Colour with a U is still touring Canada and will be on display at The Muse, Lake of the Woods Museum in Ontario from April 6 to May 22, 2021.
Below Janet Scruggs shares the inspiration behind her Portraits, Women I Would Like to Have Met piece.
Janet Scruggs - Portraits, Women I Would Like to Have Met
When thinking about what makes Canada Canada, I thought about our history and
the contribution women have made. There have been so many that I decided to narrow my focus to the Arts. Still a vast array of women who have contributed to our culture. I decided to look at those who were “first” in particular categories of the Arts. This took significant research to narrow down each one of those categories to one woman I felt represented a significant contribution and a first in some way. In
researching each of these women, I felt they embodied characteristics I admired.
They each battled norms in society and often persevered through personal tragedies or difficulties to achieve their goals. Once I made the choice of whom to include, the task then became finding usable photos of each one. As I worked on each step in the process of creating the photos on cheesecloth and stitching, I felt myself becoming not only an admirer of these women, but a kinship and pride in their efforts and their courage.
Once I had picked the women, it was time to find a usable photograph. There are several sites that have public domain photos and scouring these took many days! Trying to track down and locate relatives to obtain permission of photos on other sites seemed too daunting a task with the time I had available. Sometimes there was only one photo available to use so I had to ensure that it was in the public domain, even if the photographer’s name was known. The next step was to convert these old photos to black and white (instead of browns) and bump the contrast as much as possible.
Next I used paper lamination to get the photos onto cheesecloth. As the title of the exhibition is Colour with a U, I decided to choose a vibrant colour of hand dyed cheesecloth for each of the women. Luckily I have an overflowing basket of hand dyed cheesecloth pieces to choose from! It saved a lot of time. I also needed to coordinate a fabric for the cheesecloth photo as well, but I have a lot of that also, so it wasn’t too big of a challenge. (I am determined to use only what I possess, so buying new fabric was out of the question.)
Those decisions made, it was time to work through getting the photos onto the cheesecloth. I used the same screen to apply the gel medium as I did want some consistency in the look of the photos, even though one is never too sure what the result will be. This meant doing some of them more than once - after all you do want the face to be there! I no sooner finished this part of the process and hung them upon my design wall when I realized that one photo was wrong - she was much to small within the photo compared to the others. So, back to editing and redoing that one.
With photos complete, hand stitching followed. Many evenings filled with embroidering the backgrounds and choosing part of their clothing and how to embroider it. I wanted some variety in the stitching so each one is unique. Finally with each one stitched, I sewed the individual portraits to a felt background by hand. Finished…… well almost.
I realized that if this became part of a travelling exhibit, the cheesecloth (not attached) would be scrunched and mushed up (technical language). So, I added small bits of Misty Fuse around each portrait to ensure that the cheesecloth stayed relatively in place. FINISHED! And, so thrilled when I found out it was accepted as part of the exhibit! While I cannot here provide each life story of these wonderful women, I would encourage you to read about them.
Briefly, they are:
Esther Hill - First female registered architect & award winning weaver.
Portia White - First internationally acclaimed Black Canadian concert singer.
A person of national historic significance.
Lucy Maud Montgomery - Author of Anne of Green Gables, one of the best selling books worldwide. A person of national historic significance.
Mary Augusta Hiester Reid - First Canadian woman to have a solo art exhibit and first woman to have her work in the National Gallery of Canada.
Mary Pickford - 1st Canadian woman to win an Oscar. Co-founder of United Artists Studio. A star on Canada’s Walk of Fame.
E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) - Mohawk/English author, poet and performer. First Canadian woman, Author and Aboriginal Canadian to be commemorated on a stamp. A person of national historic significance.
