May brings with it many new beginnings. Mothers Day traditionally draws families together but this year many of us had to get creative and embrace various forms of technology to make connections.
My immediate family headed out to Manitoba's lake country to see how the cottage had navigated another winter. Some years we are greeted by the first spring bulbs already blooming, on others we have seen ice walls blown in on our beach after a wild winter storm. This year the ice was breaking up yet the unusual sighting of icebergs carrying out the remnants of another long winter continued right through to May long weekend.
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| An iceberg floats by, mid May, on Lake Winnipeg. |
It was not surprising then that we had no sightings of brave souls literally breaking the ice on their summer routines with their annual first swim of the season. I am a 25+ year veteran of weekday morning swims at the YMCA and though my morning routine has been seriously disrupted by the COVID-19 shutdowns, I was not about to make a point to be the first to make a splash. My aversion to cold water has not abated despite my desperation.
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| While we all long for a return to routine, even if it is a new routine, our new normal is still evolving. |
Instead I was inside the cottage enjoying the warmth of our fireplace and intent on reestablishing some form of normalcy at our seasonal home. In preparation, or what could possibly be defined as an avoidance strategy, if anyone is analyzing my motives, I spent some time between these two weekends reorganizing my lake linens for their summer transit. We call our place the Goodwill cottage partly because the Goodwill Store on Princess Avenue in Winnipeg's Exchange District has been the source of many a cottage collection.
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| Calgary's Wonderland sculpture is masked as a physical reminder of our new normal during COVID-19. |
Goodwill is also an excellent source for linen tea towels and I am an avid collector.
I am not one to iron, in fact I am very quick to fold loads out of the dryer to avoid the work of ironing but when it came to my curled and bunched collection I decided it was well past the time to hit it with some heavy steam.
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| Preparations for cottage season turned into a pressing yet peaceful activity. |
The journey through my Goodwill travels evolved into a meditative journey through process. On the way, I was reacquainted with newlyweds Charles and Diana before I found myself in tropical Barbados and the Bahamas on a late winter getaway. I flipped past calendar years stopping briefly in 1973 to take in the miniature village and bandstand in Eastbourne before moving into 1982 where I found a recipe for damper. I met a Kiwi and conversed with some Australian birds and flowers before ending my jaunt in Scotland and Wales. Averaging a buck and a quarter apiece, it was definitely good value for my travel dollar and the best I could do in these isolating times with borders and continents shut down for our safety.
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| Re-blooming, reconstructing narrative, engaging in personal dialogue. |
We are all in this together and though these unusual times are creating unusual circumstances for us all there are some silver linings. Added time with our immediate families is the first to come to mind, frequent hugs from my young adult children who are missing their social lives and friendships have been a particularly welcome change. I have also had more time for a much greater focus on the garden both at home and at the lake.
My home sewing room has beckoned me while I have been away from my Downtown studio and I am continuing work on my re-blooming series. Process is both cathartic and regenerative for me. Textiles are a comfort. Creating in textiles is a balm for so many creatives, particularly in troubling times.
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| Lesley has spent afternoons in her garden designing and building new beds with the help of family members. |
Lesley Turner's Vancouver Island sanctuary has the early warmth that accelerates its bounty as well as its work for the Turner clan. Lesley has enjoyed the labour of returned grown children and morning playtime with her grandson. She also sees the first peonies of the season and is pressed to get them gathered into bouquets before the ants arrive.
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We all tend to envy Lesley's coastal climate at this time of year but are grateful to share in a virtual bounty.
To quote Lesley, she has "Peonies for days." |
The isolation of 2020 has drawn Calgarian, Donna Clement indoors to her kitchen. Revisiting family recipes and restocking the larder for future soup nights has definitely inspired Donna. I have always described colour as delicious and Donna's borscht is very clearly an excellent example of my theory.
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Isolation during these unprecedented times may have provided an opportunity to
reconnect with our family members, past and present, in new ways. |
Ingrid Lincoln's garden has drawn her outside too when the weather allows but she has also been diligent in her travels to the studio. Experimentation is taking precedence in her quest to revisit and reuse "found" supplies and some of her explorations are yielding very interesting results. I am looking forward to seeing where these experiments in fibre take her.
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| A return to hand stitching has Ingrid working on a number of small fabric collages. |
Ingrid has also been playing with foil supplies. She says she is "trying to make sense of these foiled pieces, combining them with delicate silk from India. I have resorted to a pressing cloth".
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Ingrid may have had some literal pressing issues to work on with these pieces as they evolve.
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Wendy Klotz of Calgary is finding "such joy amidst the gloom seeing life in the garden return". She is always drawn to the outdoors and frequently photographs and posts foliage and flowers bursting quietly into bloom in both remote and rugged locations and nurtured urban spaces.
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A beautiful but windy day at Fir Creek provided for a photographic field trip Wendy describes as
" a peaceful way to seek beauty in unsettling times". |
Our regular routines may be disrupted during this pandemic but Wendy like many of us is finding new ways to be creative and pressing her skills into action in new ways. She has discovered Zoom and is putting it to creative use.
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Wendy's travels into her landscape are featuring in her homework projects.
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Wendy has embraced the changes and challenges of the shut down by signing up for an online drawing class with @dionneswift which she says has worked amazingly well. Last year's home studio clear out unearthed a plethora of sketchbooks we are all happy to see Wendy making such good use of.
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| An as-yet-unnamed piece from Amanda's Re-Patterning/ Re-Blooming series. |
I too have taken to my garden when I am not working on my developing series which has grown from an original estimated ten panels to a current 16 all at varying degrees of completion. Focus may not have been my strongest suit during these unusual times but I have unearthed silver linings in many ways.
The garden has become the new gym in the wake of indoor pool closures. Here I have undertaken some serious grunt work renovating spaces I usually don't have time for. I have been granted added time with my grown children who find themselves working from the dining room, full time through March and April, and now, part-time as our province begins to reopen, and that is a real bonus.
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| Shipping has become a new challenge during the 2020's shut down. One of the biggest to date for Amanda was the two-person crocodile wrestle it took to get these two mandart pillows into that fax box destined for Toronto. |
For creatives everywhere, the spring of 2020 has been a challenge to their businesses, work schedules, and revenue sources. The present is evolving rapidly in new and unprecedented directions globally and we find our only constant is change. Articulation's 2020 exhibition schedule, for example, once thought of as "robust" for this year has evolved into an uncertain future.
We can all agree on the health of our Nation is paramount but when we get to the other side of these unprecedented times we will want to have creative businesses and exhibition sites to attend and be able to see the work of artists and creators who use their talents; questioning and discovering, making statements and keeping our society thoughtful, challenged, soothed and beautified.
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| Lesley's Laundry Room project could easily become more than a pressing statement given the current global climate mid-COVID-19. |
A huge thank you goes out to all who are supporting creative initiatives by purchasing products that now won't be seen at sales, shows, festivals, and creative markets in 2020. We hope you will continue to be mindful of your consumer choices. When we are all pressed in so many different ways at this time please know should you choose to support a creative endeavour by an Artist, Creator, or Maker it will be greatly appreciated.
The freedom to be our creative selves and contribute to the human part of our global experience is a luxury myself and creative colleagues everywhere hope to continue to afford.
Be well, stay safe, social distance as you can, and thank you on behalf of vulnerable groups everywhere for your dedication to flattening the COVID-19 curve.
Amanda Onchulenko,
On behalf of Canada's Articulation Textile Group.
Amanda's website
Lesley's website
Lesley's blog
Wendy's Blog
Ingrid's Website
Donna's Blog
Donna's Website
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