Anna Torma / Dorothy Caldwell

A Red Hill/A Green Hill 2012 by Dorothy Caldwell
 ink wash, earth ochre on cotton with stitching and applique, 284.4 x 294.6 cm 

This post highlights two of my Canadian heroines and their beautiful philosophies about making.

In this interview with Dorothy Caldwell  Dimitri Papatheodorou of the Art Gallery of Northumberland in Cobourg Ontario visits Dorothy in her studio this summer. (2020).  The two discussed her touring 2014 exhibition Silent Ice Deep Silence and the research that went into creating the work for it. 

Book of Abandoned Details  2018 by Anna Torma
cotton, silk, hand stitched 136 x 135 cm

The next video is a conversation with Anna Torma and is presented by the Esker Foundation, Calgary Alberta in honour of her 2018 exhibition there, Book of Abandoned Details

A Red Hill/A Green Hill by Dorothy Caldwell, earth ochres and hand stitch detail

It's been difficult for museums and art galleries (and for artists) during this pandemic time.  Closures and now appointments and mask wearing make the gallery experiences challenging for everyone.  

Dorothy Caldwell is one of eleven artists curated into an exhibition entitled Cloth Constructions at the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln Nebraska this winter by David Hornung.  Here's the link. 

Book of Abandoned Details 2018 by Anna Torma
hand stitched cotton and silk  136 x 136 cm

Anna Torma's solo exhibition Permanent Danger was hung but the gallery had to close before the opening ceremonies last April.  It has since re-opened at the Museum for Textiles in Toronto Canada and has been extended until March 2021.   

Congratulations to these artists and to the curators who have have championed them.  Textile art is best when you can see (and yearn to touch) it in real life rather than on a screen or printed in magazine or book.    Let's try to visit art galleries again and be nourished.

Permanent Dangers by Anna Torma

I have been wanting to post images of Anna Torma's exquisite two sided embroidery that was part of the first Canadian Craft Biennial at the Burlington Art Gallery, Ontario since mid-October.  The co-founders of the Biennial, Emma Quin (director of the Textile Museum of Canada) and Denis Longchamps (director and chief curator of the Art Gallery of Burlington) indicate that the second Craft Biennial will happen in the spring of 2020.  Good news for all of us who love art that is materially based.

This piece by Anna Torma uses her now familiar language of child-like drawings of monsters, here in combination with human figures.  A very prolific artist who works completley in hand stitch, Anna's creates bodies of work for exhibition, such as Superlayers    Blood ties  (and also here) is a recent exhibit she held with her grown son.   I have written about her work before (here) but if you are interested in seeing her newest work, she is active on facebook.

Look at the amount of stitching!  These stitches are like drawn marks with coloured pencil.

The variety of scales and subjects in the imagery over whelms our senses.
It's different than  anything I would do myself.
It throbs.
It excites the viewer.

The two sides of this piece are each beautiful
Black cloth backing, white cloth front.
The thread drawings join these two opposites.
Then the artist stitched through all images and backgrounds - everything -
with thick white thread so that the back looks as if caught in a snow storm, and the front is quieter.
Not erased, but muted.

and the edges.
Don't you want to touch?