Articulation Textile Group's creative mandate for 2020, "Out of the Studio", refers to our determination as a group to focus on individual studio practice for our work in textiles. The New Year and a new decade have arrived, holidays are over and new thoughts and ideas and ultimately new work are percolating for some Articulation members and actually taking physical shape for others.
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Will last summers focus on dyeing fabrics by Lesley Turner, Donna Clement and Lean Clifford feature in new work in 2020?
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Some of us have physically been getting out and about and away from our studios and routines. Getting out of the country and into a warmer climate, even for just a week at this time of year has a restorative and inspiring effect on Canadians. My hand is up to get away in winter at any opportunity.
Travel allows us to take time to explore new places, see what is showing in galleries and creative spaces elsewhere, and remains a focus for our group of creative explorers. Ingrid was the first to get away on a family trip to Huatulco, Mexico. It is possibly where she made some time to finish her Stephen West shawl using up lots of stock yarn she had on hand. She is planning another version in a different colour way, experimenting with weights and drapes.
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Knitting is a comfortable passion for Ingrid Lincoln. This is her latest effort.
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New Years are great for new beginnings. Ingrid's return to the studio has her revisiting figurative themes and repatterning processed fabrics in new ways. Process can be exhilarating especially when we step out of our comfort zone and take some time to play. Seeing how our colleagues think and work is always exciting and so far 2020 is encouraging some repatterning and revisioning of process and ultimately product. I am excited to see how things evolve.
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| Ingrid at play. January 2020 |
Donna Clement is well travelled and has been focusing her time on family gatherings of late. Studio practice is taking a backseat for now but even when we are not fully focused on our work in textiles we somehow can't help but to admire creative expressions around us even if they are on the sidelines as we make our way through our daily travels.
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| 5/6th of Articulation Textile Group in the Calgary Public Central Library last November |
Donna was kind enough to pass along the poster for an upcoming Articulation show. Our work on "Provinces" has been waiting for a suitable space and will happily be hanging in The Fish Creek Library in Calgary through the month of March. We hope if you are in Calgary you will search out Calgary's many creative spaces and take in our work. We are all excited to see it installed.
Fun Fact: My Newfoundland piece shown on the card below was inspired by a photograph I took of my family as we stood on Canada's most easterly point. It was raining and foggy and the wind was a treat but my daughters long blonde hair took on a life of its own. Her hair in that moment in time became the visual reference I used to describe the power of wind as it meets our continent in these panels.
Articulation's various bodies of work to date have inspired us in different ways. Sometimes a theme sparks a creative thread that continues into future work. Wendy's focus on water that began with the Salish Sea and Tofino continues to inspire her. Her explorations so far include working with a selection of materials including ghost nets sent to her by the Emerald Sea Protection Society. She is including Gutterman thread made from recycled pop bottles and is making hand made sequins, also from pop bottles. Wendy says she "Wants to draw attention to the trash polluting our oceans but in a subtle way."
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Wendy's work in progress
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Lesley Turner has been busy with her Nana Knitting while travelling. She spent time in Tofino on the west coast where she ended up being stranded due to rock falls on the only route out. She made sure to collect beach debris during her extra time there as well. Much of it plastic, her collection appears to support Wendy's focus on the human impact on natural environments.
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| "The Businessman and the Launderer" by Lesley Turner in progress. |
Lesley is working on a new body of work for an exhibition with Laura Feeleus in Goward House, Victoria, showing July 31st through to September 3rd, 2020. This exhibition is called, "Launder" and it examines the domestic economy. Follow her on Instagram under @Ravenmade to see how the work progresses.
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| Lesley Turner is working with men's business shirts that already have personalities of their own. |
I too enjoyed a brief winter break to Huatulco and took some time to take in local exhibits in airports and along my daily trails. Saltwater is a true balm for me and I came back to my studio feeling refreshed and ready to get to work. My process involves a lot of time upfront percolating thoughts and ideas and for some time my thoughts have been ruminating around the connection between the personal and the universal. For the first time in many bodies of work, I am totally process-driven and allowing the product to resolve itself as a secondary outcome. I am finding it very interesting to dig deeper into the ideas of repatterning, as well as the concepts of narrative, story, and dialogue.
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| Amanda experimenting with formative experience and story using batik on silk organza. |
My travels also involved a few days in Toronto where I got to explore lots of great art and installations in a variety of creative spaces. More on textile-based works discovered in a future post. For now, I have my hands full reformatting original ideas into new processes and I look forward to seeing what evolves. At New Years I defined two words to encapsulate my year ahead and I aim to use those: allow and accept, in all aspects of my life, reforming my approach to processes in life and in art.
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My "Bloom Series" is being supervised by our cat Miss Adelaide who looks pretty darn good for someone who is over 100
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There is definitely something about the fabrics I am using in these sublimated prints derived from my painting practice, that intrigues our cat. I think it goes beyond getting attention for a back rub. Could she have been a seamstress or a quilter in another life?
Speaking of quilters our hand quilter and book artist, Leann Clifford has been quiet on the studio front, playing her creative cards close to her chest but making progress sorting out our fall Articulation show in Regina.
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Leann Clifford's hand quilting resonates symbolically on many of her projects
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2020 is coincidentally the 20th anniversary of Articulation's association. A diverse group of textile artists have completed work under that banner to date and our current members work very hard to maintain the high standards set over these past 20 years. This year is already shaping up to be a great one with multiple shows and the potential for cross Canada collaborations to come. Join us on our creative journey as our projects evolve.
Happy New Year from me, Amanda Onchulenko, on behalf of Articulation Textile Group.,
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