Monday, April 25, 2016

Catching Up Part 4: Miscellaneous Extras

Christmas


More reindeer – a seasonal theme I keep returning to. This year’s Christmas card was a lino cut, printed with Charbonnel inks.





Recycle




These are collagraph plates that have worn out or haven’t made it as usable print plates. Framed as is, or cut into pieces and reassembled, the residual inks on the plates give them a second life. One was donated to the Durham Art Gallery fundraising silent auction and found a good home.

More mythology

2 small pieces created as Valentine's Day and Birthday gifts, one returning to my recurring theme of Odysseus and Penelope, the other the first draft of a piece featuring Orpheus and Eurydice. Simple digital prints on rust dyed fabric, with added stitching.







Catching Up Part 3: New Books

Two recent books were selected to be part of the Southampton Art School’s Feast for the Eyes show.






“Abandoned(Aran-Elderslie)” received the Jane Champagne Award. The other book, Hawk Language, is a favourite of mine, an homage to the poet Ted Hughes and to the Cooper’s Hawk that has taken up residence in one of our maple trees.








Catching Up Part 2: Recent Exhibits

I was privileged to have one of my “Comfort/Discomfort” quilts juried into Hard Twist 10, Toronto’s Gladstone Hotel annual textile based exhibition and on display between September and December 2015.



5 of the quilts in the series along with their accompanying books have formed part of a 2 person show at Quest Art, in the Midland Cultural Centre. Matched beautifully with Tina Poplawski’s recent work, this show is thoughtfully curated by Jill Price and provokes exactly the kind of discussion I was hoping for when I created the series.



So Much Catching Up to Do! Part 1: Book Cloth

The blog has been neglected to the extent that when I came to update it, I couldn't find it! Google has moved ahead with so many changes it's hard to get back in with an occasional entry. I somehow stumbled on the right password. And have learned the lesson that I need to update this more than every 6 months!

In late October 2015 I took a workshop given by Martha Cole, where I learned some techniques for making book cloth: starting with a layer of fabric, additional layers of paper and thread are collaged on with a mix of wheat paste and acrylic medium to form a waterproof yet flexible  “fabric” .
Here are some sample books using sheets of book cloth I made during the course.




Since then I’ve done some more exploration of this technique and have started making covers for the annual Christmas story that my husband writes and hand binds to give to special friends. These covers pick up on some of the images in the story, which weaves the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice with a bunch of other stuff. Don’t want to give too much away!