Colour with a U Artist Feature: Janet Scruggs

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.

Colour with a U Too Update & Artist Features

Both of these wonderful regional exhibits are continuing their journeys across Canada over the next two years. Artists Michele Craigen and Rosalind Sims have their work in Colour with a U Too now on display at the Signal Hill Arts Centre in Weyburn Saskatchewan until October 31st.

Michele writes about her piece:

How did Through My Eyes  develop? It’s based on views from the car while on the road travelling from southeast Saskatchewan where it’s quite flat to areas where it’s more rolling hills. 

One day in my studio I needed something to do so I gathered fabric, commercial and hand-dyed. I got so far with it and got stuck, so I put it away.The Colour With a U exhibit call was a perfect theme to go back and try to finish. I went back to my photos for inspiration. Techniques used were machine and hand stitching, and free motion quilting. The dead trees were created with free motion on dissolvable Solvey and tacked in place.

Through My Eyes - Michele Craigen

Rosalind Sims writes about her piece:

This winter scene with a silhouetted Polar Bear & the bright Colours of the Aurora Borealis speaks of ‘Colour with a ‘U” in Canada’s skies. After living in the Northwest Territories for 20 years I am still infatuated with Northern Lights!  Can’t you just imagine a polar bear standing in awe of such beauty?
Materials:  Carded merino mix sheep wool, fine merino sheep roving; wool cloth;
wool/polyester cloth; cotton threads and beads.
Techniques:  Wet felting;  needle felting; applique; thread painting; raw edge stitching, free motion quilting with a variety of stiches to give texture; beading and finished with a facing to add structure.

Oh, What a Night - Rosalind Sims
More artist features from Colour with a U & Colour with a U Too are forthcoming. Please contact the blog editor if you have SAQA Western Canada news to share!

The Making of Help Me

Today's feature artist is Diana Bartelings from Rock Creek, BC.

To view more of her work visit:

https://bartelings.wixsite.com/dianabartelings

Diana writes:

The Pacific Ocean is a part of my heritage, having grown up in Vancouver, BC. To know that we are destroying this part of our world strongly affects me. I chose to focus on the wildlife that is caught up in pollution that freely roams the ocean with the tides.

I began with some of my ice dyed fabric that represented the beauty of the ocean itself. I soak my fabric in soda ash, place some in the bottom of a smaller container, cover in ice and sprinkle the Procion MX dye powders on then continue to layer more fabric, ice and dyes until my container is fairly full. I put a lid on it and then let it sit for 24 hours. After that I wash it out using sythropol.

I used commercial fabrics to make the turtle and, in an effort to recycle, an avocado bag for the netting. The diver was appliqued on with recycled cotton as well. We are so careless in the way we discard our garbage that I chose to add a piece of plastic that holds pop, juice or beer cans together. These are often found on sea creatures.  

"Help Me" Diana Bartelings

The Making of Eh, Utopian Sky

Our featured artist this week is Colour with a U artist Dawn Piasta from Manitoba.

 “Eh, Utopian Sky” Dawn Piasta

Dawn writes:

It did not take me long to decide on a subject matter for my Colour with a U submission. I had the idea swimming around in my mind for years.  The design developed as I was studying the works of various Canadian artists.  The style that struck me the strongest was that of Emily Carr.

   

My subject matter was to be a mix of wild cranberries and the Northern Lights.  Six months after our wedding, as a young bride my husband took me, for the first time, to his family home in Manitoba.  The skies were alive with the Aurora Borealis every night of our visit.  I was bewitched by their vivid colours.  Three years later we moved with our 8-month-old son to a farm just north of Dauphin.  Shortly after our arrival I met my first friend, Angie.  To me she was like the sister I had left behind.  She showed me how to navigate within the new world I now lived.  She had a lot of secret places to reveal. My most treasured memory was the days we went picking wild cranberries along the Wilson River.  The bushes were amber and chartreuse, the berries were scarlet & crimson. This was the vision that would become “Eh, Utopian Sky” I have sadly had to say good by to my friend, but my memories are cherished and are now memorialized in this quilt.

I sourced the fabrics from a resale shop.  Natural fibres of linen, cotton & silk were used. The berries were made using the Aplquick method of applique. The background pattern developed due to the fact that my fingers were raw from applying each berry and stem by hand (without a thimble). 

For more information about Dawn's work please visit her website. dewpointarts.com