More Sailing Pics

One of my favourite spots to stop for the night in the Gulf Islands is Clam Bay. The shoreline catches the early morning light so beautifully it is compulsory to eat breakfast sitting outside (I usually get breakfast in bed and have a good read before pulling up the anchor).

As beautiful as this reflection of the clouds looks, it was an early warning of a rain-filled, cold day.

On Saturna Island I found a decaying tree in the forest. At this scale it looks architectural.

Underwater Inspiration

While out sailing this summer I captured some under water inspiration.

I have a small point n shoot camera but sometimes the light is right to get those thru the water shots.

They are just asking to be interpreted in textiles.

Technical Difficulties

Thank you to all of the people who let me know my blog was posts were not coming up with the images. It's nice to know you are all interested in what I am doing.

Here is the 2nd attempt with these images - reflections & circles from the Victoria Classic Boat show.

Boats & Korea

Speaking of boats, my work 'Walls Talk', is, at this moment, in the hold of a boat bound for Korea...

...along with all of the other works that will fill the 10,000 sq ft pavilion built for the guest country at the Cheongju Craft Biennale.

On September 23rd the exhibition, 'Unity & Diversity', will open. There will be a catalogue in 3 languages, artist talks, artist demos, receptions, & thousands of people curious to find out what goes on in the fine craft world in Canada. www.cheongjubiennale.or.kr/eng/
What an exciting place to be.

Victoria Classic Boat Show Inspiration

Here are more reflections & circles I found at the Victoria Classic Boat Show.

Classic Boat Show

Over the weekend, I had a most enjoyable time at the Classic Boat Show in Victoria. It was a bit hazardous because I was wearing shoes with a kitten heel that kept getting caught in the gaps between the boards on the docks (dumb choice of footwear) plus I had my camera in front of my face most of the time. However, I fell only once, avoided falling in the water and was rewarded with an inspiring collection of nautical images.
I looked for interesting reflections because the cloudy day produced the right conditions to photograph water.

I also looked for interesting lines....

and shapes. I wouldn't have thought I would find so many interesting circular shapes.

I am starting to think about a nautical/sea series of work because Articulation's next study retreat is to the Canadian Maritimes on the east coast where we will focus on the shoreline. I was born on a Pacific island and I am familiar with that ocean so I am looking forward to getting to know the Atlantic Ocean.

More 'Urban Textures' Work

I am working with these images to make another piece in my 'Urban Textures' series that will be exhibited with Articulation in the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery in September.

Along with other works in this series it is a tribute to those early domestic and professional textile workers in Winnipeg who played a major and usually unacknowledged role in the growth and financial success of the city in its early days.

If you know where to look when in Winnipeg there remains so much evidence of the once flourishing textile industry. Articulation did a study week in Winnipeg, lead by 2 of its members who live in the city - Ingrid Lincoln & Miriam Levi Birkenthal. As long-time residences they knew where to take us so we could discover Winnipeg's past for ourselves.

Articulation's Blog

Articulation has set up a blog to let people know what members are working on, where they are exhibiting and generally what they are up to. We have a new website also but as everyone who has had anything to do with setting up a new website knows, it takes ages to do so. The blog will be easier for members to communicate through regularly while the website will be more of a visual web gallery of individual members' works to date.

So go check out the blog to read about the current body of work members are working on with an exhibition deadline fast approaching.

http://www.articulationtextilegroup.blogspot.com/

Nana's Garden Series

Today I worked on the 6th in my 'Nana's Garden' series where I am making hydrangeas in memory of the females in the maternal side of my family. My mother and sisters have their hydrangeas already. I will be exhibiting 3 from the series in Articulation's 'Urban Textures' exhibition in the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery in Winnipeg.
This particular hydrangea is made using fabric dyed by my good friend Anne Woods who is a stitcher and a dyer.
The magenta coloured piece of background fabric has the dappled look of summer and gives the petals a sun bleached look.

Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts

I just got word the Julia Caprara School of Textile Arts has started to set up their web site, http://www.jctextilearts.com/ This will be a very interesting site to watch because of the innovative contemporary work the students are producing.
Presently I am working my way through the 10th of 18 modules towards a BA(Hons) in Embroidered Textiles. I am working on Fine Art Embroidery and I am fortunate to have Ruth Issett, the queen of colour, as my tutor. I have weekly phone tutorials with her where we discuss what I have done during the past week while looking at my Picasa Web album where I have added images of my work. It is a very effective way to learn independently knowing you have support and guidance along the way.

The Fine Art Embroidery module is about working out gender specifics on garments then developing your ideas from this study. Here I looked at females when they are covered.

This is a page of images of cross gender garments for protection.
Now I have to take one of the many ideas I have come up with and take it further: drawing, sampling and finally producing a finished work. It's all very interesting in the way it raises lots of social issues for me. .

Inspiration & Work

Summer is a time to travel and visit. I took our recent visitors/company to one of my favourite places in Alberta - Dinosaur Provincial Park. It didn't fail to inspire me again and got me thinking that maybe there is more work here for me to do.

When Articulation (the group I study & exhibit with) came to together, the first place we studied was Dinosaur Provincial Park. We each produced a series of Badlands work and exhibited it. I thought I had completed my Badlands series but every time I go back to this park I find it still full of ideas.
Every year since, Articulation has come together in a special place in Canada to do a study. We then return to our individual studios across the country to turn the inspiration and research into a personal response. These individual series of works are then exhibited, usually back near where they originated from.
As an artist co-operative, this combination of sharing, support and individuality is one of the things that makes Articulation unique.
An exciting new aspect for the group is the development of a presence on the web. After exhibiting in galleries on the Pacific coast, the Atlantic coast and places in between, a website is needed to keep us connected with those who are getting to know our work.
So that's where the work part of this post's title comes in as any one who has had a hand in developing a web presence knows. It is a lot of work.
If you visit our website regularly you will see the cyber growth of another articulated arm of Articulation.
http://www.articulationtextilegroup.com/

Saying Goodbye Again

I had a lovely day sitting outside hand stitching 'Walls Talk'. It is so calming to be hand stitching again after doing only drawing & research for the last 3 BA (Hons) modules I have completed. But I have to admit I have been putting off doing doing this hand stitching because it is remedial work to solve the hanging problem the work was having.
I had already said my goodbyes to this work thinking I had sent it off to Korea for the Craft Biennale in October. Now here it is back again. It is like sending your child out into the world where you are excited they are healthy, happy & strong, ready to make it on their own. Then they appear on your doorstep again.
Like a child, 'Walls Talk' just needed a little more loving care before it was sent out into the world again.

Articulation Exhibition at Whyte Museum

Catherine Whyte

An exciting event that has come out of Articulation's Women Rock project is an invitation to exhibit at the Whyte Museum in September 2011. Michale Lang, the Director and Chief Curator of the Whyte, saw some of our work while it was hanging in the Other Gallery in the Banff Centre last March. On the spot she booked us for an exhibition.

Eleanor Luxton

It will be Articulation's first curated exhibition. Michale will select work to go with artifacts and archives from the Whyte collections. For the past 2 years Articulation members have been researching women and mountain culture in the Rockies, much of the work being inspired by what was found in the museum and their archives.

Georgina McDougall Luxton

A number of Articulation members have been inspired by particular women who have lived in the Banff area over the years. These are images of some of the 'Luxton Ladies'. While other members are working with the concept of women and mountain culture and issues that are relevant today.

Annie McKenzie McDougall

It is an exciting and unique project where planning has started in earnest. We are presently divvying up all of the jobs involved in making this project happen. I'll keep you posted as things develop.

Walls Talk at the Alberta Craft Council Gallery

Here is my entry to the Korean Craft Biennale having its first public showing. Joanne from Alberta Craft Council had driven down from Edmonton to pick up all of the Calgary entries and taken back them to hang in the lower craft council gallery for the month.
When Donna and I went up to Edmonton last Monday to take down Articulation's exhibit in the McMullen, we checked on my 'Walls Talk' work. And just as well we did. It wasn't doing too well. With a combination of spot light heat and gravity it was sagging after a month. Joanne kindly let me take it down and bring it home so I can work on modifying the hanging mechanism. I am so pleased to have the opportunity to do this before it is crated up and heads off to Korea where it needs to look its best. It also needs to be robust enough to survive 3 years of touring Alberta once it returns from Korea.
Apart from a short time at the photographers, this was the 1st time it had been on a wall. It reminded me, yet again, I need a large enough design wall in my studio to put up my work so I can see it as it is meant to be and so prevent this kind of issue from happening. Thanks to Joanne I'm getting a 2nd chance with this one.

Take Down at the McMullen

This week Donna Clement & I travelled to Edmonton to take down Articulation's exhibit of Winnipeg inspired work that has hung in the University of Alberta Hospital McMullen Gallery for the past couple of months.

This a bag made by Miriam Levi Birkenthal that was a late entry to the exhibition because the courier person couldn't find the gallery so sent the package with the bag in it back to Winnipeg where Miriam lives. Miriam had to send it to Vickie in Calgary who took it up to the gallery when she next did a workshop there. Everyone was very pleased when this well travelled bag made it to its plinth in the gallery.

The works have now been packaged up and will be sent on to Winnipeg where they will be exhibited in the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery from September this year. This space is twice as big as the McMullen so Articulation members, as I post, are making more Winnipeg works as a 2nd installment. It is a valuable opportunity to have the time to develop initial ideas further. I suspect the new work will have a different feel to it, especially after the progress each of us made over the month as artists-in-residence in the Banff Centre.