Articulation Textile Group

Opportunities for R and R lie under these summer skies over Lake Winnipeg in July of 2020. COVID-19 has brought with it many challenges and love it or loath it technology is playing a greater role in our ability to connect across physical boundaries. Articulation members zoomed into view on my iPhone screen for a mid-June catch up. As with any zoom event connectivity was conditional and prone to the pitfalls of bandwidth, unmuted microphones, and attempted screenshots that disconnected some of us. Basically the limitations most of us have encountered during this most unusual of years as our new normal. Our best bet, I think, is to reframe change and uncertainty by putting those concerns into a new box called opportunity.   During our zoom meeting, we had an opportunity to gather as a group and reflect on some of the new logistical concerns we now face. Wendy and Donna's work in Calgary setting up a show of Articulation's exhibit, "Provinces", at the  Fish

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. 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 wa

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