Second Generations Gallery

This work captures a transition from pieces predominantly about what resilience might look like (Escarpment, Outcrops) to those which consider particular traits of inheritance that might help resist pressures and threats (Watering Holes II, Old Roads, The Sun Beats Down). I am using landscapes as my medium for conveying my messages but a literal interpretation of man’s impact on the land isn’t intended. If I had to analyze myself, I would probably attribute this direction to loss of the older generation in my family (and thinking about what remains of that generation) and the constant reminders of climate change. I also think these felts help us think about how we remember places we have left and return to or perhaps never return to. Those places change in reality yet are distorted or in limbo in our memories. The purple and red pieces in the middle of this collection are a set of musings about the state of transit in our fair city based on some imagery through the microscope of some slime mold I grew for fun in a class. Slime mold looks like the deeply dissected mouth of a large river - many connections and a densely connected network. Too bad the transit system doesn’t do that!

Growing Soup (SOLD)

Handmade wool and silk felt with embedded grape vine tendrils.

This felt was made in reaction to the awareness campaign waged in Dufferin County against a quarry taking over the farmland.

Images of this piece have been digitally printed and are either made into silk scarves, cards or embedded into the second-generation felts. One of my personal favourites.

Urban Planning

Largest of my slime mold series showing fruiting bodies printed on silk

36” W x 40”H

There is a myth that slime mold intuitively can create an efficient subway network e.g. the Tokyo subway system. I figured my slime mold could teach Toronto a thing or two.

Two stop subway

Slime mold series

20” x 20” framed - patches of slime mold fruiting bodies on silk embedded as I felt.

Slime mold likes the dark subway caverns. It might pop out at these stations.

Redirection

Slime mold fruiting bodies printed on silk with craters. 12” square

Empty stops.

Barriers

16” circle pointy barriers and knitted copper wire with nuno felted imagery of slime mold through the microscope

Experiments growing microorganisms in petri dishes. Some say the networks they make look like transit systems, in which case here are the barriers and red flags.

RIde the Waves

20” circle nuno felted imagery through the microscope of the petri dish of slime mold.

“Ride the Waves” is a narrative about creating momentum in our city to fix pressing social problems. High energetic waves carry more momentum than low energetic waves.

I am using imagery from the high energy slime mold to symbolize the collective activism needed to push the city forward. Be the wave of change.

Out of Service (detail)

shots of blue and orange silk

Turning Point

24” square of nuno prefelts of maple leaf imagery.

Falling leaves signal the transition to a new season…much like October 17, 2018 signaled changes in our social norms. Yes that is a marijuana leaf.

Turning Point (detail)

The Sun Beats Down then Night Falls: Field Work (SOLD)

18" x 42" framed - hangs either way

Handmade wool and silk felt with embedded silk images from "Excavate". In the resist holes are copper wire and the image of women working the fields from a 1 Kwacha note. Of course there is an African porcupine quill keeping watch on the "road".

The original "organic" farming is still practiced where there are no hipster grocery stores to receive the produce.

Watering Holes II

24" H x 48" W framed and stitched to cotton covered canvas

A second generation piece. Note the old fields embedded at the top of the hill. With embedded silk rope, knitted copper wire, African porcupine quill and embedded silk images from the felt "Growing Soup" (on the right).

Animals wait for night hidden among the dusty hills. Crops used to grow here or so the land says.

Fire & the Elephants Run and Transparent Elephant Run

Contains elements of second generation images as transparencies of elephants in Zambia.

These two felts were designed at the same time as companion pieces that explore ideas about forces that drive change. In this case, the one on the left shows fire sweeping through the land and the elephants run.

Fire and the Elephants Run

I created this felt to explore an idea about the forces that drive change. In this case fire sweeping through the land. The resist hole contains a transparency of elephants running from the bush with the shadow of an aeroplane overhead.

Framed 12" x 42" (no glass) - it can hang either horizontally or vertically.

Elephants run in front of the fire. The land may lie empty but the grass will return.

Fire and the Elephants Run - Detail

Detail of the knitted copper wire and transparency of the elephants.

Prairie Dog Ghost Town

45"L x 13"W

Exhibition piece at the felt::feutre Canadian Contemporary Felt Exhibition, 2016

With knitted copper window, image of Grasslands National Park on cloth, cocoons

Prairie dog colonies retreat to a safe place. New landscapes with roads, furrows and fences replace the quiet prairie.

Night In the Fields - SOLD

Handmade wool and silk felt with resist holes, embedded silk images and an African Porcupine Quill.

A second generation felt created with silks from "Growing Soup".

20" x 20" framed and sewn on a vintage white damask table cloth.

At night the fields lie quietly breathing. Take refuge and drink water from the ponds.

Canola Hills (SOLD)

12"H x 36" W

With cocoon, sweet grass, silk image of "Growing Soup" felt

Agriculture replaces natural prairie, then is itself replaced by memories of the fallow fields.