Articulation Textile Group

The vision and optimism that began 2020 have very quickly evolved into a new reality few, if any of us, saw coming. Did we foresee the shut down of not only gallery, exhibition, and creative spaces, but the everyday routines of everyone in every corner of the globe during this COVID-19 pandemic? Change truly has proven to be our only constant and the sea change we are all facing brings with it rolling waves and tidal ebbs and flows that are restructuring many a creative's process and outlook. COVID-19 has changed the way we think, work, and act and provided some unexpected quality time to reflect. New terms are popping up with regularity. The "COVID-20", for example, describing the reactionary carb-laden snacks baking in homes everywhere, filling the void left by our vacated routines. "Covidiots" are going about their day without concern for social distancing, but I am glad to know they are the minority. Most of us are developing new normals and findi

After a very successful year as an exhibiting group, Articulation Textile Group made a collective decision to concentrate on our personal studio practice, to focus on ideas that truly inspired them individually and to see where these new creative trails would lead them. We coined the descriptor, "out of the studio", in reference to the potential creative discoveries we were poised to make excavating personal discoveries in fibre. Given the global situation that continues to evolve, on a daily and even hourly basis, Articulation members have been wise to turn into their studios to self isolate during the coronavirus pandemic. I don't think any of us would ever ignore a directive to seek quiet time and be creative, we would, along with the rest of the world however, prefer to not be dealing with the current situation in our neighbourhoods, our province, across the country and around the globe. As the new year turned and 2020 arrived I set my personal intention for the

Western Canada's Articulation Textile Group considers the vast and diverse landscape that is Canada, with Provinces . Mounted at The Fish Creek Library in Calgary by members: Donna Clement and Wendy Klotz, the show will hang through the month of March, 2020. The panels on view are reflections on the idea of place: the spaces we inhabit, have experienced or aspire to visit. Constructed in provincial pairs each panel measures, 25" x 80". A single representative of each partnership hangs in this exhibit. The panels aim to explore the Canadian landscape tradition, to illustrate the colours of our nation and to celebrate that which distinguishes, yet also unites us as Canadians. Working individually Articulation members used hand and machine stitching, quilted layers, collage, appliqué, batik, painting, dye sublimation and photography. The diverse creative choices made unite in format to describe in textiles, our Canada. This project was the first Articulation proj

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. Will last summers focus on dyeing fabrics by Lesley Turner, Donna Clement and Lean Clifford feature in new work in 2020? 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 explorer

I am a 20-year veteran YMCA swimmer who was greeted at the pond this morning with a question. Are you taking any time off over the break to rest? It got me thinking... do I ever really take a moment to take in the enormity of what the past year really was? Do we give ourselves an opportunity to reflect, to even acknowledge all that has taken place? Amanda Onchulenko, 'Reflection,' Connected Heritage , New Iceland Heritage Museum, Gimli MB If you're like me, you are too busy: thinking, planning and doing, figuring out, keeping up or imagining what is next, but my friend made a very good point. To honour my friend's query in this brief season that hangs between Christmas and New Years, I will take this opportunity for a contemplative review of what we as Articulation Textile Group were up to during 2019. Leann Clifford, 'Ripple and Frond,' Forest and Sea and the Place Between , Portals Gallery, Duncan BC Its time to remind ourselves what evolved, what