A couple of days ago, in my new series (Existential Examen...day by day), I expressed gratitude for creativity, and my particular propensity for expressing it with fabric, fibre and floss.
When not navel-gazing, I have indeed been...creating: finishing up the four pieces I'm sending off to the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre within the next 10 days. These were pieces inspired by the Artists' Residency of which I was a part in July 2022, up at Rogers Pass in the Canadian Rockies -- specifically, at the Illecillewaet Trailhead. The exhibit will begin at the Arts Centre in March and travel throughout B.C. until December 2024!
I continue to be blown away by the fact that the nine artists on exhibit include me, a photographer -- and seven (count 'em) painters! Touring for over 18 months!!
Today I finished the last of the pieces, and took photos. This week I have to figure out how to put them into a special Google Drive folder, where I'll also find all sorts of paper-work that needs completing.
Please pray for me; I've never used Google Drive! I'm thankful that there's a director at the Arts Centre who might just be able to hold my hand through the process if I need it!
That said, here are the pieces...in no particular order, along with the inspirational photos, for those of you, especially, who won't be able to travel to B.C. to see them:
Portion of the meadow near the start of the Trailhead. I was in awe of the trees and flowers.
Meadow Impressions (c) 2023 24.5" W x 17.75" L Commercial cottons, self-dyed cottons. Improv piecing; machine quilted.
False hellebore -- amazing leaves, pretty flowars -- and poisonous
Pretty Poison (c) 2023 8" W x 19" L Cotton batik, silk ribbon, cording. Trapunto, silk ribbon embroidery, machine quilting; 3-D leaves.
A close-up of a fallen log on the Trailhead. I was fascinated by the textures of the lichen, leaves and aged bark.
Fallen Log (c) 2023 13" W x 18.25" L Commercial cotton, recycled synthetic backing; distressed painted used dryer sheets, painted cotton batting, silk ribbon, yarn, cotton floss, beads. Machine quilted, hand-embellished.
These photos are just a few of the ones I took at the ruined hotel near the start of the Trail-head. There are bits of old wall, some sort of over-grown overpass, and the remains of an old boiler, down in what would have been part of the basement.
The history of the Glacier Hotel and its eventual dismantling, along with the original rail tracks that ran by it -- before a safer route through the area was found, brought to my mind Gordon' Lightfoot's iconic Canadian Railroad Trilogy.
I just knew I had to create a piece that reflected the mix of class issues -- railway navvies, rail road 'barons', and wealthy hotel guests -- as well as the impact the project, now long gone, had on the landscape and the environment of the area.
And so...this came about:
Rails & Ruins (c) 2023 32 1/2" W x 31 1/2" L Distressed vintage linen tea cloth, rusted linen scraps, thread sketching, machine quilted.
Tomorrow will be a day of rest before the Google Drive Challenge begins. I'm going to focus on cross-stitch, and perhaps a bit of knitting. Right now I'm making two pair of teeny baby socks for a pair of twins -- new grandbabies for a cyber-friend in Ontario. Making these is a definite palate cleanser after all that art work! 😉
The first sock of the first pair is finished:
Pattern: "Baby Socks" Designer: Kate Atherley Free on Ravelry Yarn: Patons Stretch Socks in "Kelp" Size 0-3 months
So with that bit of cuteness I'll leave you...with a link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, where this week she's busy building colourful cabins...out of fabric, of course!
Wherever you are, stay safe, stay cool -- or cozy -- and stay creative!
I see by the calendar that I've been absent from this page for the better part of this month. Some of that was due to work, travel, and other Aspects of Daily Living...
and some was procrastination,
plain and simple.
In my last post I mentioned I was starting work on a new piece -- a sample (or maybe the Real Thing) -- for a Call for Entry to an all-Canadian exhibit entitled "Colour with a 'U'". A great deal of my procrastinating and just not blogging has to do with that work, which absorbed a great deal of my time for at least two weeks.
My vision for the piece was BIG -- inspired by the lyrics from Gordon Lightfoot's Canadian Railroad Trilogy. In particular, these:
"There was a time in this great land when the railroad did not run,
when the wild, majestic mountains stood alone against the sun.
Long before the white man and long before the wheel,
when the green, dark forest was too silent to be real."
I figured out very early on that painting the scene on fabric was several stories higher than my abilities in that department. After sulking about that for a bit, I rethought the idea. What do I do well? "You can paint skies", came the answer (from my muse). So...I thought about that. I found a long stretched canvas (36" x 12") and gave it a go.
I was trying to paint skies that changed in character from West (on the left) to East (on the right). My first attempt was a bust, but thankfully, with acrylic paint, you can paint over it.
Then I began to work out the foreground. I wanted to put in the landscape from those "wild majestic mountains" and the "green dark forests", across the western plains to the rocks, lakes and rivers of central Canada...with a nod to more cliffs in the Maritimes. Just a nod? Well, my vision seemed to exceed the space available on the canvas. 😟
I was taking inspiration from these iconic Canadian views:
Photo from Neys Provincial Park, Lake Superior, ON
Maples in Autumn - photo from Mont Tremblant, QC
Cliffs on the East Coast Trail, Newfoundland
Still, I persisted. I created those mountains and forests, including snow, from the West Coast:
I added prairie grasslands, water and more rock, an impression of colourful maples in autumn, and more rock -- and over these I stitched in impressions of native habitat, from totems on the West coast to tipi on the plains, a native longhouse from central Canada and more tipi -- shorter and squatter -- from the Maritimes.
Mountains and forests with totems.
Plains with tipi.
Longhouse in Central Canada
And below, you see the entire piece, hanging on my guest room wall:
I'm just not sure about it -- though it seems to look better to me in the photo than it does on the wall in my home!
First I wonder about its perspective. There's that changing sky which moves from the cloudy "wet coast" to the clearer sky -- with clouds building and a storm coming -- over the prairies...and then a mix of autumnal sky and cloud over the Lakes and moving east.
I worry that there's too much of the west and not enough 'centre and east' landscape, and that the chunk of grasslands in the centre is too central, when perhaps it should be smaller and more to the left, more off-set.
Second, I'm troubled by my attempt to show the ghosts of what the land used to be when it was "long before the white man and long before the wheel". Is it presumptuous for a Caucasian Canadian woman to try to replicate these symbols?
I don''t know. I just don't know. Thus it remains on the wall, and I carry on...albeit in a bit of a stale place creatively.
Blessedly there remain Other Things to Do -- such as baking two bumbleberry pies for last week's Fall Supper at the church. And making four dozen oatmeal raisin cookies for sale at the church's next event -- the Annual Bazaar & Bake Sale -- coming up this weekend. Like joining my friend G. -- the knitter and relatively new quilter -- at the Joint Quilt Show put on by the Black Gold Quilt Guild of Leduc, AB, and the Edmonton Modern Quilt Guild -- where I was inspired by this wee gem:
Catch Me If You Can! Mariel Enders Thread sketching, coloured - likely water-colour pencils. Outlined by hand-quilting. Appears mounted on board.
Apologies for the angle, but it was a small piece hanging high up in a narrow booth!
On Saturday of this past weekend, G. and I travelled again -- this time to Camrose to see the most wonderful production: Jake's Gift -- a touching, heart-warming, funny, poignant one-person, one-hour performance about an aged WW II veteran who travels to Juno Beach for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. It's a touring show, and the link I've shared has a section for tour details. If you live anywhere near any of the venues and can find your way to see it, please do. It will capture your imagination and hold your heart close in its message.
Now to link this -- late as usual! -- to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday, and head back into the sewdio to work on a second quilt for the Syrian family we're expecting soon. Yesterday at church we found out they have a flight date at last -- November 19!! -- so I'd best get on it, eh?!
If you've been stretched like I have lately -- especially creatively -- may the week ahead bring you blessed rest, refreshment and restoration of perspective. Let's together learn patience "...toward all that's unresolved in [our] heart[s]".
"There was a time in this great land when the railroad did not run..."
