8 minute read
Summer 2011: Discovery Gallery
Off the Floor
July 16 – August 27, 2011
Contemporary rug hookings by Rachelle LeBlanc
When I sat down to design the show, I found myself flooded with memories from childhood and of moments spent with my own children. My thoughts kept falling on how fast life goes by and how little time is spent just being still. Off the Floor focuses on children spending a day picking apples, daydreaming in the sun and finding oneself in love.
Unlike the primitive traditional rug hooking subject, I wanted to create hooked pieces that tell my story, that celebrate the joy of creation and the humour and delight of being alive. I wanted to express how important it is to find time in my daily life to observe the simple truths that evoke feelings, provoke memories and even transport me to a time of innocence.
The importance and freedom for me as an artist is to create pieces that have not been short changed artistically or technically due to a lack of time or quality materials. For one square foot of rug, depending on the intricacy of the design, five square feet of wool and up to ten hours are required to fill it with loops.
My palette is achieved by painting fabric with dyes directly onto 100% wool and cashmere fabrics. The woollen fabric is then hand cut using a pair of old dressmaker scissors into strips 1/8”, ¼” or 3/8” then hand hooked onto a 100% linen canvas. Using a latch hook the image is created one loop at a time and executed in a manner that is essentially “painting” with wool. The finished work becomes an impressionistic reflection of the image that was sketched directly onto the linen backing. The movement found in all of the pieces is achieved by not restricting myself by using a frame.
By Rachelle LeBlanc
Rachelle LeBlanc was born in Boston, grew up in New Brunswick and now calls St. Albert home. She studied fashion at Sheridan College in Ontario and teaches her techniques across Canada and the United States. LeBlanc’s work has been shown in museums and exhibitions throughout the North America. Her work has been selected for the Musée des Maître et Artisans in Montreal and Shelburne Museum in Vermont, For the Love of Craft (ACC), Prairie Excellence – traveling exhibition (ACC).She won the prestigious Jurors’ Choice Award for Pushing the Limits - New concepts in Rug Hooking at the Newtown Rug Hooking Show in Connecticut and Rug Hooking Magazine’s 2011 Celebrations Original Design award.
July 16 – August 27, 2011
Specimen
An exploration of insects by jewellery artist Erin Boukall
Erin Boukall’s jewellery explores the beauty of insects. Speciman was inspired by the similarities that can be found between insects and jewellery - symmetry, design, patterning, color, structure, and mechanics. Erin finds it intriguing that most individuals acquire personal (often childhood) memories that include bugs. Specimen conjures up these memories and encourages interaction with the audience. The display of the artwork references entomological and scientific specimen collecting. This reveals that the attention to detail that is often neglected can be fascinating and worth exploring.
Making jewellery using these unlikely sources of inspiration raises age-old questions about beauty and what we chose to adorn ourselves with. This exhibition showcases a variety of pieces both sculptural and wearable that examines these parallels through the use of traditional and modern jewellery techniques. Erin is currently a student in the Jewellery + Metals Program at ACAD and resides in Calgary.
September 3 – October 15, 2011
Making a Spectacle of Myself
Retrospective of eyewear by metal artist Jackie Anderson
I remember as a young child taking a photo on a camera and not being able to focus…not the camera, but my eyes. I obviously had to get prescription lenses, and later on continued using the camera lenses. Having worn glasses most of my life; I recognize that they are a major part of how a person is viewed and how an individual views the world. My work has largely been based on areas of our visual culture and our urban landscape. It is about looking, seeing and interpreting this visual information. A series grew out of the visual culture both literally and figuratively. I focused on multimedia pieces by using parts of, making reference to, and ultimately creating eyewear. Working from the characteristics that eyewear and frames can imply, I have used these elements in a very literal, often humorous manner.
It has been ten years in 2011 since I first ventured into the art eyewear realm. In 2001 I had the great pleasure of taking a ‘Spectacle Workshop’ from the New Zealand eyewear artist Brian Adam at Series at Red Deer College. Earlier that year I had participated in an invitational eyewear exhibit at Harbinger Gallery in Waterloo, but it was Brian’s workshop that literally opened my eyes. The exhibition Making a Spectacle of Myself reunites this earlier eyewear which was more functional as frames with lenses, with ‘eye adornment’ which became akin to putting on a pair of eyewear as one would a pair of earrings, and introduces new works from this year which have become more object and jewellery oriented.
Known for my use of unusual materials and evocation of place or time, my whimsical work reflects influences from ancient and contemporary architecture and structures, to retro signage, textiles, songs and puns. Materials range from precious and semiprecious, to natural and synthetic materials, sometimes all on one piece. The same influences and use of materials are also seen in my jewellery pieces.
By Jackie Anderson
Jackie is a 1976 graduate of of the Alberta College of Art + Design, from which she received an ACAD Alumni Award of Excellence in 2002. Currently maintaining an active studio practice in Calgary, she has travelled extensively, worked in museums and galleries and with architects and designers, taught workshops and lectured across Canada, and mentors emerging jewellery artists. In a 35 year exhibition career, her award winning work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and publications in Canada, the United States, Germany, Spain and Australia. Her work is included in public collections in the Canadian Museum of Civilization; the MacDonald Stewart Collection, University of Guelph; Metals Arts Guild of Canada and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, as well as many private and corporate collections. In 2002 she became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
September 3 – October 15, 2011
Victorian Inclinations
New work by metal artist Jennea Frischke
As an interdisciplinary craft based artist, I combine precious and non-precious materials such as sterling silver, aluminum, plastics, wood, vintage, antique, and handmade components into one-of-a-kind pieces of jewellery and wearable art. I am influenced by my surroundings, nostalgia, vintage themes, personal narrative and natural/ ornithological interests. My work embraces colour, tactility, shape, structural elements, dichotomy between materials, geometric, and organic forms. Since my graduation from the Jewellery + Metals program at ACAD in 2006 I have been creating work for wearable and jewellery art exhibitions and I also instruct continuing education courses at ACAD. I have participated in a mentorship program for young artists and volunteer my time for arts related projects whenever possible. Last year I traveled to London, England on behalf of an Alberta Foundation for the Arts travel grant to visit museums to study historically significant jewellery. I took part in outreach programs that were available at these museums to further my knowledge of highly influential jewellery pieces from the past. I focused on Victorian era jewellery because of it’s influence on my work. My knowledge and understanding of historical jewellery has been expanded, and has informed my studio practice.
By pulling ideas from sketches and photographs from my trip I have designed a series of Victorian inspired pieces. I use materials similar to those used during the Victorian era, but with a more ethical approach to modern standards. The work contains Victorian imagery as well as sentiment, such as flower language, romanticism, and naturalism. Drawing is an important part of my process, and I incorporate it through the use of pyrography to burn into the wood, making my own modern wooden cameos and I scrimshaw into vintage mother of pearl buttons. I have been fortunate to obtain original mourning buttons and facetted Whitby jet beads to add authenticity to the collection.
By Jennea Frischke
