A Guest Post by Western Canada member Janet Scruggs
To learn more about Janet visit her website
When I first heard about the Shifting Tides
exhibit being comprised of artists from the western areas of the US and Canada,
it piqued my interest. We share a lot of the same concerns on the western coast
of North America. So this exhibit was an opportunity to speak about issues that
might not enter the thoughts of those in other parts of the country.
Translating a concern or an issue into cloth can
be challenging. How could I represent the tiny microplastics that have
increased so much they are encircling everything and becoming food to organisms?
Plastic Chowder - Janet Scruggs
I decided a collage would be my best method of
doing this. I was able to obtain permission to use text from a couple of news
articles. These, and the photos were printed directly onto various fabrics. One
of my favourites is the result of printing on a thrift store find - a cotton
fabric that is like a corduroy but not fuzzy.
I really felt that a raw edge look to the collage would be
representative of the look of the ocean and would reflect my current approach to
art quilts. Next I created the thread lace to represent the encircling plastic
that is spreading. I stitched this initially with two colours of thread and
when completed, I found that it did not have enough depth, so I attacked it
with markers randomly. My final endeavour was to add several clear beads in
strings to represent the tiny micro-plastic bits which are broken down from the
plastic.
Plastic Chowder detail - Janet Scruggs
