wear it out!

These are some fancy pins that I've made in the past and I'm working on a new batch to put out there. I'm also trying out some new designs so we'll see what happens and look forward to a bunch more textile and illustration stuff to be coming in the future. I was on a bit of a hiatus but I'm back... lets see how long I can remember to keep going! haha!

Men at work: Mark Newport

Here is an image of one of my favorite male textile artists Mark Newport. I feel really connected to the type of work that he does. His knitted super hero costumes really evoke a sense of nostalgia and comfort. I am glad to see this kind of work circulating and being taken seriously as art. You can see more of his images here. Tell me what you think.

I am going to try and do more posts about male textile artists here because I think it is important to stay united. I have come to realize that penetrating this female dominated craft is going to be harder than I thought it would be.

illustrating

I haven't been doing much textile work lately, but I'm gearing up for it through illustrations... I'm going to be be posting more illustration work in the next while so enjoy!

new ideas

Here is a quick mock up from one of my illustrations for an idea I think I'm going to be working on. I forgot how fun it is to use photoshop. I have to relearn so much stuff because I forgot everything (which is not much) I know. Youtube has been great for tutorials and getting me familiar with the program again. What do you think?

At the AGO!

Here is one of the displays that had my work at the Art Gallery of Ontario. This is a great picture taken by Matthew Palmer. It was a great show and I am really happy that I got to take part in this final installment of Artwherk.

Artwherk at the Art Gallery of Ontario

Come see the golden girls and my robots at the Art Gallery of Ontario!

Abaca paper pumpkins

I've just been thinking about techniques I've learned and haven't used in a dogs age. I loved paper making so much. Abaca was my favorite because of its smooth texture and finish. What I love the most was that the more layers of pulp you put down the stiffer the paper (especially with abaca fibres). Casting objects in paper was really rewarding and I decided to cast pumpkins for this particular project. This was the finished piece and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I really hope that I can do more paper making one day.

Robot in robot: felt, metal and fun

This is a full and detail shot of my trojan robot. The metal robot is woven from metal tape and the little guy is made of felt. I liked the contrast of materials and the idea of a robot controlling a robot.

The carnival comes again, this time with animals

Here are the embroideries that I did a year after the bag that I just posted about. I did these embroideries about the animals used in sideshows and circuses. There were six in total and the elephant image was actually featured in an issue of Surface Design magazine! I think the horse was my favorite piece in this series.

The carnival comes, side shows and stripes

These are images of a bag that I did for a project a couple of years ago and then some inspired surface designs I did later inspired from that bag. There were four designs in total but I'm just showing you two of them. The inspiration was vintage carnival and sideshows. I really enjoyed doing these and I'm going to do another post of some embroideries using the same theme. I think I'll go back and investigate this theme further one day.

Junko Mizuno at Magic Pony

Now if you are familiar with her work you'll know what I'm talking about.

Junko has an amazing talent for combining the cute and grotesque and make it seem absolutely lovely!  She does all kinds of work but what you should look out for are her re-imaginings of fairy tales like Hansel and Gretel, The little Mermaid and Cinderella.  

Now  for the really exciting news!  Junko is coming here to Toronto and is going to have her very own show at Magic Pony's new gallery Narwhal!  Opening is Thursday June 18th 7-10pm and you should definitely be there!!!

See you then!

How do you like my weave?

Since I've graduated from school I haven't touched a loom.  The piece above is the second project I did in my intro weaving class.  I am really itching to get back to some weaving basics and start weaving again.  I think I'm going to actually to make a simple one from a shoebox or some other simple frame.  As much as I love hand weaving (I don't) I think a project like this will really tie me over.  Here is a website showing you how to make a basic loom.

http://www.allfiberarts.com/library/aa01/aa040201.htm

Thank you for being a friend

These are part of a series of portraits I did to commemorate my favorite television show, the golden girls.  These were done Novemberish last year and they are hand woven and machine embroidered using free motion stitch.  I did these as a project for the intermediate weaving class at NSCAD.  I tried to match colours and weave structures for each girl.  I like the Dorothy one the best, but I'm bias since she was my favorite.  I've also included sophia in this post and later I'll show Rose and Blanche

Finally I jumped on board

So here is my first entry of many about my perspective on the Textile Arts