your silence creates a world for my language

This is a post about an exhibition currently on view in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario at the artist run gallery, 180 projects.  A friend and I made the trip last week to view it.  It was my first art gallery experience in 18 months and well worth the 3+ hour drive.    

The artist is Sophie Anne Edwards, one of north eastern Ontario's most intelligent and passionate advocates for culture.  She is a poet, a painter, a curator, a geographer, and a long time arts administrator on Manitoulin Island.  I am enriched to know her. 

Sophie is easily brought to tears by the environmental crises and wanted to create a body of work that would address this monstrous, overwhelming fear in a personal way.  The artist's home is surrounded by ash trees, and she fears that they will all die because of a silent killer brought to Canada from Asia through international trade, the Emerald Ash Borer.  

The Emerald Ash Borer is an insect that drills through the outer bark to lay eggs in ash trees.  The larvae hatch and tunnel under the bark of the ash tree during the year or so while they mature, chewing lines that silently remove the inner wood.  

Another concern of this artist is something that happens more frequently than we know, yet is kept secret; domestic abuse to women and girls.  The victims are scarred for life, .  

Sophie became my CSARN mentee in 2018 and we talked and cried together over a period of  nearly 2 years.  Her ideas about materials and what she wanted to say with her artwork were strong.  Why did she come to me?  I think that she needed to slow down.  She needed to realize the comfort of hand stitch.  Although she already understood the power and intimacy of this kind of mark making, I helped her to focus on just a few of her ideas and taught her the back stitch.  

"I think about quiet violences -- to the environment, to women.  The silences that go unnoticed, or unspoken.  That happen quietly, under bark and behind closed doors.  That are carried in on crates, and through hushed words. "  Sophie A Edwards

Sophie Edwards wrapped one of the ash trees near her residence
with a bed sheet marked with red thread and hawthorns and left it for two years.  
A video of her suturing this ineffectual protection is part of the exhibition. 

"Those that go unregulated, and those that regulate us  The silences that change a landscape, and a life.  This project explores and links environmental and sexual violences."  Sophie A Edwards

"There is a silent language we can read in the Emerald Ash Borer tracks, and there is a silence we keep about sexual violences, which leaves its own tracks and traces.  This silence leaves space for the language of invasive and invaders."  Sophie A Edwards

There is a beautiful catalogue available from the artist or from 180 projects that has gorgeous photos of the exhibition and more of Sophie's own words.  

in my traces you will find silence,

or bring your own to it.

In my tracks you will find the language 

of my having been.

In my marks there is the 

record of my passage.  

Unable to read my lines,

you cannot hear.  Your

silence creates a world

for my language.

Sophie Anne Edwards

The exhibition continues until July 17.  180 projects

Time

Sometimes, I ask myself, do I feel that time is LOST when I use so much of it to stitch?  Or, do I think that time is saved?  Answer:  When I am lucky enough to spend an entire day with stitching, I never feel that time has been lost.

Time is my main material.

Shown: the back of Cross My Heart when I just started it.  The front is a grid of overdyed linen squares layered on a piece of dyed velvet.
I remember debating about which side I preferred.   The finished front here.

when I was young

I knew I loved to work with needle and thread from a very early age.  I loved it.  My first memories of stitching include embroidering commercially stamped pillow cases, making my own clothes, and making Barbie clothes that I sold.  I would do those things forever.  I wanted to.  I felt right when I was stitching.

I made my family stitched gifts, a pillow for my older brother, a night dress for my mother.  When I gave my little sister a knitted skirt for Christmas one year, she cried so I bought her something else instead.  I made my husband’s wedding suit and he wore it.

When I was young I also realized that I had a talent to draw and paint and so I entered poster contests in elementary school.  I remember painting a bear for one of those.  I was asked to design the cover for the regional music festival and drew a portrait of Beethoven.  In high school I was allowed to use the art room at lunch hour and was provided with oil paint and canvas boards.  The teachers bought my paintings.  I wanted to go to art school after high school, but went to Teacher’s college instead.  I was 19, and that was the last year that you could enter teacher's college without a university degree. Also, it was free.  I met Ned during that year, taught school two years, and then married him.

I've used my paintings (our four children gave me such a beautiful and meaningful subject) to explain to others how I came to think of my quilting as art.  Painting made me realize that I could communicate what it was like to be me.
" I am here.  I was here.  I made this.  I am alive."

When I was mothering those children my art was about that experience.  I loved being a mother.  I loved watching my children in sunlight.  I learned from them how to have fun. I painted that .

But my SELF, my true self,  is with a needle and thread in my hand.  

I make paintings (art) with my sewing.  I have not stopped.

"I am here. I live here. I have relationships. I observe and dream and think."

Images are of some preparations for the Perivale gallery season which begins May 22.

quote of the day

cross my heart    detail     2010    Judith e Martin   hand stitched

Karma is the eternal assertion of human freedom. 
Our thoughts, our words, our deeds are the threads of the net which we throw around ourselves.

Vivekananda

a milestone

Mended World came off the frame on Thursday. Shown is the back of the quilt. For a view of the front, click here. This milestone moves the project ahead physically and emotionally. Marimekko fabric is the secret surprise on the back of each panel. The lovely strong lines are linen thread in a back stitch. Click here to see the Marimekko fabric on the back of the first panel.

You can't just want it

You can't just want to have a beautiful garden,
you have to get out there and weed.
You can't just want to be an artist,
you have to make the work.

I discovered this truth again, as if for the first time.

My Manitoulin

My Manitoulin, fabric, photo, cotton thread, stitching, still in progress

What is your greatest fear?

"Not being able to perform my daily work routine around the house and studio."

What is your greatest joy?

"To do the above."

Anna Torma, Canadian textile artist being interviewed.

My Manitoulin, cotton, photo, hand embroidered with back stitch and detached chain stitch, painted with coloured inks, 13" x 13", 2009

I am , I exist

Stitching adds the sense of touch, a sense that's more psychologically profound than the sense of signt.

This is art

Jon Butler contacted me by email last Tuesday. He sent me a list of things to do to prepare for my distinguished artist gig at this year's LaCloche art show. The committee is publishing a pamphlet.

1. Photo of yourself for the front page.

2. Photos of art that you will have in the show for sale along with the medium and titles. 5 or 6 would be great.

3. Your bio. (400 -500 words).

4. Photo of the piece that you will be donating for the raffle prize along with title, size, medium and value. This will also be used for the poster.

5. The title of your workshop on July 3.

I am going to exhibit textile art at the LaCloche. The question remains: "Why does it take so much courage even for me, to call this art?"