Wendy's Articulation Retrospective Blog Post for May

 Wendy's Articulation Retrospective Blog Post for May

Since we just had Earth day recently or in fact we had Earth week - I thought it might be interesting to go back through the Articulation archives to select a couple of photographs of work from each group member, that represent Earth to me.  Sometimes they are full photographs and sometimes they are closeups that in fact may be about another subject matter entirely but jog a memory or give a fleeting glimpse that makes me think of Earth in some way.  Sometimes they are pieces made some time ago and some are recent, but it is interesting how our works bounce off each other and maybe because of the colour or materials used, still seem to work together.

Lesley Turner:

Roadside Weeds

The background is knitted and the flowers are embroidered on top of the knitting. I always enjoy seeing the wild flowers growing beside the road and admire their resilience, struggling to survive.

Meadow

This is densely embroidered with different thicknesses and types of thread and just makes me think of the riot of wild flowers to be found in the summer.  Our seasons are short because of the cold weather, but we get such a gift of a riot of colour as the flowers rush to bloom in our short summer.

Leann Clifford:

Roving Cactus

This is made up of hexagons which Leann often uses.  This time, she has added dimension to the yellow ones, which depict the yellow cactus flowers that can be found in the Alberta Badlands.  The green has been embroidered. The Badlands in June are covered with these yellow and sometimes pink cactii.  They have a short time to bloom and need some June rains. Blink your eyes and you may miss them.

This piece is made up of Cathedral Window quilting pattern with the addition of ferns printed on top. It just makes me think of peering through lush undergrowth in the rainforest.

Ingrid Lincoln:

Verdant

With just a few pieces of fabric with stitching and covered rope or yarn, Ingrid has portrayed a rainforest.  I just love this.

Cherry Orchard

Again, Ingrid has used simple pink flower shapes and wire, to convey cherry blossoms.  I love to walk through fruit orchards of all kinds when they are in blossom and there is such an abundance of fragrance, petals both on the trees and the ground, even in the air. This piece portrays an orchard that Ingrid remembers when she was growing up.

Donna Clement

Fern

This is machine stitched on dyed previously used old blankets. Long before it became earth friendly to frequent second hand stores; Donna always had to stop in to the local one whenever she was travelling,  to see if they had any old and used blankets for sale.  What a transformation she has made of this sad old holey blanket!

Amanda Onchulenko

Rise New Perspective

You can really see Amanda's other artistic endeavour of painting.  Such expansive swaths of colour and the colour play in the sky.  I can just picture myself in this landscape.

Amanda made this piece for our Salish Sea project and I really love how she has included the straws into this piece.  I think I used this picture once before in my guest blog - it just goes to show how much I really enjoy this piece.

Wendy Klotz:

                                                         

Colours that Surround Me

I spent one summer collecting a variety of vegetation, leaves, twigs, roots, etc. to use as natural dyes.  Each of these leaves represents a different plant.  I thought they would all turn out to be yellow, but on different fabrics, they turned out different colours. The panels were eco-dyed with leaves from my rosebush and the threads were all dyed with natural dyes.  None of the dyes were purchased but were all found in vegetation near me in Calgary.

        

Colours of the Forest

Each piece was hand-felted and then machine stitched with a different type of tree, as were the commercial organza pieces.  The red piece depicted the red pine trees which were being ravaged by pine beetles.  Although the red sets off the green, it is not something you want to see in a healthy forest.

I hope your Earth day/week recharged your spirits after a long couple of years.  Forest bathing is supposed to be really good for our mental health and just getting out into the countryside can be healing.  We all have to do our best to heal our earth as it heals us.