Wednesday, December 04, 2013

Canadian Pioneer in Toronto


warm, heavy, useful, brave   
wool, pieced, slashed, bundled, felted, layered, blanket stitched, quilted 
 I managed to see my wool quilt, Canadian Pioneer, on the last day of Craft Ontario '13.  It felt fantastic to see it from the street, beckoning city folk in to the white space with its rough red heart.
It was installed near Christopher Reid Flock's paperclay sculpture, similar in more ways than colour.  He used slab construction to create a new piece, which he then dropped.  The resulting pieces re-assembled made something newer.  More interesting.  
From the several textile pieces in this exhibition of fine craft my favourite was Marianne Burlew's Limb 1, an organic sculpture that looks as if it began as a sleeve, but changed along the way into a three dimensional wall mounted oval.  Larger, stranger.  circuit wire crochet. 

She survived the slashing.  
In fact the mending stitches made her stronger, more self-aware.
All those bundles tied and stitched? 
They survived the drowning.
In fact, felting made her more interesting.
Tougher.
Optimistic.
Canadian woman pioneer

9 comments:

Karen Thiessen said...

Beautiful quilt! I wish that I had seen the show in person. Congratulations, Judy!

Jon Butler said...

Beautiful! Looking forward to the Art Gallery of Sudbury exhibit.

Threadpainter said...

Hi Judy … I love your description of the 'birth' of this quilt … you make beautiful words.

Lesley Turner said...

congratulations, Judy. Your work is perfectly placed to catch attention

Grace Martin said...

Glorious

jeanne hewell-chambers said...

started out as one thing, evolved into something else - something stronger, unexpected, more interesting, beautiful. perfect description of the women i love and admire.

Montse Llamas said...

I am not sure if I misunderstand you. Did you really slashed the quilt?

Judy Martin said...

Yes
I slashed through the red and green stripes in two semi-circles. And then mended it with a backing cloth of red violet and red wool blanket stitch.

It felt pretty powerful actually, to ruin something and then bring it back, make it better. It's hopeful.

mansuetude said...

Powerful

don't tell but
(i drooled) :)