'All Beings Confluence' Martha Cole's Community Project

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An exhibition we all enjoyed was 'All Beings Confluence,' an interactive community art project spearheaded by Saskatchewan artist Martha Cole. She runs workshops in different communities across North America giving guidance on how to make large, transparent panels. She then loans collections of panels, according to the number requested, to be hung in a wide variety of spaces in many different communities.

Viewers walk between the panels to enjoy works up close and to see the layered effects as different panels work together, such as these hens scratching beneath the flowers behind.

Each panel is about one living being. It was interesting to note how many weedy-type plants were chosen when so much of the landscape is covered in commercial crops. This female connection with 'weedy' plants is from the time when women gathered them to feed and care for their families. This ancient knowledge continues to surface in women's artwork today.

It is typical of women's intuitive work to show plants with flowers at all stages of development in the same work.

The scale of the panels and large-scale motifs give a feeling of  not only being immersed in nature but also feeling part of the living network of life.

The panel on the left shows 3 stages in a butterfly's life.
The centre panel is Matha's rhubarb plant. 
To find out more about this important ongoing project visit the All Beings Confluence website

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