The Mother The Child and Joyce Wieland

In 1988 I was part of a group exhibition in Thunder Bay Ontario at the Definitely Superior Gallery that was entitled See Jane Sew Strontium.  The gallery had invited Joyce Wieland to attend the opening and give an artist talk and also a workshop the following day.  

I lived in Kenora at the time (6 hours by winter highway from Thunder Bay) and after a lot of deliberation, decided that I couldn't justify leaving my young family to attend the events.  I can't remember the exact reason, it may have been weather.

My friend Barbara Sprague was also included in this exhibition, and she was making the trip from Kenora to Thunder Bay and I asked her to deliver a letter to Joyce Wieland for me.   The other day, I came across the draft of my letter in a 1988 journal and that prompted me to find the artwork from that exhibition and re-photograph it for this blog post. The title of the piece is The Mother The Child.  

Dear Ms Wieland

First of all, let me say that I feel very connected to you through your work.  I saw your quilt, Reason Over Passion, at the National Gallery and it made such an impression.  I remember standing in front of it in awe.  Your femaleness comes through and it is such a rich, womanly, femaleness.  There is so much about being a woman that I can feel in your work, be it quilt or painting.  And you have a wonderful wit.

Anyway, I'm very sorry that I cannot attend the workshop and meet you.  I had planned ot attending until last week.  There are a lot of reasons I guess, but the main ones are distance, winter, and the fact that I have four children, two of whom are under three years.  I know I'm not the only woman who has very little actual control of how her life is spent.   I would like to have seen the exhibition.  I've only seen Barbara's quilt.  I'd really like to know your reaction to my piece.  Please, if you do have any time that you could spare, I would very much appreciate a written note.

I've used some photos that my father took and developed.  They are of my brother, my sister and me.  There are several of me at age 15.  There are also photos of the farm where I grew up in Northwestern Ontario.  I feel that our childhood and childhood landscape are remain within us always.  I think that these things are our inner core, the 'batting' layer inside us.  The painted tree symbolizes both growth and woman's connection to nature while the self-portrait is the 'outer self''  that I present to the world today, that of the good mother.  The baby is looking outward, the mother in this drawing is hiding behind her child.  

Anyway, with this letter I feel that I've made some sort of contact with you.  I'm just sorry it's not in person.  I'll see you next time.  Sincerely, Judy Martin

Joyce Wieland answered me and I've saved the letter....but I can't remember where.  I think I should find it and frame it.  Joyce Wieland  1930 - 1998

my early life

the images of my youth in this post have a freshness for me that my newer ideas can never have

my mother made her own clothes from vogue patterns

my sister is 5 years younger than me, my brother 20 months older

my father designed and built our house on the highway

I grew up on acerage in north western ontario, Canada

 In art you need two things

a)  a feeling of groundedness
b)  a place of risk where you are not quite sure what will happen

a vulnerable space
fragile

 I repeat myself all the time

what is our interior landscape?

why not pay more attention to the fragility of our own life?

pauses

stillness

the mark - and also the space around the mark

our son Jay scanned my father's slides 

cottage again

I'm back on Manitoulin (with internet), after more time at the family cottage. The people were slightly different and included my brother and his family, as well as April's friends. The month has been devoted to family. Days are getting shorter. Niece Sarah brought candles to get us through the evening dinners.

rye flour paste resist

I grew up on a large piece of property where my father
harvested hay
kept cattle or horses off and on
had an artificial pond
a large vegetable garden
a potato field
open fields rimmed with hedges of chokecherry bushes and rock piles
electric fences for the cattle
wooden fences for the horses
a Quonset hut aluminum barn
a wind break of scotch pine trees that was my mother's idea
a giant elm by the highway
a highway walk to public school
a bus ride to high school
an older brother
a younger sister
a paternal grandmother who did not speak English
a maternal grand father who didn't speak to children
a maternal grandmother who was locally known as an artist-gardener-dressmaker-reader
a father who was an entrepreneur and electrician
a mother who was opinionated, intellectual and reclusive
no pets
no friends allowed to visit the place
lots of books
lots of art and sewing supplies
lots of space
lots of time.


Pictured are my experiments with rye flour as a paste resist for indigo dye. These may not work as resists - but don't they look beautiful just the way they are?

African Threads

Valerie Hearder has started a new blog, African Threads, about the African embroideries she brings to North America. She speaks eloquently about the Stephen Lewis Grandmother to Grandmother foundation which she supports with a donation of 15% of her profits. Several new embroideries came in to Val's etsy store just before Christmas.

I attached this one to a cloth bag for Connie and pieced some velvet around another to make a pillow for Nancy.

I am a middle child

photos by Paul and Pauline Johnson

Thanks Dad

My father has always been on the cutting edge of technology. We had the first TV in our small community when I was a child. He had a radio set in his car so we could give him messages while he was on the road while I was growing up. He's always provided me with cameras from the age of 16...and computers and scanners after that. His latest gift was an LCD projector so that I would be able to create digital image lectures at home and then show them without the stress of using unfamiliar equipment. I used this projector on Friday here in Kingston, and want to say thanks, Dad.

Pictured here at age 29 with my older brother. photographer unknown.

family

I'm home again after a wonderful week long visit with my father. I was also able to spend time with my sister and brother, and now feel more at ease for some reason. Ready to go forward.

This old photo by Paul Johnson