TOAE 2012: Jennifer Maynard

Jennifer Maynard textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Jennifer Maynard's work caught my attention the moment that I saw it. Some work enters my consciousness slowly, so that I'm unaware that it's having its way with me. Other artwork hits me like a Mack truck. Maynard's work fits into the latter category. It's colourful, fun, and cheeky. 

Jennifer Maynard textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Peterborough, Ontario based Maynard is also known as Lucky Jackson and she's on a 365 day stitching bender to create one hand embroidered art work each day. When I heard this, I was all ears (after all this blog is named Day In & Day Out). She started the project in September 2011 and I hope she's able to complete this impressive undertaking without developing repetitive strain injuries.

Jennifer Maynard textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

The funny thing about the work is that while I was photographing it, my camera's face recognition software kept kicking in. Hah!

Jennifer Maynard textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Maynard, aka Lucky Jackson, has all her bases covered on the 'ole wild world web. Check out her website or blog or Flickr to see and learn more.

TOAE 2012: Deborah Pasternak

Deborah Pasternak painting; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

I spent a hot day at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition checking out the work. Deborah Pasternak's paintings of afghans and doilies grabbed my attention and forced me to take a second and third look. Yes, all the images are painted, not crocheted.

Deborah Pasternak painting; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Pasternak paints the doilies as if she were decorating a cake. Instead of icing, she fills a cake decorating bag with acrylic paint and then using a variety of tips goes to town recreating Grandma's wares. She began developing this technique while a student at the Ontario College of Art and Design and then went a step further and acquired pastry chef skills at George Brown College. I'm a sucker for cross-pollination.

Deborah Pasternak painting; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Do you have a favourite afghan or doily that is looking worse for wear and can't bear the thought of getting rid of it? Deborah Pasternak accepts commissions to recreate your much loved afghan in paint. 

Deborah Pasternak painting; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Deborah Pasternak painting; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

TOAE 2012: Shuyu Lu

Shuyu Lu textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

As a Chinese artist living in Canada, Shuyu Lu is a bridge between East and West. Confronting this duality on a daily basis led Shuyu Lu to explore other contrasts of sheer vs. opaque (see the bottom image), colour vs. black-and-white, contemporary imagery of hamburgers and electronic equipment superimposed with traditional French Toile de Jouy fabrics, old vs. new, and slow hand-embroidery vs. faster screen-printed fabrics. Shuyu Lu makes good use of this tension with her witty melding of traditional and contemporary, and eastern and western cultures.

Shuyu Lu textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Shuyu Lu moves beyond the rectangle with her amorphously shaped Toiles de Jouy and her embroidery hooped stitched screen-prints. Embroidery hoops are on the verge of being over-used among textile artists, but they are a quick and inexpensive solution to presenting the work. The irregularly-shaped stuffed Toiles are so unusual that they force me to spend more time with them.

Shuyu Lu textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Shuyu Lu, a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design's fibre program, is finishing a residency in the Harbourfront textile studio. For more information, check out Shuyu Lu's blog.

Shuyu Lu textiles; Photo credit Karen Thiessen, 2012

Quotes: Rainer Maria Rilke

"You must give birth to your images. Fear not the strangeness you feel. The future must enter you long before it happens. Just wait for the birth, for the hour of the new clarity." – Rainer Maria Rilke, Austrian poet

Week 29: Adobe Illustrator

Lounge Zigzag © Karen Thiessen 2012

Above is my summer fling with Lounge I. In March I was besotted with orange. Now that the temperature and humidity are both high, I'm cooling off with blues and greens. Playing with the colour has completely changed the look and now I'm curious about other ways this design can evolve. Summer's slower pace has been a gift. I'm not motivated to create new patterns, but am quite happy to revisit my passel of earlier designs.

Lounge I © Karen Thiessen 2012

Andrew McPhail: Prick @ Centre [3]

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Andrew McPhail is an artist that I have been watching for a few years. He draws, he paints, and he creates installations using the humblest of materials: pins, facial tissues, and band-aids. Prick is a piece at Centre [3] for Print and Media Arts (formerly known as The Print Studio) on James Street North in Hamilton and is part of a broader exhibition, Qualia, or the Feel of Steel, curated by Ingrid Mayrhofer, that explores the imprint of steel on Hamilton. At the opening, Prick garnered a lot of attention: we all had to touch it... and we did. By chance, I ran into Andrew another day when I came back to photograph his piece, without the crowds of people swarming the chair and foot stool. He said that he started with the middle of the foot stool where the pins are very dense, and as he worked, he realized that he would have to space them apart a bit more in order to finish the piece in time for the show.

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Prick appeals to my textile background. I love the repetition, accumulation, and tactile qualities of the piece. Andrew cleverly illustrates the relationship between steel and textiles. When I normally think of steel, I think of ugly factories belching plumes of steam and smoke, massive steel coils on flatbed trucks, and steel beams used in construction. All my associations are of steel's large scale and danger and pollution and ugliness. Every day I stitch using needle and thread. Every day I used a thin sharp shard of steel to make my work. Prick reminds me that steel is as much small, friendly, daily, and domestic as it is dangerous, large, and remote.

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Another interesting connection that Andrew makes with Prick is that although Hamilton is known as "Steeltown," it was once a textile manufacturing city too. 

Prick by Andrew McPhail; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen, 2012

Read Ingrid Mayrhofer's statement about Qualia, or the Feel of Steel here and her statement about Andrew McPhail's piece, Prick, here. The exhibition runs from July 7 to August 18, 2012.

Annie Fraser @ Hamilton Artists Inc II

Precious Sand by Annie Fraser, 2012; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen 2012

Annie Fraser has a way with materials and shadow. Check out the shadow cast by Precious Sand. Her sensitivity reminds me of Rebecca Vidotto's work that I wrote about in 2011 here and here. Annie and Rebecca are both graduates of McMaster University's Fine Art program. McMaster isn't renowned for its art program. Medicine, engineering, and business put McMaster on the map. Obviously the Mac fine arts program, although small, is doing something right. 

Revel, Unravel by Annie Fraser, 2012; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen 2012

In her statement for the show, Annie states:

Home is an extension of its dweller. For some it is simply a place to seek shelter and warmth before moving on to a new place or carbon copy of the previous one. Regeneration exists in removing unfamiliar choices but the home’s skeleton remains intact.

Through mental recollection and invention, the work documents reality with a slightly skewed subjective record of time and space.

The resulting work is comprised of basic materials, wood, paper and metal. These elements, rarely used in their purest form, are introduced as tattered documents, photographs, furniture, architectural remnants and containers. Through the assemblage of materials the work functions as a synthesized archaeology of belonging and exploration. It is a reminder that nothing and everything changes over time.

Red Buttons by Annie Fraser, 2012; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen 2012

Red Buttons by Annie Fraser, 2012; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen 2012

Plans is the simplest of Annie's assemblages and one of my favourites. Its delicate lines cast exquisite fine shadows on the wall below. The fragility of Plans sets up a tension in me–– it is hung with a simple clip and not protected behind glass. I fear for its well-being. Work that evokes an emotional response is effective.

Plans by Annie Fraser, 2012; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen 2012

Plans by Annie Fraser, 2012; Photo Credit: Karen Thiessen 2012

Annie Fraser is an emerging artist to watch. If you are in the Hamilton area, see the show before it comes down. Re:Structures is on at the Hamilton Artists Inc from June 29 to August 5, 2012.