great group to work with. I am looking forward to seeing their stitching progress when I visit again in April.

Walls Talk

Walls Talk is finished - 120 hours of stitching!

John Dean is the photographer. He always does a superb job with my work.

There is lots of clear detail, which is important with this work, particularly because it is all about the materials. Click on the image to zoom in on the detail.
John can see light and he understands textiles are not watercolours. He deliberately sets up lights to make shadows. These images have shadows to show the texture which is one of the most distinctive elements of fibre art.

John's colours are true. Compare his images with my snaps in previous Walls Talk posts.

Walls Talk

Working on building up the focal point of the wall.

This is a large fossil form caught in the stone.


I will have to move the stone blocks around, remaking the wall each time to find the most pleasing arrangement.
Block #7 is having a bubble bath.
I used a lot of old yarns, worn clothing torn into strips and threads that have waited a long time for their day. Also, I dragged these blocks to many places to work on them whenever I could. One day, while sitting on a boat stitching, we both got covered by a salty wave. So they all needed a good wash before being blocked.

Hewing Stone

I am hewing the last stone for the Tyndall wall. Each day I have been washing and blocking a block once it looks as though it has enough of the detailed stitching.

But I won't really how much is enough until I can see all of the blocks laid out side by side as a wall.

Walls Talk Progress

One of the Walls Talk blocks told me it was finished so it went into a soapy bath for a good clean.

Then it was blocked, right side down, and left to dry.

I use a system of wires and pins to block stitching and knitting.

Walls Talk

I'm back stitching in earnst on my Walls Talk (I think that is its name). I have made 8 blocks of Tyndall stone to make the wall. I now have to add lots of detailed stitching to build up each block. Tyndall stone captured lots of different fossil forms so I'm working their shapes into the stone.

Mind Like Water

These past few days I have taken a time-out to do a tidy-up of my life. I listened to David Allen reading his book (7 Cd's) while I took notes. His book, Getting Things Done The Art of Stress Free Productivity, is about setting up a system to capture all you want to do in your life so your mind is free to become like water, free to be creative and to come up with those brilliant ideas.
Another half day of work and my studio will be set up according to his system.
I am looking forward to having a mind like water.

Antonio Gaudi

I saw an old Japanese movie, early 80s, almost no talking, no sub titles, some b/w footage, no information, and it was great. I was able to really focus without distraction on the incredible detail in everything this art nouveau architect touched. It was enthralling to spend well over an hour just panning through his structures.

Louise Bourgeious

Don't Abandon Me
Another artist I looked at in my essay was Louise Bourgeois. A vital part of her human form sculptures in cloth is they are made from her own garments. This is self psychoanalysis.
She is an amazing role model, producing several shows of new work each year. She will be 98 this year.

Christian Boltanski

Christian Boltanski is another artist who works with cloth and the body.
I wrote about his work in my essay too.

'Art can only be made if one has a Utopian faith in the possibility of changing the world.'
-Christian Boltanski

Return to Earth

I have returned to earth now that I have completed an essay for the Opus BA module I am doing this semester. What a journey. I learnt lots while working out how artists transform used and sometimes dirty garments into art.
This is an image of Maria Ezcurra's work. She has unpicked a woman's swim suit and tacked it to the wall. She says she releases women from labels which are restrictions society puts on her. She has changed something 3D into 2D abstract art.
The problem is, I can see the male gaze focusing on the woman as a trophy, turning her into an object just the same way westerners have mounted and displayed kills from a hunt.
I think these works of Maria's could have their meaning turned around to do reinforce what she was intending to change.
It was her other work I wrote about in the essay because it is exciting stuff.