Touch is Live!

Entry from Marie McEachern, Alberta

We are so pleased that Touch the SAQA Western Canada Regional Trunk Show is ready to go out into the world. Bookings are now available. Details, and all the pieces in the show can be viewed virtually here.

The Making of The Hockey Boys - Colour with A U

Our final behind the scenes look at Western Canada member's Colour with a U submission is Valerie Wilson's The Hockey Boys. Colour with a U opens this Monday June 28th and runs until  October 2, 2021at the Museum of Industry in Stellarton, Nova Scotia.

Valerie Wilson - The Hockey Boys 65.5" W x 42" H

This piece was based on a vintage black and white photograph. I liked the three boys together and liked the differences in appearance and the subtle differences in their uniforms. The photo I used had had people standing in front of the boys so that shadows fell on the skates and hockey sticks of two of the boys. It required some research into the era and the equipment used at that time and some attempts at sketching the missing elements.



The Hockey Boys includes commercial and hand-dyed cotton, tulle, wool batting behind the figures and cotton batting overall.
Created with fused, raw edge appliqué, machine quilted (upper area on a long arm) and the rest on my HQ Sweet 16 (midarm).




Sampling of the quilting for the ice

The Hockey Boys artist statement: 

"Hockey is a national sport that is a symbol of Canada. It acts as a unifying force to connect communities and diverse groups of people. Anyone can play hockey and enjoy the game. Here are three boys who came together to join forces and play their favourite sport. I can imagine them out on an icy pond or in their local ice rink skating around."

Become a SAQA Curator!

The Choice - Judy Leslie

Have you ever wanted to try your hand at exhibition curation? SAQA is giving you the opportunity to submit a proposal for just that with their Virtual Gallery Program.

Do you have a great idea for an exhibition? Learn about submitting a proposal here.

Keep an eye out for the virtual gallery open calls and you could have you work included in a virtual exhibition as well! There are currently three virtual calls for entry: Structures, Words Fail, and Legacies. Click on each title for more details about the calls.

Impressions from Oceania features a piece by Western Canada member Judy Leslie.

Keep up the good work and don't forget to take advantage of the many opportunities to show your work with SAQA.

A Touch of Orange Exhibit

A Touch of Orange, Wilma Brock

 

The Lower Mainland of Vancouver SAQA Pod has put together a colourful exhibit from February 1st to 27th, 2021 at the White Rock Library, 15342 Buena Vista Avenue in White Rock BC.

The theme was A Touch of Orange and artists were required to use a splash of orange somewhere on their piece. As you can see from a selection of some of the pieces here some artists used more of this vibrant colour than others. 

Autumn Leaves, Judy Leslie

Artist statement:  I chose to design an art piece of varying sized rectangles. A variety of my hand-dyed silks and cottons combined with a variety of brass leaf embellishments added balance and interest.   Thus 'Autumn Leaves' became much more than just a 'Touch of Orange'!

Visit Judy's Website.

Midnight in the Garden Terry Rammell 16 x 16”(framed)

Artist Statement: Midnight in the Garden is 2 layers of silk both of which have been bundled and steamed with leaves and flowers. 
Bottom is silk noile eco printed and then hot wax applied to the leaf prints and over dyed with yellow, orange and fuscia Procion dye. Top layer is silk organza dyed in cochineal and then printed with fresh foliage. 
When laid one over the other the prints merge into one textural piece. Learn more about Terry.

Sierpinski’s Carpet Meets Boy’s Surface, Karlie McChesney

Artists Statement: German mathematician, Werner Boy developed Boy’s surface a 3-fold symmetry with a rotating axis, which turned any 120° will look exactly the same. 
Boy’s surface sits on Sierpinski’s carpet. Polish mathematician, Waclaw Sierpinski founded Sierpinski’s carpet, a square cut into 9 equal sub-squares in a 3 by 3 grid with the center removed.
Visit Karlie's Website.

Congratulations to all the artists for your wonderful work.

Gallery Vertigo Call For Entry

Open Call Fibre Exhibit "X's and O's"

Gallery Vertigo is inviting fibre artists to submit to a scheduled exhibit entitled X’s and O’s. Have you played this childhood game? What about “X marks the spot”? Do you sign letters with kisses and hugs (XO XO XO)? Old treasure maps often had an X marking the spot of the treasure. Those unable to read and/or write often signed with an “X”. Perhaps your thoughts of X’s and O’s relate to yin and yang, crosses and losses. How would you portray X’s and O’s? We are challenging fibre artists to interpret the theme of X’s and O’s in whichever direction your creative muse takes you.

Dec. 15, 2020 Online submission of entry opens

 Feb.1, 2021  Entry deadline at 3:00 pm PST 

All registrations must be in by this date

For details visit this link. The submission form can be found here.

The Making of Surging Tides of Consequences

Clare Attwell lives in Victoria British Columbia and shares with us the process behind her piece Surging Tides of Consequences that is on display in the Shifting Tides Regional Exhibit. Shifting Tides is showing at the Pratt Museum in Kachemak Bay Alaska from October 9 to November 28, 2020.

To view the Shifting Tides catalogue online click here.

Here is Clare's artist statement:

Milton Freidman famously used the manufacture of a classic yellow pencil as an illustration for free market economics. Yet Friedman's pencil metaphor  meant many important but difficult to measure variables were not considered. The social and environmental consequences of this approach are now everywhere, from climate chaos to mass human migration and species extinctions. As though we are facing The Great Wave Off Kanagawa. Hokusai's iconic wood cut print, there is a growing sense that life on earth is on an ominous precipice, driven by a system incapable of valuing what really matters.

The result of playing with a wheat paste texturing process – initially I was just interested in creating texture, water – and then added some salmon drawing studies.

Creating & assembling the parts.

-    I got a box of yellow pencils, broke them into pieces and then photographed them, before printing those photos onto cloth.  I then overpainted those photo images.

 

A design mock-up with several overlays stuck onto transparency sheets

Designing my over-quilting pattern: the inspiration came from The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai (1829-33).

Loaded onto my longarm for the over-stitching (quilting).

Surging Tides of Consequences Detail - Clare Attwell