A big thank you to Al and Debbie Coté, for hosting our meeting, in Niagara Falls! It was a beautiful day and perfect for enjoying their lovely back garden. It was also fun to see Al’s workspace and his huge quilting machine.
Maggie Vanderweit, the SAQA rep for Central Canada, chaired our meeting. Thank you so much for all of the time you’re spending to get these Canadian “Pods” up and running.
Seven members attended, with an indication that several others plan to attend future meetings.
Maggie shared SAQA news. She discussed the excitement of attending SAQA conferences; mentioning the recent conference in Lincoln Nebraska, the upcoming conference in San Antonio and what will be the first conference held in Canada… Toronto, in 2020! A wonderful opportunity to showcase Canada and the amazing talent base we have. We were encouraged to begin thinking of how we might assist in planning or organizing the conference.
In order to get acquainted we shared show and tell projects and experiments that have been playing with.
Maggie began by showing her recently published book and discussing how it was an amazing process to work through so many ideas that had been gelling in her mind. She then showed a recent art quilt “House of Refuge” (explaining her inspiration and techniques) and some beautiful ice dyeing experiments.
Harriet Rynberk discussed her current interest in working with tea bags, after being inspired by work she’d seen by Ann Laser. Some were interested to learn that the Abaca tea bag fabric is available by the yard.
Lynne Forrester brought a richly textured piece, where she used painted and manipulated cheesecloth to create the bark of a tree and branch, surrounding a stitched pair of raccoons. Stump work leaves added extra dimension. She also brought a collaged, cloth background she is working on, after being inspired by a Lorraine Roy workshop.
June Robinson shared some beautiful pieces. She has been using photographs, which she manipulates in Photoshop, layers and alters, then prints onto cloth … before cutting and piecing them into her panels. She said she’s just “mucking around”.
Dianne Gibson passed around some samples of papers that she has been creating, to use in her art … collaging, stamping, stitching and dyeing. She also brought one finished piece using a ‘chenille’ technique on paper.
Irma Bull brought two mixed media panels where she has combined fabrics, paints, stamped text, old DVD’s, poetry and even real bird wings used as the feathered wings of an angel.
Karen Sirianni passed around a pile of fabric post cards, which she is having fun creating. She shared her basic method and says she’s had no problem sending them through the mail to her friends, who are now “collecting” these little works of art. She also showed several small canvas panels. Tiny needle felted squares are mounted in the middle of the canvas and inspire the painted backgrounds which she develops around them.
Al Coté showed recent pieces he’s made using cloth purchased at the annual Textile Museum sale. He has been creating entire panels, which he over dyes after all of the stitching is finished. An interesting way to make all of the colours shift and become unified. He’s also been exploring the use of Paverpol in his work and dimensional paints, which can look like beading.
It was very interesting to see that everyone in attendance was adding texture to their work and loved experimenting with new products and ideas.
We enjoyed a great potluck lunch then we were encouraged to make a list of some potential topics and things we might include in future meetings.
- Show and tell
- New products – discuss? /Samples? /Demos?
- Play day?
- Guest speakers (this would not be SAQA funded, so the members would pay, but it could be advertised and open to the public for a fee?)
- Williams Café in NF is a possible location for meetings, in their meeting room
- Excursions – meet somewhere to take photos then create work inspired a photo
- Al suggested an exercise he uses with students, where you are randomly given a colour, size, number and word which you must incorporate in a piece
- Possibly pairing with a group of writers… using something they’ve written to inspire a piece and perhaps giving them a piece, which they must write something about in response.
- Perhaps planning a group show- Juried?, just our pod?, Regional show?
NOTE: Calendar items...
Aug 21 – We’ll meet at Al’s – pot luck/ show & tell/ Al will discuss Paverpol
Oct 16 – We’ll meet at Dianne’s – pot luck/ show & tell ? Al, Debbie & Karen will talk about their trip to India.
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