Studio Series: Red: Confidence

Red: Confidence © Karen Thiessen, 2000 Photo Credit: Julian Beveridge

A visit by my art hero Sandra Brownlee to my Halifax studio in the summer of 2000 gave Red: Confidence its name. I had just finished taking this quilt off the frame and Sandra sat on my cool studio floor with it in her lap. She said it felt like armour. Armour provides protection; protection gives confidence. 

This is another of my favourite quilts. I painted many of the fabrics with screen-printing inks. Some of the fabric comes from the corduroy pillows that my mom sewed for their family room in the 1970s. This quilt was in The New Spirit of Ontario, an exhibition held at the offices of the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario at Queen's Park in Toronto in 2001. At the opening I met L.G. Hilary Weston. I was allowed to invite one person to accompany me to a private reception where we exchanged a few pleasantries and shook hands. My mom, a former politician, was thrilled to meet her and I was thrilled for my mom. The quilt made it into Hilary Weston's speech which was aired on television and into the National Post.