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

number twenty

On The Lake

Made in 1989 when we lived in Kenora and would take the kids boat camping on Lake of the Woods.  Lake of the Woods is a deep lake, full of islands.  I was always looking between the islands for an open, uninterupted view.

It's a quilt of stitched photographs.
Film photos - digital cameras were not invented yet.

In the boat, motor going, long trips, fresh air, the four kids eating boat candy,  I would take photo after photo of the sky and the water.  I'd take another roll, more sky, more water.  We went camping with them in that open boat that we would pull up on crown land.  I took photos of the kids too of course, and more photos of the sky and the water.

Once settled at home again, I would drop the rolls of film at the drug store to have them processed - or maybe it was the grocery store.  It would take two or three days to have that done.

Once I got the envelopes of photos, I felt as if I was a painter with a new palette.  Or a quilter with dyed fabric.  I cut the photos into one and a half inch squares and arranged them, stitched them to cotton with white thread.

With no islands.
Just horizon.

In 1992 I think, I was invited to bring some actual work to a gallery in Winnipeg - Ace Art I think.  It was an artist run space and the purchasing committee of the Canada Council Art Bank was planning a visit to make selections from our area of the country.  I didn't think I had a chance as my work would be viewed along with many well known Winnipeg artists, but I took this piece and I think three others. It was a two hour drive from my house into the city.

So now this piece is still in the Canada Council Art Bank collection, and they have updated their web site so that it is possible to view online.  This photo is much better than any I have ever been able to present online - since I was having to work from film photos and scan them.  Anyway - it's nice when you come across these kinds of things and I thought I'd share with you.

It's number 20 on one hundred quilts

everything something anything

Its overwhelming.  How do we do it?  Everything?   Something?   Anything?

I started a new system this fall to keep my bodies of work and my daily and emotional life on track.  I'm using the kitchen timer again. (not for the emotional parts)

First thing in the morning, I stitch by the window into this altered journal.  Although the timer is set to 15 minutes, I work until there is a natural pause.  Working in this journal has inspired further journal work.   I think that's good.

Then I do an hour of hand stitch on the 'weekly project'.  (shown: re-configuring moon cloth)

In this new system, I work on just one piece for a week and then fold it up and work on a different one the next week.  The rule is: I can have in 10 pieces in rotation for this morning stitching, but no more.

(The many others will just have to wait until I have finished one of those 10)
Also, I am avoiding my inbox.
I seek no deadlines...

About social media:
I post once a week on instagram of whatever I am currently working on.
I post nearly once a week on facebook.
I write in this blog once or twice a week.  I'm sad that blog readership seems to be down because of the three, the blog is the most true. 

The only-10-things rule has made room for new ideas.  I think it's good that they keep coming.
I neglect the in-progress pieces piled on chairs and the sketches, re-drawn countless times.

I do about 2 hours of stitch each morning, and then go into town to work on the 3rd body of work based on wool blankets.  These town studio pieces are huge and I listen to a pod cast while filling the blankets with stitch.  I like to listen to Writers and Company with Eleonar Wachtel.

Home again, I go for a walk and make dinner.  The day is nearly over.
My husband and I have our Netflix date around 10 pm
and I work on the piece I leave in the TV room.

It's the TV pieces that get done.
This finished flannel quilt (above) was posted on instagram Friday.

Here is the TV piece I'm working on now.
This photo was taken last weekend at the cottage. Canadian Thanksgiving

This post is about time.
There just isn't enough of it.
In a day.  In a life. 

I have too many ideas.
Most will get done.
Somehow. Anyhow.  Everyhow.xo

journal work

 

my journals

I have a morning practice of reflection
I use hard covered journals to keep my thoughts and drawings

They've built up since 1985, the year I started writing in them.
The year my 3rd child was born.
The year of my first solo exhibition.

I re-read them.
I keep them in book shelves in my home studio.

Since we moved to Manitoulin 26 years ago, I began to deal with them as an art material.

I made party-fabric quilt tops paper-pieced with used journal papers (example here)
I wrapped entire journals with cloth, sometimes sealing them further with paint (see below)
Now I am cutting the pages into spiral strips to stitch to linen or wool bases (see above)

Handling the journals and re-reading them slowly is taking me on a journey inwards to self.
Each day I find that I know myself better.

It is surprising how many notes I've taken over the years while reading about art.
I copy what still resonates into my current journal.

I'm treating the journal from the year I turned 40 to gold paint and hand stitch. (above)
Maybe I'll do something with the ones I kept when I turned 50 and 60.

Maybe I will stop working with my journals someday.
not.

here i am

i'm here

Her Interior Wilderness

Over the weekend I went out on the deck and stitched this piece,
enjoying the spring sunshine.

I outlined white petal shapes with black wool thread, added french knots here and there.
Stitching on paper is a slow way to make marks that appear to be spontaneous.
I thought these looked pretty free and easy,
until I looked at the reverse side.

Here it did look care-free. Intuitive.  WOW

I prefer this 'wrong' side.
I wonder if this is a metaphor for how we prefer our life to be like?
Sensuous and unplanned, barely contained.
Just going. Doing.  and it is beautiful.

I continued to work from the pretty side.  I like the pretty side.
But I love the messy side.

Her Interior Wilderness

That's the kind of day it was.
Sparkling.
The eyes of the spirits winking off the water.
Richard Wagamese

news

the yellow wall paper, 1988  hand made paper, cotton, fuzing and stitch,
typed text from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story 

I have a lot of news.
I am putting it into this single post.
All illustrations are stitched paper pieces I made when I was 32 or so. (sorry,they are scanned from slides and some are fuzzy}

"I kept still and watched the moonlight on that undulating wall paper until I felt creepy"

I am still experiencing a lot of pain and lameness in my left leg.  (bad news )

section of diptych Woman is Nurture  watercolour on paper, stitched to velvet, found text 1987

I am preparing a solo show for a commercial gallery in Toronto for this coming October.  The gallery is the David Kaye Gallery.  (good news)
I am making new work for it.  (more good news)

Grandmother's Paper Garden 1987, women's magazine papers stitched to cotton

I am included in a new book about the history of the art quilt.  The quilt that will represent me is from the 80's  here and here  I'm very thrilled to be included among such important quilt artists as Nancy Crow, Dorothy Caldwell, Yvonne Porcella, Chungie Lee, Michaael James, Yoshiko Jinzenji...on and on.  here is the entire list.  (good news)

The Mother The Child 1988 cut up watercolour painting and family photographs stitched to damask,
overlayed with ink drawing on sheer organza 

That reminds me that Martha Sileman's International Art Quilts: Abstract and Geometric came out last month.  (here)

the mother the child detail ( nine-patches made from photos of my childhood and paintings of tree branches)

 I saved the best news for last.

the mother the child 1988 stitched paper on damask , a self portrait

We have a new baby in our family.  Maia was born Thursday January 19, a little sister for Aili.

the light the hope

Lake - indigo dyed and hand stitched quilt on left.
The Light of the Moon - acrylic, thread, paper and cotton wall piece on right.

Before I delivered my work to Shannon at the Perivale Gallery earlier this month, I re-read the journal text in the stitched paper collage.

The darkness will always be there but you can see the light of the moon as hope.

 

I am showing three pieces at the Perivale Gallery this year.
Left to right:  Duet, Lake and Light of the Moon.
Ivan Wheale will be in attendance at the opening on May 17.  I hope that it will be well attended.

golden notebook two

 I am working at being an artist.

 I have a lot of projects on the go.

 I make things for no reason and then exhibit them if they turn out.

This is the only way I can do good work.

The text in this post is from my 1999 journal.
Golden notebook one  is still in progress.   Shown here.

canada council art bank collection

On The Lake  Photographs, cotton, thread, satin, stitched, 40" x 20" 1989

I read about this panel discussion and exhibition in the newest Slate Magazine and it made me wonder about the status of my piece (shown above).  On The Lake was acquired by the Canada Council art bank when we still lived in Kenora, North western Ontario in 1990.

Being part of this important collection of Canadian contemporary art is something I have always been proud of, and it was quite interesting to visit the art bank's new website.   I found out that there are 3.000 artists represented in the Canada Council Art Bank and 17,000 pieces! New to the site is an excellent way to search the collection (here).  What it says about my piece - here.

Because this search says that On The Lake is 'unavailable' I emailed the art bank and found out that my art work has been rented out for several years to a client in Ottawa.  It's nice to know that.  The exhibition Art Bank Expose: A Selection of Artworks from the Canada Council Art Bank continues in Toronto until January 16 at First Canadian Place Gallery.

art can connect us to something that is lost

take my heart like a hand and its fingers, Judith e Martin stitched collage (detail), 2005

At times, I wonder what is worth posting about on this blog. 

What am I comfortable with showing?

My work is so large and slow that it seems to stand still when I post about the progress I make with it, day by day.  

And anyway, the blog is not my art.

This blog is just a journal.
It actually takes time away from my art.
Why then, do I carry on with it?

Newfoundland's northern tip, September 2014

I want my art to communicate who I am.

I also want my art to help my viewer access something unnameable within themselves.    

Artist Ann Hamilton believes that "art can connect us to something that is lost."   

By this, I think she means those ideas, dreams, and loved ones that we carry around inside us.

Maybe the blog writing helps me to connect with you in that way. 
Maybe it is my art.