Spring 2022 - Alberta Craft Magazine

CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF CULTURE IN THE MAKING

ALBERTA CRAFT COUNCIL PUBLICATION

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ALBERTA CRAFT MAGAZINE

It is our intent to have the Alberta Craft Magazine published twice a year and stay at an expanded 40 pages (up from 24) to include more images from our exhibitions and create more space to cover Craft happenings around Alberta. The next issue is already underway. For up-to-date information on current exhibitions, events, online artists talks and interviews please follow us on social media channels and sign up for our free customer newsletters, or become a member today.

The Alberta Craft Magazine makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein but assumes no liability in cases of error of changing conditions. Any business relation or other activity undertaken as a result of the information contained in the Alberta Craft Magazine, or arising there from, are the responsibility of the parties involved and not of the Alberta Craft Council.

The Alberta Craft Magazine is now a proud member of the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association.

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STAFF

EDMONTON

Executive Director - Jenna Stanton

Gallery Shop Coordinator - Rael Lockwood

Exhibitions & Memberships - Jill Allan

Fund Development & Special Projects - Saskia Aarts

Digital Content & Marketing - Ana Ruiz-Aguirre

Financial Officer - Wendy Arrowsmith

Gallery Shop Assistants - Jen Harris, Anna Wildish, Zoe Kolodnicki

CALGARY

Gallery Shop Coordinator - Corinne Cowell

Outreach, Events & Volunteers - Jill Nuckles

Gallery Shop Assistant - Melanie Archer

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Chair Tara Owen (Calgary)

Vice Chair Dawn Detarando (Red Deer)

Treasurer Meghan Wagg (Edmonton)

Directors Mary-Beth Laviolette (Canmore), Dawn Saunders-Dahl (Canmore), Kari Woo (Canmore), Jennifer Salahub (Calgary), Natali Rodrigues (Calgary), Kayla Gale (Calgary, AUArts Student Liaison)

MAGAZINE

Editor: Jenna Stanton

Design and Layout: Laura O’Connor

Contributors: Jenna Stanton, Jill Allan, Corinne Cowell, Saskia

Check out our expanded Members Directory!

We’re upgrading our members directory. With over 450 members across the province visit the Alberta Craft Council’s online Members Directory, a wormhole of artists profiles, websites, and social media channels to keep you scrolling and engaging with Alberta’s creative Craft artists. We believe that contemporary and heritage Craft provides a true reflection of Alberta’s culture, join us in celebrating and nurturing the exceptional craftspeople active in our province today.

Snap shot artists from the directory: Erik Lee in Maskwacis, AB. Instagram.com/plains_cree_silversmith

Aarts, Chris Savage, Sarah Alford, Kathy Classen, Jeff Yee, Rona-Marie Harvey/Pause Photography + Design

The Alberta Craft Council is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to developing Alberta Craft and the Alberta Craft Industry.

www.albertacraft.ab.ca

FUNDING AGENCIES & SUPPORTERS

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Alberta Craft magazine 2022 –Alberta Craft Magazine will publish two volumes per year at 40 pages, bringing you in depth coverage of Craft in Alberta from our exhibitions and events to a selection of can’t miss Craft exhibitions and sites Around Alberta.

This volume of Alberta Craft Magazine spotlights our feature exhibition KITSCH along with a longread article on its glittery history. In the first winter of covid we heard from many of our artists that they were struggling with canceled markets and finding it difficult to be inspired or motivated in the studio. We thought a lighthearted theme would encourage play, which often leads to creativity, and were happy to hear many artists were excitedly exploring and inspired by the call. The resulting works in the exhibition were a treat during a challenging time. It lifted our spirits to hear regular laughter from the gallery with charmed visitors being sure to let staff know about their favourites. The over the top exhibition was a hit in Edmonton, and is now set to delight our Calgary audiences.

Those shared laughs and points of connection have been fewer and further between than we are used to, but definitely more deeply felt and held onto.

In March with the support of Travel Alberta we started to reconnect with small in person events on experiential Craft Tours. Being a participant on a few of those studio tours and hands on workshops along with a good mix of artists and supporters has been a great reminder to me of why we do what we do. I was overwhelmed by what I had been missing, it was acutely felt, and many remarked on a shared boost to our mental health. Craft has a lot to offer in terms of opportunity for genuine connections; sharing stories, learning, laughs and comradery through making.

Our province has no shortage of generous artists with stories and skills to share and interesting studios and places to visit. Craft and tourism can be a significant part of our organizations plans going forward. From strengthening networks between makers, and engaging new audiences and appreciators with great experiences to creating new revenue streams for our organization and artists. Although it has been frustrating to put these plans on hold a few years in a row, there are a lot more people who have been seeking out Craft and connecting to their creativity over the pandemic.

If you’re an artist or craft curious join us for Culture in the Making experiential Craft Tours. Where we bring small groups on curated boutique tours to artists’ studios, and behind the scenes of museum collections, cultural sites, galleries and more. Many of our tours include hands on workshops with artists, and were created to build community through shared experiences centered around Craft.

For our readers from further afield or those not ready to venture out we have also significantly increased our digital content and will continue to expand upon it through national partnerships and research with our colleagues at the Canadian Crafts Federation and provincial and territorial Craft Councils. You can connect online for our live webinars and artists talks, or check out our website and social media channels for Craft wormholes such as online exhibitions, past artists talks, our online shop, or our new Culture In the Making podcast in collaboration with CKUA CJSW radio DJ Erin Ross. But of course Craft, the Craft Council, and our talented makers are best in person, so when you are able, please come by and visit us our spaces and galleries which are always free and everyone is welcome.

We look forward to seeing you,

For the love of craft

Jenna Stanton Executive Director

This Issue

On the cover: Bozo by JoAnna Lange, Edmonton, 2021. Handbuilt earthenware, underglaze, glaze, vintage decals, gold lustre, fabric, lamp fittings and shade. Read about Kitsch: Craft So Bad That It’s Good on page 4 - 7.

CRAFT AND KITSCH –SO GOOD THAT IT’S *BAD* PAGE 8 - 11

COVETED CRAFT PAGE 20 & 21 ALBERTA CRAFT AWARDS PAGE 24 - 26

Kitsch:

Craft So Bad It’s Good

Alberta Craft Feature Gallery - Edmonton: August 14 - October 30, 2021

Alberta Craft Gallery - Calgary: May 7 - July 23, 2022

Exhibited in the Edmonton Feature Gallery from August 14 – October 30, 2021, Kitsch: Craft So Bad It’s Good is a group exhibition of works from Alberta Craft Council members. This dynamic and fun show will travel to the Alberta Craft Gallery in Calgary in 2022, on show from May 7th – July 23, 2022.

Craft artists working in all traditional and contemporary craft media were invited to create their interpretations of kitsch craft; Craft that shares a knowing wink with the viewer, craft that wears kitsch on its velour sleeve as a rhinestone badge of honour, craft that’s appeal is found in its bad taste and ironic value. Creators responded from across the province and beyond, to kitsch it up with humorous works that will make you laugh and cringe all at once - crossing lines and breaking rules, many taking up the Kitsch challenge to stretch out into new bodies of work. The exhibition call attracted new members to our community and a lot of attention from the media and the public.

Stuck indoors during the covid winter, artists turned to their resourceful natures to design and create objects responding to our strange covid times and using materials that were readily at hand in their covid hideouts!

Some artists used the subversive nature of Kitsch to call attention to serious issues such as racism, colonialism, body image, politics and sexism, presenting powerful works that at first seem only humourous but on closer investigation tell a different story, challenging us to examine our own perspectives about pervasive stereotypes still present in Canadian society.

To view the online exhibition and artist talk visit albertacraft.ab.ca/feature-gallery

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Abby Light

Ananda Skywalker

Annette Ten Cate

Breanna Barrington

Carly Hines

Ciara Jayne

Corinne Cowell

Dale Learner

Donna Brunner

Ellie Shuster

Emily Nash

Erik Lee

Erika Dueck

Hellen Beamish

Jennea Frischke

Jennifer Hartley-Illanes

JoAnna Lange

Kaleb Romano

Karla Mather-Cocks

Laura O’Connor

Lauren Chipeur

Margaret Hall

Matt Gould

Matthew O’Reilly

Meghan Wagg

Mireille Perron

PourCeline Frit

Puck Janes

Rochelle Hammond

Ruth-Anne French

Sandra Lamouche

Sara Norquay

Sara Young

Sarabeth Carnat

Shona Rae

Siri McCormick

Susan Kristoferson

Susannah Windrum

William Miles

Erik Lee, Portrayal 2021, sterling silver, mixed media

Mireille Perron, Walk Girl, 2021, assemblage of porcelain figurines, rubber tire and stamped bricks Kaleb Romano, Cat Planters (detail) 2021, whiteware slip cast, glaze, lustre, flocking, powder coated

Exhibition view with work by Emily Nash, Jennifer Illanes Hartley, Breanna Barrington, Sara Norquay, Rochelle Hammond, Laura O’Connor, Sara Young

Exhibition view with work by Corinne Cowell, Carly Hynes, Ellie Shuster, Dale Learner, Annette ten Cate, Hellen Beamish

Erika Dueck, The Real Housewives of Southern Manitoba 2021, paper tole

Puck Janes, Gone and Not Forgotten 2018, clay and ceramic oxides

Exhibition view with work by Jennea Frischke, Ciara Linteau, Donna Brunner, Siri McCormick, Sarabeth Carnat, Rochelle Hammond, Megan Wagg, Ellie Shuster Ruth-Anne French, JoAnna Lange

Meghan Wagg, Cocktail Ring, 2021, sterling silver, epoxy resin, brass, garnet

Rochelle Hammond, Telephone Earrings 2021, copper wire, paint

Susanah Windrum, The Herd, 2021, found object Chia Pet, mixed media Karla Mather-Cocks, Sugar Free, 2021, mold cast with model clay, spray paint, readymade glass dish

View of Kitsch: Craft So Bad It’s Good, go to albertacraft.ab.ca/feature-gallery to see the online exhibition

CRAFT AND KITSCH –So Good That It’s *BAD*

JENNIFER SALAHUB, Professor Emeritus, AUArts

If works of art were judged democratically – that is, according to how many people like them –kitsch would easily defeat all its competitors.1

When the Alberta Craft Council put out a call for Kitsch: Craft So Bad That It’s Good the “powers that be” kindly asked me to weigh in with an academic overview of kitsch with the intention of providing fodder – nuggets of information that just might feed into your own pandemic-informed foray into the world of kitsch. In the course of my research for the talk I came across a description of kitsch as something “characterized by worthless pretentiousness” which I suggested could serve as a rather marvelous aspirational goal for those selfconsciously crafting kitsch for this exhibition.

The talk focused on the history of kitsch moving between Germany and North America and illustrated it with contemporary examples including Victorian knickknacks, Hummel figurines, pink flamingos, and garden gnomes. This essay is a much edited version and is meant to introduce some of the noteworthy twentieth-century art theorists and philosophers who have given kitsch form as well as a few of the lesser known individuals who, to my mind, have given kitsch the personality we love to hate – or hate to love.

Despite its status as a source of pleasure for a mass audience, kitsch is typically considered a negative product – one indicative of bad taste – as it appears to reaffirm rather than challenge the collective norm. It has been celebrated as a source of entertainment for the masses in opposition to the elevated perception generated by high art. It has also served as a vehicle of propaganda even as it is dismissed as sentimental. Perhaps because

of the contradictions, kitsch continues to be the subject of an ongoing and engaging discourse in the visual arts, and, like the craft conversation, the kitsch conversation remains a moving target.

Just as the notion of ‘truth’ requires ‘falsity’ so the very notion of ‘good taste’ in art necessitates the existence of ‘bad taste’ and consequently bad art. But bad art, like falsehood, comes in many varieties and is subject to different kinds of objections.” But the nature of its “badness” is just what makes kitsch philosophically interesting.2

Although its etymology may be ambiguous, scholars generally agree that kitsch appeared in the German language midnineteenth century and was popularized by art dealers in the 1860s and 1870s when it was used to designate cheap manufactured objets d’art meant to appeal to an emerging group of enthusiastic consumers – the middle class. Those whose very lack of culture and aesthetic taste would inevitably lead to bad choices and bad taste. By the 1920s kitsch was being applied to music, literature, and the visual arts – anything considered to be in bad taste or overly sentimental or melodramatic.

Before kitsch, there had certainly been “bad” art, but it was attributed to the hobbyist or dilettante, someone who cultivated an area of interest without real commitment or knowledge. Taste was considered synonymous with good taste – bad taste, that is corrupted taste, wasn’t a problem, for, if you were well educated you had taste. If you weren’t educated you weren’t likely to have opinions on these matters anyway. Class implications are not hard to recognize in early analyses of kitsch.

Although the word was in common use, kitsch only gained theoretical momentum in the twentieth century – at first as a German

1 Kulka, Thomas. Kitsch and Art. University Park: Pennsylvania U Press, 1996. 17

speciality and later when it was taken up by English speaking art critics, theorists, and academics. The rather loose concept of kitsch engaged German art critics (and a broader public) in 1909 when the State Craft Museum in Stuttgart mounted an exhibition of objects that testified to the “distortion of public taste.” In order to discern what good taste was, it was necessary to identify and first eliminate bad taste.” The goal of the curator, Gustav Pazurek, was to create a “torture chamber” in order to “present negative examples for the edification of those with a “thick aesthetic skin”.3

Kitsch would continue to be regarded with suspicion as a serious threat to the status quo and was soon under attack. In 1925 Germany published the first book dedicated to kitsch – Fritz Karpfen’s Kitsch: A Study of the Degeneracy of Art. Shortly thereafter, the descriptive degenerate was adopted by the Nazis for both their racist agenda and their controversial stance on modern art. In 1933, when the Nazi party seized power, the Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, passed the “Law for the Protection of National Symbols” which would become colloquially known as the “Anti-Kitsch Law” [Anti-Kitsch-Gesertz]. Citizens were called upon to be sensitive to any artefacts whose presence may prove “damaging to the Volk.”

No specific definition of kitsch was given, but a ban on the “kitsch-i-sization” (Verkitschung) of national symbols was in place.4 A “deliriously” long list of inappropriate representations provided guidance. On the list: “Handkerchiefs with images of Presidents of the Reich and the Chancellor, ties, purses, notebooks, pocket knives, lighters, plates and cups and other dinner wear, dice, games, kites, even food, any item bearing in whatever form, one of the symbols.” Thousands of articles decorated with swastikas were destroyed – from

2 Solomon, Robert C. “On Kitsch and Sentimentality.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 49/1(1991): 1–14.1

3 “’Evil Things. An Encyclopaedia of Bad Taste’ at the Museum der Dinge in Berlin.” [exhibition 2009-2010] Artdaily, accessed 22 Jan 2022.

4 Skradol, Natalia. “Fascism and Kitsch: The Nazi Campaign Against Kitsch.” German Studies Review, 34/3 (2011): 595–612.

Watch Jennifer Salahub’s virtual talk Craft and Kitsch – So Good That It’s *BAD* on Alberta Craft Council’s YouTube channel

wrapping paper to silk pillowcases featuring the Fuhrer’s country home. And, something I must admit to lusting after – an embroidery pattern featuring Hitler feeding deer.5

At the time it was recognized that kitsch could be adopted by political powers to manipulate and control the masses. Walter Benjamin, the German philosopher and social critic, believed that the people could take advantage of new forms of artistic production made possible by modern technology to transform the existing power structure, using kitsch as a weapon against the self-alienation wrought by fascism.6 In New York the modernist art critic Clement Greenberg suggested that “The encouragement of kitsch is merely another of the inexpensive ways in which totalitarian regimes seek to ingratiate themselves with their subjects.”7

Writing in the 1930s, Walter Benjamin had approached kitsch from a different perspective, one rooted in the 18th Century notion of aesthetics. Unlike most twentieth century theorists, Benjamin did not rely on the opposition of kitsch and high Art, rather he argued that kitsch, unlike Art, lacked all critical distance between the object and observer. For Benjamin, kitsch “offers instantaneous emotional gratification without intellectual effort, without the requirement of distance, without sublimation.”8 What I enjoyed in re-reading Benjamin was that he provided what my students would always demand – an example – simply,

Art in the exalted sense “begins at a distance of two meters from the body. But now, in kitsch, the world of things advances on the human being; it yields to his uncertain grasp.” (…) “Kitsch does not have the austere remoteness of

5 Skradol, Natalia

classical works of art, and this absence of reverential distance also means that kitsch provokes another kind of intimacy … Kitsch is art with “a 100 percent absolute and instantaneous availability for consumption.9

Nonetheless, our understanding of kitsch remains inextricably tied to the midtwentieth century culture wars that were being fought in the United States. In 1939 Greenberg published “Avant-Garde and Kitsch” establishing himself as an art critic intent upon making distinctions between “superior” and “mass” culture.10 His preoccupation with aesthetic hierarchy manifested itself in different ways; however, in this article he argued that there were only two possibilities available to the artist - either you belonged to the avant-garde, challenging tradition or you produced kitsch which he characterized as “rear-guard”.11

Like others of his intellectual circle, Greenberg exhibited a frank disgust for American middle-class taste and mass consumption. For those of his ilk, the growing popularity of kitsch was seen as a threat to the last vestiges of high culture in modern society. The expanding distance between high art and daily life, was reflected in a growing elitism which consigned Modern Art to the privileged few who, with time to cultivate their perceptual abilities, could approach avant-garde works with a trained eye. Kitsch was regarded as cheap and vulgar, appealing only to the uneducated –the uncultured – the “low-brows”.

While Greenberg was not directly responsible for establishing the hierarchical distinctions between art and craft, his influence certainly established and perpetuated the perception about how art and craft should operate within twentieth

6 Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) a German Jew took refuge from the Nazis in Spain then France.

century American culture. In a review of the MOMAs exhibition (1944) Art in Progress, he reveals his awareness of the growing visibility of craft within the art world, but goes out of his way to express his disapproval of what he called craft’s artistic pretentions.12 One of the prevailing tenets of the Modernist avant-garde was to distance itself intellectually and aesthetically from the banalities of every-day domestic life - dismissing kitsch and craft as the “knickknacks of middle-class home.”

Greenberg claimed:

There has always been on the one side the minority of powerful – and therefore the cultivated – and the other the great mass of the exploited and poor – and therefore the ignorant. Formal culture has always belonged to the first, while the last have had to contend themselves with folk or rudimentary culture, or kitsch.”13

This over-the-top rhetoric was not limited to North America, the Austrian “modernist” writer Hermann Broch (1886-1951) writing in 1950 identified the parasitic feature of kitsch as its fundamental iniquity, calling kitsch “the enemy within” and “the Evil in Arts Value System.”14

And was not the ubiquitous garden gnome the epitome of kitsch and middle-class lowbrow culture?15 Garden gnomes had their roots in German tales populated by garden sprites or “little folk” but were only produced as large garden ornaments for wealthy land owners in the nineteenth century. Garden gnomes arrived in England in 1847 when Sir Charles Isham brought twenty-one terracotta gnomes for the grounds and garden of Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire.16 By the early 20th Century they were a status symbol. When Sir Frank Crisp, the owner

7 Greenberg, Clement. (1909-1994) “Avant-garde and kitsch.” Partisan Review 6/5 (Fall, 1939): 34-49, 47; one has only to consider the products inspired by the MAGA [Make America Great Again] movement.

8 Menninghaus, Winfried. “On the Vital Significance of ‘Kitsch’: Walter Benjamin’s Politics of ‘Bad Taste.” In Andrew Benjamin (ed.). Walter Benjamin and the Architecture of Modernity. Melbourne: re.press, 2009, 39–58.

9 Cited in Skradol, Natalia

10 Greenberg, Clement. “Avant-garde and kitsch.” Partisan Review 6/5 (Fall, 1939): 34-49

11 Auther, Elissa. “The Decorative, Abstraction, and the Hierarchy of Art and Craft in the Art Criticism of Clement Greenberg.” Oxford Art Journal, 27/3 ( 2004,): 339–364

12 Auther, Elissa

13 Greenberg, Clement

14 Broch, Hermann. “Kitsch” (1933) and “Notes on the Problem of Kitsch” (1950). In Kitsch: The World of Bad Taste, edited by Gillo Dorfles. New York: Universe Books, 1968.

15 Pink flamingos were discussed in the talk.

16 The only remaining original, “Lampy” is insured for £1 million

of the second largest collection of garden gnomes (I’m still trying to figure out who had the largest collection) in the UK opened Friar Park, his Henley-on-Thames estate, to the public (1900-1919) and day-trippers were introduced to, and were smitten by, the garden gnomes.17 Mass produced gnomes began to appear in the suburban gardens of the middle classes and the release of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1939) assured their status as popular culture. But they were so frowned upon the Royal Horticultural Society continues to ban garden gnomes from the Chelsea Flower Show as inappropriate 18

But why so loved? Arguably the appeal of kitsch resides in its formula, its familiarity, and its validation of shared sensibilities. It has been suggested that “By providing comfort, kitsch performs a denial. It glosses over harsh truths and anesthetizes genuine pain.” Arguably, kitsch is deliberately designed to move us, by presenting a well-selected and perhaps much-edited version of some particularly and predictably moving aspect of our shared experience.19 Kitsch tends to mimic the effects produced by real sensory experiences – presenting highly charged imagery, language, or music that triggers an automatic, and therefore unreflective, emotional reaction. Further,

The problem is not that kitsch is always badly done. Indeed, some kitsch may be highly professional and keenly aware of the artistic and cultivated traditions in which it gains its appeal. Indeed some kitsch may be flawed by its very perfection, its technical virtuosity and its precise execution, its explicit knowledge of the tradition, its timeliness and the fact that it stimulates the very best emotions (…) But the best emotions seem to be the worst emotions where art is concerned and ‘better shocking or sour than sweet”20

Attitudes regarding kitsch continued to evolve during the post war period becoming even more complicated with the advent of Pop Art in the sixties as artists seemed to

embrace kitsch by using mass-production techniques and materials to reproduce subject matter drawn from popular culture. Kitsch was given a further boost up the hierarchical ladder in 1964 with the publication of “Notes on Camp” by Susan Sontag which included her much quoted comment, “It’s good because its awful.” Although the words “camp” and “kitsch” are often used interchangeably, “kitsch” refers specifically to the work itself, whereas “camp” is a mode of performance. A person may consume kitsch intentionally or unintentionally; however, as Susan Sontag observes, camp is always a self-aware way of consuming or performing culture “in quotation marks.”21

Camp sensibility offered postmodern academics and artists a new mode of appreciating kitsch because of its excessiveness, its role-playing, and its overt decoration. Individuals with camp sensibilities brought a sophistication to the understanding of kitsch, for camp judgments implied a specific way of perceiving – a “trained critical” eye that stood on equal ground with Greenberg’s elite coterie of “informed” artists and viewers. Not “just anyone” could recognize kitsch at a discursive level!

There are probably only two groups of people who buy plastic pink flamingos –those who genuinely like them and those who see in them as a statement. We begin to appreciate, in some sense, and buy those things that we know are ugly by the design standards to which we have long subscribed. Kitsch is thus a category only for those “in the know.” It names a group of artifacts that we abhor in one sense but in another constitute a kind of aesthetic sense of humor.”22

Suddenly that which had been vilified was being re-examined through a new lens. What had been dismissed as vulgar was now being championed by individuals who were well aware of the reviled status of the “low art” objects of their affections - here I

will bring in garden gnomes once again, for according to one British authority, gnomes are now associated in England with the landscapes of the not-so-rich and the un-famous. “Gnomes are very symbolic in English gardens as an anti-class statement.”23 Extreme kitsch is to be celebrated as an “anti-class” or “in your face” statement. Have inflatable Santas replaced garden gnomes as kitsch?

It would only be in the early ‘70s that we see mention of kitsch in the Calgary Herald and it is continues to epitomize poor judgement - bad taste. The three page spread entitled, “Art Galleries are Great Places to be Caught Dead in” is meant to be humours includes a guide to the appreciation of modern art, how to visit an art gallery, and how to purchase and even hang work. However, what is most insightful is the author’s semi-serious list: “What Not to Buy” and “art connoisseurs will snub you if you buy.”24 Readers were warned against “pictures of children or animals with endearingly enlarged eyes; Any portrait in which a tear (the wet kind) is visible; Pictures painted on black velvet” the reason given is that these works were, according to the journalist, “kitsch, which means they belong to the same family as flights of plaster geese on rumpus-room walls; or bronzed baby boots dangling from a car’s review mirror.”

Obscuring the distinctions between high and low art was key to the repudiation of Modernism by Postmodernists – with its heightened sense of self and use of appropriation, irony, sly humor and academic “in jokes.” These struck a hard blow, for modern art – if nothing else – was humorless and unable to laugh at itself. It is no wonder, that in 1979 Greenberg described Postmodernism as the antithesis of all he loved: that is, as the lowering of aesthetic standards caused by the “the democratization of culture under industrialism.”

“Collectables” like the German Hummel figurines that had adorned post WWII

17 George Harrison purchased the estate in 1970. The gnomes were featured on the cover of George Harrison’s 1971 album All things Must Pass

18 The centennial of the society (2013) marks the only year gnomes were allowed.

19 Solomon, Robert. “On Kitsch and Sentimentality.” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 49/1 1991): 1-14.

20 Solomon, Robert

21 Sontag, Susan “Notes on Camp” (1964) in Against Interpretation and Other Essays. Penguin, 2009

22 Pearse, Harold, and Nick Webb. “Borderline Cases: A Philosophical Approach to Child and Folk Art.” Art Education, 37/4 (1984): 20–27, 21

23 Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen cited in Johnsen, Jan. “Garden Gnomes Anyone?” Serenity in the Garden Blog, 30 Oct, 2013. Accessed 19 March 2021.

24 Walker, Brian. “Art Galleries are Great Places to be Caught Dead in.” Calgary Herald 6 March 1971, 70.

shelves across North America were being trivialized as kitsch and at the same time they were being appropriated and monetized. Jeff Koons’ sculpture of Michael Jackson and Bubbles (1988) from his Banality Series was inspired by German Hummel figurines.25

In 2014 Sir. Roger Scruton “agent provocateur” and noted philosopher wrote of the “strangely enduring power of kitsch” stating:

The worst thing is to be unwittingly guilty of producing kitsch. Far better to produce kitsch deliberately, for then it is not kitsch at all but a kind of sophisticated parody. Pre-emptive kitsch sets quotation marks around actual kitsch, and hopes thereby to save its artistic credentials.26

Given its pithy nature regarding MJ and Bubbles I will continue to quote Scruton

Take a porcelain statue of Michael Jackson cuddling his pet chimpanzee Bubbles, add cheesy colours and a layer of varnish. Set the figures up in the posture of a Madonna and child, endow them with soppy expressions as though challenging the spectator to vomit, and the result is such kitsch that it cannot possibly be kitsch. Jeff Koons must mean something else, we think, something deep and serious that we have missed. Perhaps this work of art is really a comment on kitsch, so that by being explicitly kitsch it becomes meta-kitsch, so to speak.”

And a final mention of gnomes and meta kitsch – in 2009 the German artist Ottmar Höri created an uproar with Dance of/ with the Devil an installation made up of 1,250 gnomes making the Nazi salute. The Guardian’s description began, “Pint sized, plastic and the height of kitsch they may be, but no one in Germany would usually think twice about seeing a garden gnome, given there are 25 million of them across the country.”27

Today kitsch is defined by the OED more broadly as “art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way.”

Determining whether an object is kitsch always involves considerations of purpose and context. Today, perhaps the most often cited characteristic of kitsch is that it is in bad taste, but that is not enough to make something kitsch today. There must also be an element of display because kitsch objects call attention to themselves and their owners!28

Although kitsch may have lost its horror in the wake of pop and postmodernism, the discourse that high modernism launched against it in the first half of the 20th century was brutal and this negative voice continues to inform attitudes towards kitsch. To its credit, kitsch encouraged serious artists/makers to consider how their work was consumed and by whom. Kitsch also gave agency to the consumer. Like craft, kitsch fostered a renewed interest in the domestic and in everyday things at the expense of High Art, and in both cases their foray into battle resulted in a renewed respect for pattern and decoration. Whether loved or reviled, indulged or condemned, kitsch, like craft, now finds itself afloat in theoretical discourse.

25 Koons created three identical works – one sold for US$250,000 in 1988 and US$5.6 million 2001

26 Roger Scruton. “The Strangely enduring power of kitsch” A Point of View 12 Dec 2014 BBC https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30439633

27 Connolly, Kate. “Nazi gnomes cause outcry in Germany.” The Guardian, 14 Oct 2009. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/oct/14/nazi-gnomes-ottmarhorl

28 Morreall, John, and Jessica Loy. “Kitsch and Aesthetic Education.” Journal of Aesthetic Education, 23/4 (1989): 63–73

M arginalia

Marginalia is an exhibition of collaborative works by Erin Berry and Chris Savage. The two friends grew up together in Victoria, British Columbia and after years of living in different cities and each completing their formal education, they met up at Medalta Historic Clay District in Medicine Hat, Alberta for a month long artist residency. Their artistic process began with the exchange of drawings, discussions and sharing reference imagery. The drawings provided reference points for the development of a decorative vernacular and for the ceramic forms produced over the course of the residency.

The exhibition consisted of a series of drawings by Savage and ceramic tiles and vessels produced by Berry at her Harbourfront Centre studio. The artists mailed the works back and forth to one another to complete them collaboratively; Berry was in Toronto and Savage in Calgary. The result is a series of mail art, narrative works hybridizing the old and new. Incorporating popular cultural aesthetics with classical designs, the drawings and ceramics reflecting upon the persistence and convergence of mythology and conspiracy theories in a playful manner.

Berry and Savage took their cue from the ongoing dramas unfolding online via social media and in the ‘news’ about the American election, fake news, covid, the make America great again campaign, and they also reflected on pop culture cartoon imagery, and the ‘marginalia’ in ancient illuminated texts illustrated by monks. Berry and Savage wanted to use their work to draw attention to the ways that credibility is developed in our society. By focusing on what is happening in the periphery and making work that holds the potential for many readings they highlight the individuality of the embodiment of truth.

Written by Chris Savage

To view the online exhibition and artist talk visit albertacraft.ab.ca/discovery-gallery

About the artists:

Erin Berry is currently a ceramics artist in residence at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Canada. She completed her BFA at Concordia University, Montreal and has participated in residencies at Medalta Historic Clay District in Medicine Hat and Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Centre in Denmark. Her fibre and ceramic works have been shown throughout Canada, and the United States, most recently in Toronto, Montreal and Vermont, with her first solo show taking place at Xchanges Gallery in Victoria, BC in 2007.

Christopher Savage is an artist and designer who grew up in Victoria BC, Canada. He received his Diploma in Visual Art from Camosun College in 2012 and a BFA from the University of Victoria in 2014. Recently he completed his MFA at the University of Calgary and participated in residencies at the Banff Arts Centre, Medalta Historic Clay District and the Calgary Allied Arts Foundation.

Alberta Craft Discovery Gallery - Edmonton July 10 - August 21, 2021

Christopher Savage, The Terrible Teen Years 2019, ball point pen on paper, 8.5 X 11”

Christopher Savage, The Saucered 2019, ball point pen on paper, 8.5 X 11”

Erin Berry & Christopher Savage, Landing Gracefully 2019, ceramic, underglaze pencil, and glaze, Vase with lid featuring a cat face drawing and mul<coloured glaze blobs, 8.5 X 10”

Erin Berry & Christopher Savage, Shunned from the Limelight, 2021, ceramic, underglaze pencil, and glaze, Vase featuring a moth man portrait and mul<coloured glaze 5.5 X 8”

Erin Berry, Primordial Ooze #2 (detail), 2021, ceramic, grog, and glaze, Wall hanging tile featuring various grog and glaze application, 8.5 X 11”

Erin Berry, Primordial Ooze #1 (detail), 2021, ceramic, grog, and glaze, Wall hanging tile featuring various grog and glaze application, 8.5 X 11”

T he Democracy of Jewellery

Alberta Craft Discovery Gallery - Edmonton

August 28 - October 2, 2021

Alberta Craft Gallery - Calgary

January 29 - March 5, 2022

The Democracy of Jewellery asks: What happens when overabundance meets the moment of enchantment? What then happens when this meeting is translated in the studio and then written on the body?

Sarah Alford transforms this space with attention and affection. Alford makes the work with hot glue and a glue gun, a material and tool firmly associated with hobby craft, and which generally, when wielded by practiced hands, means that the glue is unseen, its labour is invisible. However, in these pieces, the glue works upon itself, and it shines as its material tendencies are allowed to surface.

Devon Clark proposes a hierarchy of value in which the small ephemera of consumption might genuinely be the most precious things. The bread clips, the dry-cleaning tags, the mass-produced messaging, become clues to an unseen narrative of personal significance. They are wearable through the addition of unobtrusive findings and chains in silver and gold, and thus the timelessness and value of the metal becomes transferred to the fugitive.

Jamie Kroeger transfers jewellery’s association with the domestic heirloom into the realm of rural implements and industrially sized safety equipment. The physicality of the pieces is underscored with colours that speaks to high visibility, safety, and sometimes, in its creamy richness, to ornament. These works pay tribute to the body and its experience as it tends to a world that might be in danger of breaking away.

Louise Perrone’s Distressed is a series made from used jeans, and the title refers to a mechanical process which gives the denim the look of wear. The pieces remind us, that even before the material became clothing, that it wore the bodies of the garment workers. Perrone’s

CURATOR: Kari Woo

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Sarah Alford

Devon Clark

Jamie Kroeger Louise Perrone

Lyndsay Rice

Kari Woo

sews the denim into elements which are fine enough, perhaps, to detect the nearly invisible marks of the hands that have contributed to this collection.

Lyndsay Rice’s investigates jewellery as a system of signs that communicate status. Rice materially analyzes the honorific coding of militaristic badges and the signalling in bird plumage. The hybrid forms reveal the paradox that signs and their meanings are both blissfully arbitrary and utterly natural. They are aristocratically playful, they tip into realm frivolity and delight, and they threaten to take over the conversation.

Kari Woo explores the loss of cultural history. Mater/Matter is composed of black and white family portraits transferred onto the acrylic sheets used in Shrinky Dinks toy kits. These are then sewn together. The visibility of the sewing binds the Woo to the portraits and recalls the corporeality of the absent subject. Woo’s material mediation insists that we face the loss of cultural memory in the terms set by global commodification, which is implicated as a force of assimilation and racism.

Collectively the works embrace open-ended practices which ask the viewer to consider the artists’ relationships to their labour and the world around them. Here we find that when what is precious meets the overwhelming power of overproduction, an object becomes a space of communication, connection, and human contact.

Written by Sarah Alford

To view the online exhibition and artist talk visit albertacraft.ab.ca/discovery-gallery

Devon Clark, Breadwinner, 2021 recycled 14Kt yellow gold, plastic tags

Jamie Kroeger, Waterhauler, 2020, Neckpiece, walnut, copper, steel, enamel, acrylic paint, 40 x 28 x 5cm, Photo Jamie Kroeger

Kari Woo, Mater Matter, 2020, acrylic shrink film (shrinky dinks), sterling silver, thread, found materials

Lyndsay Rice, Honour Badge Series Untitled #1 2017 fur, powder coat, plastic, dye, sequins, brass, steel Photo Elana Dahl

Louise Perrone, Patched Necklace 2019, denim, Styrene

Sarah Alford, Lectures in Art Botany 1, 2021, hot glue, ink

C oming Up Next

Coming Up Next is a national exhibition of emerging Fine Craft Artists working in paper, wood, ceramics, glass, fibre and metal. Artists hailing from B.C. to Nova Scotia submitted beautiful and fascinating work to show. The resulting exhibition is a collection rich in variety of methods and materials, from emerging Canadian artists, who have each forged their own creative paths to learning and mastering their craft.

Celebrating the creativity, innovation, and skill of emerging artists entering the field of contemporary craft in Canada, this biennial group exhibition serves as an important launchpad. It introduces emerging artists to the Alberta Craft Council community (including our sophisticated audience of artists, craft collectors and supporters), and to the professional development services and opportunities that the Alberta Craft Council provides to its members.

The exhibition was curated to feature a diverse representation of traditional and contemporary fine craft disciplines. We welcomed submissions from artists whose path to craft may have begun through apprenticeships, mentorships with elders, those who are self-taught or who received a formal post-secondary craft education. Showing artists within the first five years of their career in fine craft, or the final year of studies in a fine craft discipline.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Graham Boyd (glass) Calgary, AB

Si Chen (jewellery, performance) Toronto, ON

Lael Chmelyk (ceramics) Calgary, AB

Marcy Friesen (beadwork/portraiture) Carrot River, SK

Leia Guo (glass/photography) Calgary, AB

Esther Imm (quilt) Toronto, ON

Daniel Labutes (ceramics) Calgary, AB

Jared Last (glass) Revelstoke, BC

Sophia Lengle (fibre) Edmonton, AB

Meng Qiu (paper/jewellery) Halifax, NS

Dalayce Smith (embroidery) Calgary, AB

Gillian Tolliver (wood) Toronto, ON

Adriane Vant Erve (fibre) Calgary, AB

Luke Winterhalt (jewellery) Camrose, AB

To view the online exhibition and artist talk visit albertacraft.ab.ca/discovery-gallery

Alberta Craft Discovery Gallery - Edmonton October 9 - November 20, 2021

Alberta Craft Gallery - Calgary March 12 - April 23, 2022

This page (clockwise): Gillian Tolliver, Spirit Sprout, 2021, burnt basswood, Photo James McLachlan Jared Last, Circuit, 2020, blown, cut, sand carved glass Adriane Vant Erve, Tissues Impressions #11, 2019, silk organza, thread, madder

Opposite page Marcy Friesen, Half Breed, 2021, seed beads and adhesive, silver fox hat, coyote throw, Photo Susan Stewart Photography

This page (top

Lael Chmelyk, Soda Fired Rx Jar, 2020, soda fired stoneware, Photo Matthew Huitema

(middle row): Dalayce Smith, Reflecting on Covid, 2021, ASCII, embroidery Esther Imm, quilt without border, 2019, cotton and wool, handquilted

(bottom row) Luke Winterhalt, Raven Cufflinks 2021, cast silver jewellery

Opposite page (top row): Leia Guo, Chinookon Moraine, 2021, silver gelatin print, blown glass plate Sophia Lengle, Squares Within Squares, 2020, cotton, soy bean solution, Sumi Ink

(middle row): Meng Qui, Sunny Day Diary Page 69, 2020, magazine, black markers, glue Graham Boyd, Black and Chrome Stack, 2021, blown glass

(bottom row): Chen Si, Read My Corpse 2021, copper, enamel, ceramic, green patina

row):

Photo Zhongqi PHOTO Daniel Labutes, Pink Moon, 2021, low fire ceramic

Coveted Craft

Coveted Craft is our in-shop feature where we showcase a selection of objects that we hope will inspire you to bring craft into your daily life. With over 20 new artists introduced in 2021 we now carry the work of over 175 artists in our downtown Edmonton Gallery Shop and 80 artists in our Calgary Gallery Shop at cSPACE.

The Alberta Craft Council continues to present Fine Craft to visitors in a wide array of styles, techniques, and unique expressions of creativity. We have created six unique posters showcasing some of the beautiful craft available to you.

We hope that you’ll take the visually sumptuous centrefold enclosed in these pages and hang it prominently in your home, studio, office or nearby coffeeshop! Let’s proclaim our community’s deep love of Alberta Fine Craft!

COVETED CRAFT

Want to share more? Reach out to us for more posters and share your pride and support for Alberta’s craft community by displaying them across Alberta! acc@albertacraft.ab.ca

Bring Alberta Craft home. Visit us online or in person. 10186-106 Street, Edmonton | 1721-29 Avenue SW, Calgary albertacraft.ab.ca

1 Spiked Edge Bowl, Manitoba maple

Herm Stolte, Calgary

2 Felted Shawl with tassels, fibre

Cindy Lee, Calgary

3 Prairie Vase, wheel thrown porcelain and hand painted landscape

Juliana Rempel, Bragg Creek

4 Nesting Bowls, blown and cold worked glass

Jill Allan, Edmonton

5 Bunny Yunomi, wheel-thrown porcelain with carved pattern and hand-painted china paint

Katriona Drijber, Coleman

6 Earrings, oxidized sterling silver with plastic faux pearl drop dangles

Devon Clark, Calgary

7 Lidded Vessel, box elder burl, and diamond willow

Doug Zech, Calgary

8 Scarf, handwoven, snow dyed silk

Deb Turner, Foothills

9 Blown glass vase

Barbara Rumberger, Calgary

10 Stone Necklace, semi-precious stones, hand knotted Soma Mo, Edmonton

11 Moss series, hand built porcelain

Marney Delver, Fort Macleod

12 Cast Iron Pans

Alex Harris, Edmonton

Karen Cantine:

A Metalsmith at 80

Alberta Craft Discovery Gallery - Edmonton November

27 - January 22, 2022

Since she was 12 years old, Karen Cantine has been gripped by an interest--a fascination even--with the art of metalwork. She began her exploration in her early teens with classes at de Cordova museum, a small art museum in Lincoln, Massachusetts. She completed her studio M.A. in Fine Arts with a focus on metalwork at the University of Iowa in 1965, the same year she moved to Edmonton with her husband, painter David Cantine. She has been an active member of Alberta’s metalcrafts scene for more than 50 years, and a member of the Alberta Craft Council since its inception in the early 1980s.

Karen Cantine has refined and expanded her metalsmith practice to encompass jewellery, fine crafted silver vessels, abstracted three-dimensional pieces, and increased recent expression in metals other than silver, particularly copper. She has passed on her skills and enthusiasm for the art to countless students over the decades through her teaching and small private classes. She is known for her metalsmith skills and finesse, her love of the medium, her creativity and her ongoing support and encouragement of the craft – and of Alberta’s artists and arts community at large.

A Metalsmith at 80 provides viewers a glimpse into Karen Cantine’s journey in the craft over seven decades. Viewers will see newer jewellery works in both silver and gold, holloware, and three-dimensional sculptures, and will appreciate the juxtaposition of these newer works against iterations of similar works from decades past. “I wanted to take a look at what I had done,” says Cantine, “how one piece has led to another – or to another series – and how it informs the now.” The exhibit provides Cantine the space –both literally and in terms of focused attention – to consider her work over the years alongside her newest expressions.

New work for the exhibit includes a number of thicker, heavier metal pieces. Cantine’s curated collection of traditional and unusual stones and rocks are made use of in the new jewellery pieces. The later-career, three-dimensional exhibit pieces are the realization of an untapped desire the artist had to experiment with translating her simple, elegant forms and designs to a bigger scale.

In her 80th year, Cantine continues to exhibit her strong technical skills and affinity with metal in these newest works and to showcase where she has been, who she is, and suggest where she may focus in the future.

Written by Kathy Classen

To view the online exhibition and artist talk visit albertacraft.ab.ca/discovery-gallery

Prairie Night 2021, 30 X 46 X 7 cm, copper, sterling silver Red #1, 2021, 25 X 40 X 7 cm, copper, billiard ball Untitled, 2021, 30 X 30 X 10 cm, copper, granite Photos Kim Griffiths Photography

55 Folded Tea Service 1991, sterling silver, ebony teapot 18 x 16 x 12, sugar 7.5 x 13 x 8, cream 7.5. x 13.5 x 8 cm, stand 26.5 x 18.5 x 4.5 cm 2.42

Photo Kim Griffiths Photography

Split Disc Necklace, 2021 sterling silver

2021 Craft Awards

EARLY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

The Early Achievement Award gives $1,000 to an emerging craftsperson or student to recognize their achievement to date, and/or potential.

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

The Excellence Award gives $1,000 to an established craftsperson who excels in their area of craft. Alberta Craft Council Members in the student, general or professional categories are eligible.

Pamma FitzGerald , Calgary

Pamma FitzGerald utilizes clay and mixed media to look at history and specific events from alternate points of view. She focuses on the individual, not the statistic. She has extensive degree studies including a 2017 BFA Ceramics (with distinction) as well as a 2009 BFA Drawing (with distinction) both from Alberta University of the Arts, in Calgary, Alberta.

Based in Calgary, she currently exhibits in Canada and Europe and her work is in private as well as public collections.

I live clay. I love it, I love learning about any aspect of it, I love the feel of it in my fingers and I continually want to push the boundaries of what I can do with it and, very importantly, what I can say with it.

Quote from nomination:

Something that I found really interesting about Pamma’s development while with us, was to watch as she methodically pursued her desire to integrate ceramics’ form and technology work with her drawing and painting ambitions. She was always trying some new slip or glaze in the kiln to inform the developments in her ceramic palette. This always led her to make decisions about her own use of material, processes and technologies that continually moved her incrementally toward her larger, long term goals.

Greg Payce Professor Emeritus, AUArts

Sharon Rose Kootenay , Vilna

A life-long maker of traditional art forms and owner of Four Lodges Gallery and Studio, Alberta-based artist Sharon Rose Kootenay finds her inspiration in the northern prairie landscapes she calls home. As a Cree-Metis artist, Kootenay is one of Alberta’s principal interpreters of geometric and floral beadwork design. Influenced by her Indigenous family connections, and living and material culture, her studio practice reflects both personal and community perspectives.

Sharon’s vibrant pieces tell a story of cultural identity and place. Utilizing hide, beads, thread and needle, she creates fine craft that illustrates regional history, significant family events, and collective values.

Quote from nomination:

Influenced by her Indigenous family connections, Sharon’s studio practice reflects both personal and communal points of view, rendered with an expert use of colour, symmetry and form. An artist of Cree and Ojibway ancestry, she has incorporated into her artwork both traditional designs and symbols with those of her own invention.

Mary-Beth

Laviolette

LINDA STANIER & FAMILY MEMORIAL AWARD

The Linda Stanier & Family Memorial Award for Excellence in Ceramics celebrates the life of Linda Stanier and honours excellence in ceramics, and gives $2,000 to to a craftsperson who works and resides in Alberta, and is primarily a studio-based, full-time professional ceramic artist

FIBRE ARTS AWARD

The Fibre Arts Awards - Hand Weavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta Endowment is a new award celebrating the legacy of the Hand Weavers Spinners, and Dyers of Alberta, and honours fibre artists sharing skills and creativity with a broader community. It gives $2,000 to an established individual, collective, or guild, for a project completed between August 2019 and August 2021.

Kaleb Romano , Edmonton

Kaleb Romano is an Edmonton based artist, primarily working in clay, wood and painting.

Working in clay, he creates functional objects that entice the beholder by featuring unique and quirky details such as the heavily patterned bottoms or pops of colour in the interior of a handle. A graduate of AUArts (2016) with a major in ceramics, he is the owner of The Shop: Art and Ceramic Studio where he makes his own work, teaches classes, and rents out space to twenty other artists. He is also the co-owner and designer for Pink Sasquatch, a cannabis merchandise company.

Quote from nomination:

My experience with Kaleb goes back to when he started attending classes in the Visual Art Diploma program at RDC in 2011. From his very first class in Ceramics, it was evident to me that he showed an exceptional dedication to his training and education.

The breadth and depth of his artistic practice is inspiring, and I am sure that Linda Stanier would be proud of the accomplishments and excellence of this fellow Red Deer College graduate.

Trudy Golley Head of Ceramics, Red Deer College

Fern Facette , Edmonton

Jessica Fern Facette is a Level II Master Weaver and photographer based in Edmonton, Alberta, who has been weaving for nearly two decades. Her textile work is a modern spin on traditional techniques and patterns. She has initiated growth in the textile community by founding Fern’s School of Craft in 2017, a community space where fibre artists from across Canada meet to sharing skills and knowledge.

The nominated project is Weaving to Reclaim: A Kaffiyeh Study - A year-long weaving mentorship and collaboration with artist and new weaver Fatme Elkadry as a study of cultural reclamation through Palestinian textiles.

Quote from nomination:

What I think makes Fern’s School of Craft a particularly special and generative project is the ways that Fern aims to diversify the Fibre Arts world in Alberta. Though textiles are an important cultural tool for communication and cultural expression to every culture world over, some communities have access to and are represented in fine craft more than others.

Leila Sidi

Tom McFall Honour Award

The Tom McFall Honour Award gives $1,000 to a volunteer, supporter, teacher, craftsperson (individual or group) who has made a significant contribution to Alberta’s Fine Craft culture.

Woo , Cochrane

A BFA graduate with Distinction (2003) of ACAD (now AUArts) in Calgary, Kari is a jeweler, curator, instructor, and business owner. She is the sole proprietor of Shine Design, a home based jewellery studio, as well as co-founder of the New Craft Coalition, a semi-annual curated Show + Sale, and INFLUX Jewellery Gallery (2004-2011) in Calgary. Kari believes that “Connecting and collaborating with others are vitally important activities to building and sustaining creative culture and communities.”

Quote from nomination:

Kari is a solid artist, leader, volunteer, cultural instigator and is an important role model for emerging jewellers, students and colleagues. Her participation on panels, mentoring and advising younger artists and colleagues is truly important. Kari is a major cultural contributor.

Charles Lewton-Brain Professor Emeritus, AUArts

From a national perspective, Kari Woo has a certain something that rises to the top. She is a dedicated, enthusiastic contribution to the metal arts in Canada, building her own capacity and career to new heights, all the while encouraging others to spread their wings, and opening doors so that more craft artists in the region can take flight.

Maegan Black Director, Canadian Crafts Federation

Natali Rodrigues , Calgary

Natali Rodrigues is an Associate Professor in the Glass Program at the Alberta University of the Arts in Canada. She is an active volunteer in her community. Her research investigates the experience of liminal space and transformative experience, which finds voice through two distinct making practises: drawing and glass. Her working methodology moves between a meditative making practise and one that is profoundly physical. Her work is an attempt to create a system of cartography of liminal space, where what is marked is not in reference to the physical but rather the transformative.

Quote from nomination:

Natali has a rich history of collaboration from her student days onward. Inclusiveness and generosity is reflected in all her accomplishments. Natali is as enjoyable as a human being than as a glass expert…. I have witnessed her sharp intelligence matched with her care for others.

She is an unsurpassed advocate for Glass Art in particular, and for Craft in general. She is a tireless volunteer, supporter, teacher, craftperson and artist. In all her roles what set Natali apart is her enthusiasm to provide opportunities for others while building a stronger glass and craft community locally, nationally, and internationally.

Mireille Perron Professor Emeritus, AUArts

Kari

Culture in the Making Podcast

Conversations About Contemporary Alberta Craft

Introducing Culture in the Making, an Alberta Craft Council podcast.

In 2021 the Alberta Craft Council was approached by Erin Ross, CKUA CJSW radio DJ & Craft Council supporter to work collaboratively on a new Podcast. Listen in as Erin interviews Alberta Craft artists about their creativity, inspiration, and careers in craft. New episodes released monthly.

In this introductory episode of Culture in the Making, hear from Alberta Craft Council’s Executive Director Jenna Stanton, and Board Chair Tara Owen, in conversation with Erin Ross.

Episode 2 of Culture in the Making with Shiemara Hogarth

Shiemara’s work is focused on narrative. Her practice draws on weaving, screen- and digital- printing, felting, embroidery, and more recently, explorations in 3D printing. In 2021, Shiemara curated Threading Black, an exhibition of works by eva birhanu and Simone Elizabeth Saunders displayed at the Alberta Craft Discovery Gallery in Edmonton and Alberta Craft Gallery - Calgary. During the same year, Shiemara presented her MFA in Craft Media Thesis Exhibition, entitled Personal Geographies, at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery in Calgary.

Episode 3 of Culture in the Making with Pamma FitzGerald

Pamma is a mixed media artist whose work addresses suffering. She immerses herself in stories of war and conflict with deep empathy for lives lost and forgotten amongst the numbing statistics of tragedy. With emphasis on drawing and working in clay, Pamma imparts a subtle social commentary about the futility of man’s unkindness to fellow man. Pamma was the winner of 2021 Alberta Craft Early Achievement Award.

Episode 4 of Culture in the Making with Fern Facette

Fern Facette is a fibre artist based in Edmonton who has been weaving for nearly two decades. Her textile work is a modern spin on traditional techniques and patterns, and she has initiated growth in the textile community by founding Fern’s School of Craft, a space where fibre artists from across Canada meet to carry on the long tradition of sharing skills and knowledge. Fern was the winner of 2021 Alberta Craft Fibre Arts Award.

Episode 5 of Culture in the Making with Natalie Gerber

Natalie’s studio practice is focused on boutique small scale production and hand printed textiles. As an artist, designer, and maker Natalie is inspired to create functional design for everyday living by combining her love for surface design, clean lines and hand printed fabrics with conscious material choices and in-studio practices.

Natalie’s work can be found at the Alberta Craft Council galleries in Edmonton and Calgary, and her printing studio located at cSPACE in Calgary.

Photo Elyse Bouvie

Take your craft to the next level

Ceramics. Fibre. Glass. Jewellery and Metals.

AUArts’ MFA in Craft Media dives deep into craft as a medium for innovative practice, provocative conceptual exploration, critical dialogue, and embodied material investigations. Challenge your perceptions of contemporary craft.

AUArts.ca/MFA

EPCOR Heart+ Soul Fund

Thank you to everyone who donated large and small to our Fall 2021 Fundraising campaign in partnership with EPCOR Heart + Soul!

With $8,000 in donations and another $8,000 in matching funds from the Alberta Craft Council’s campaign partner EPCOR we reached our goal of $16,000!

The Alberta Craft community has once again show how generous you truly are. Your donations are being directly used to increase paid opportunities for craft artists in our expanded Alberta Craft Council programming.

@AlbertaUArts Calgary, Alberta

Matthew O’Reilly, Smoldering Grecian

/

Photo: Chelsea Yang-Smith

Craft Collaborations Fundraiser

November 10 - December 15, 2021

For a second year in a row, the Alberta Craft Council hosted Craft Collaborations, an online auction fundraiser in celebration of Alberta’s enormous creative talent, bringing together 40 artists from across the province and across disciplines who created one-of-a-kind work.

A total of $3075 was raised through the Craft Collaborations auction and exhibition which is earmarked for creating more paid opportunities and programming for Fine Craft artists in the province.

Artists were paid 50% of the retail value of their bid upon projects. A total of $2376.25 went back to participating artists. A number of the artists donated their portion back totally $846.26 in artist donations.

We were humbled by the support of the sector and with how many of the artists chose to donate their portion back to the Alberta Craft Council and wish to thank all of the artists & supporters who contributed to the success of this online fundraiser.

Collaboration speaks to so much that we value, and how we work. It is also part of a long tradition of skilled artisans creating elements in their specialist medium, contributing to a single piece. The process is still common in commercial ateliers, but in this case, we wanted to enjoy exploring what another artist might bring to the dialogue we have with our own work, it’s a way of asking what the work might become--we get to see our piece through different eyes.

- Christine Pedersen and Robin DuPont

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:

Arlene Westen & Cheryl Brown, Kara Bussey & Michelle Atkinson, Todd Safronovich, Kathy Bateman, Jill Allan & John Krizan, Kaleb Romano & Syr Morrison, Leslie Delanty & Kasia Koralewska, Corinne Cowell & Mindy Andrews, Nicole D. Riedmueller & Mireille Perron, Mao Chen & Chris Savage, Anna Burger-Martindale & Jill Nuckles, Christine Pedersen & Robin DuPont, Tara Owen & Crys Harse, Darren Petersen & Leah Petrucci, Quichen Li & Jessica Van De Brand, Leah Cathleen & Sara Young, Darcy Gusse Edinga & Trenton Leach, Judy Weiss & Sharon Rubuliak, Leah Petrucci & Daniel Labutes, Jennifer Illanes & Shona Rae, Simon Wroot & Todd Safronovich, Doug Zech & William Miles

Craft Collaborations will be back Winter 2022.

french knitting, crochet, embroidery, rug hooking and weaving

Doug Zech & William Miles, Untitled: A fluted fantasy wooden turned vessel with bronze pinecone

Christine Pedersen & Robin DuPont, Fire In The Belly wood-fired ceramic jar, brass and bronze Photo Christine Pedersen

Top to bottom: Nicole D. Riedmueller & Mireille Perron, Meret’s Blue (lII) wheel-thrown and hand-built ceramic with textile interventions including:

Upcoming Exhibitions & Events

More in-depth coverage of these upcoming exhibitions will be featured in the next issue of Alberta Craft Magazine. For up-to-date information on current exhibitions visit albertacraft.ab.ca or sign up for What’s In our free customer E-Newsletter.

DISCOVERY GALLERY

TISSUES

Adriane Vant Erve

January 29 - March 12, 2022

Installation of mysterious, diaphanous sculptural works in fibre from an emerging Calgary artist and graduate of the AUArts Fibre program. These tender, evocative works are reminiscent of fragile, human physiology.

(re)FORM

Carissa Baktay

March 19 - April 30, 2022

ALBERTA CRAFT GALLERY EDMONTON 10186-106 Street NW, Edmonton AB FEATURE GALLERY

Baktays, meticulously groomed works in blown glass and mixed media seeks to restore the connection between people and their intuitive relationship to nostalgically charged objects and traditional organic materials.

RITCHIE VELTHIUS THE MAKING OF A MONUMENT

Ritchie Vethius

June 25 - August 6, 2022

An exhibition of ceramic works inspired by the popular comedic television program SCTV. The works depict the hilarious characters we know and love from this iconic Canadian T.V. show, a program which started right here in Edmonton. Velthius also shares about the process for making his public artwork of Bob and Doug MacKenzie in downtown Edmonton.

ᒥᔪᑕᒧᐣ

miyotamon nananisit is a good road in all directions

Heather Shillinglaw

May 7 - June 18, 2022

Shillinglaw’s art becomes cultural sharing as she combines working with historians, scholars and elders to make art; blending concepts of body, mind, and spirit that becomes woven messages through her practice. Her art evolves in her own storytelling and re-telling of familial oral histories.

CRAFT AND SCIENCE

March 5 - July 9, 2022

Craft and Science explores the interesting ways that science and craft intersect. Both fields rely on creative problem-solving skills, research, specialized training, traditional and innovative techniques and methodologies, imagination, and curiosity to fuel the search for answers. Science not only serves as a source of inspiration - scientific methods and principals are used every day by craft artists in the processes and creation of their work. Likewise, artists are called upon to find creative solutions and alternative perspectives in laboratory and research settings.

ᓇᓇᓂᐢ

Adriane Vant Erve, Tissues Impression #7, 2019, silk organza, thread

Carissa Baktay, Curly-Q 2021, blown glass and horse hair

Heather Shillinglaw, ᒥᓵᐢᑲᐧᑑᒥᓇ ᒪᐃᐧᓱᐃᐧᐣ misâskwatômina mawisowin (saskatoon berry picking), 2022, Elk hide, beads, yarn, paint, thread painting, machine and hand embroidery, silk

Ritchie Velthius, Bob and Doug, Johnny LaRue and artist at Harcourt House, Photo Marc Chalifoux

Jane Kidd, Curiosities: Pairings #2 (detail), 2013, Woven Tapestry, Photo John Cameron

ALBERTA CRAFT GALLERY CALGARY 1721 - 29 Avenue SW, Suite 280 Calgary AB

2021 CRAFT AWARDS RECIPIENTS EXHIBITION

January 22 - March 5, 2022

An exhibition of works from the winners of the Alberta Craft Awards: Early Achievement Award: Pamma FitzGerald Excellence Award: Sharon Rose (Kootenay) Cherweniuk, Linda Stanier and Family Memorial Award for Excellence in Ceramics: Kaleb Romano.

Tom McFall Honour Award: Natali Rodrigues and Kari Woo. Fibre Arts Award - Hand Weavers, Spinners and Dyers of Alberta Endowment: J Fern Facette

DEMOCRACY OF JEWELLERY

January 22 - March 5, 2022

What happens to the independent maker; to craft and the status of the handmade when a niche skill set such as jewellery making is subject to the generalization and globalisation of the marketplace? Curated by Kari Woo.

Participating artists: Sarah Alford, Devon Clark, Jamie Kroeger, Louise Perrone, Lyndsay Rice, Kari Woo

COMING UP NEXT

March 12 - April 23, 2022

Celebrating the creativity, innovation and skill of emerging, Canadian craft artists. Coming Up Next is an exhibition of works selected from a diverse variety of approaches, mediums, and regions.

KITSCH CRAFT SO BAD IT’S GOOD

May 7 - July 23, 2022

Creators responded from across the province to Kitsch it up with humorous works that and will make you laugh and cringe all at once - crossing lines and breaking rules. Stuck indoors during the covid winter, artists turned to their resourceful natures to design and create objects responding to our strange covid times and using materials that were readily at hand in their covid hideouts

All exhibitions are free to the public, everyone welcome. Dates subject to change in accordance with AHS COVID restrictions

Marcy Friesen, Half Breed, 2021, seed beads and adhesive, silver fox hat, coyote throw, Photo Susan Stewart Photography

JoAnna Lange, Bozo, 2021, ceramic mixed media

Jamie Kroeger Waterhauler walnut, steel, copper, silver solder, enamel and acrylic paint, 2020

The Recipients of the 2021 Craft Awards, listed below

Around Alberta

Noteworthy craft exhibitions, events, and more

Under the Vast Sky

Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge November 26 2021 - June 2, 2022

The exhibition title Under the Vast Sky conjures a key image in the prodigious oeuvre of Britta Marakatt-Labba: groups of humans huddled on a narrow isthmus of land suspended under the stellar dome, their children sleeping in the Arctic night with nothing much but boundless space separating them from the stars. The image offers access to a powerful and eloquent strand of Marakatt-Labba’s art: an ability to embrace both comfort and exposedness, solidity and vulnerability. Visions of solitude or vulnerability are paired with reoccurring and compelling notions of consolation and protection provided by the human collective.

Britta Marakatt-Labba’s embroidered stories, economically told in miniature stitches, sustain critical and urgent visions, list multiple emergencies, while also doing precise decolonial work, manifestations that revive, revise, heal, and build.

Curated by Jan-Erik Lundström

www.saag.ca

Breathe. (2nd Wave)

Galt Museum & Archives, Lethbridge

January 29 - April 29, 2022

Breathe. is a collection of traditionally crafted masks demonstrating resiliency through the 21st century pandemic. Co-created by Métis artists Nathalie Bertin and Lisa Shepherd, this grassroots initiative explores the experiences of different artists as they navigated changing COVID-19 conditions.

This second touring exhibition emerging from the Breathe. project includes 44 masks that speak to both cultural resilience and strength of community in the face of a pandemic. Each mask includes the maker’s unique stories of fear, courage, sadness, hope and healing. The initiative encompasses traditional beadwork techniques as well as an array of other materials and methods, creating space for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists.

Created and organized by Nathalie Bertin and Lisa Shepherd

www.galtmuseum.com

Uninvited

Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment

Glenbow at the Edison, Calgary

February 19 - May 8, 2022

Organized by The McMichael Canadian Art Collection with the support of the National Gallery of Canada. Curated by Sarah Milroy

See more than 200 works of art by a generation of extraordinary women painters, photographers, sculptors, architects and filmmakers from a century ago — pioneers who opened new frontiers for women artists in Canada – as well as works made by their Indigenous female contemporaries working in traditional media, for a cross-country snapshot of female creativity in this dynamic modern moment.

Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment is a major exhibition of Canadian women artists that was created to coincide with, and offer commentary on, the centenary celebration of the Group of Seven.

www.glenbow.org/exhibitions/uninvited

Britta Marakatt-Labba, Avverkning/Deforestation (detail), textile, 2020. Courtesy of North Norwegian Art Museum, Tromsø.

Attatsiaq, Tuilik (woman’s parka) panel (detail), 1926–37, Manitoba Museum, Winnipeg, Collection of Winifred Petchey Marsh and Bishop Donald Marsh, Photo Craig Boyko

In Adoration of the Precarious Bee

Red Deer Museum, Red Deer

May 7 - August 20, 2022

This new ceramic sculpture explores the beauty and perils of bees foraging in altered landscapes. Each piece tells a story about a future of imagined genetically enhanced super flowers and crops that keep small foragers working hard to sustain their broods.

The work illustrates the challenging environments most pollinators and particularly bees, have had with both chemicals used on commercial crops and cultivated backyard gardens, as well the unexpected weather changes that amplify or deny their will to do so.

Dawn Detarando hand builds each piece, then carves the details of her narratives and finishes the surface with an underglaze painting.

www.reddeermuseum.com

Alberta University of the Arts Grad Show 2022

Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary

May 26 – June 4, 2022

Alberta’s emerging artists are celebrated at Alberta University of the Arts (AUArts) Grad Show 2022. Hosted by the university’s Illingworth Kerr Gallery, the annual Grad Show features approximately 150 artworks and is a milestone in the careers of graduating students. Open to the public, the exhibition runs on campus May 26 – June 4, 2022, and is complemented by the Grad Show 2022 website launching May 26 which will be active for one year.

www.AUArtsgrad.ca

www.auarts.ca/ikg

Kitsch Picks

World Famous Gopher Hole Museum

Torrington

Strange but true, Torrington is the home to the infamous Gopher Hole Museum. This attraction features stuffed gophers (Richardson ground squirrels) posed in a series of 47 anthropomorphic scenes, from a hair dresser to a preacher to an RCMP officer. This really is a must-see!

- Travel Alberta

worldfamousgopherholemuseum.ca

Fort Edmonton Park

The Carousel is making an epic comeback this year! Read more about the new carousel as part of our Object Story on the next page.

www.fortedmontonpark.ca

Grad Show, Illingworth Kerr Gallery Dawn Detarando, Two Against One Hand built, white clay, o4 glaze and underglaze, luster

Scene from the Gopher Hole Museum, Photo James P Fisher III

Photo courtesy Fort Edmonton Park

8 Fun Facts About the Fort Edmonton Park Carousel

The beloved Fort Edmonton Park Carousel is making an epic comeback this year! To celebrate, we’re sharing some interesting facts about everyone’s favourite Midway ride!

Did you know… The Fort Edmonton Carousel is inspired by a Philadelphia Toboggan Company #40 which was purchased by Johnny J Jones in 1917. The Johnny J Jones Exhibition, one of the largest traveling carnival shows in America, played at the Edmonton Exhibition for the first time in 1918 and would be annually brought back during the 1920s every year except 1921, 1925 and 1930.

Did you know… The 1920s were the heyday for midway rides which were brought to complement the Edmonton agricultural exhibition (known as Klondike days, now known as K days). Although not as grand as the fabulous park-style machines that were found in permanent amusement parks (like Coney Island), the portable carousel that visited Edmonton

and the band organ “calliope” music that accompanied it became a perennial favorite.

Did you know… Each horse is made from 30-40 blocks of Basswood glued together and carved with saws and chisels and detailed with sanding paper. The ponies are painted with automotive paint and given at least 3 coats of glaze finishing to withstand years of riding. The “romance” side faces the outside of the carousel and is the most heavily detailed and ornamented side. The “money” side faces inside and is less detailed. This is where the carvers used to make their money by saving time. Take a closer look the next time you visit and see the difference!

Did you know… The carousel is handmade and maintained by a dedicated group of local

volunteers who have given over 200,000+ hours to create this memorable experience for the public.

Did you know… The largest horses are on the outside ring and the smallest are on the inner ring. Horses with 3 legs on the platform are called “standers” and those with two hind feet on the platform are called “prancers”, neither go up and down. The moving horses are called “jumpers” and have all feet in the air.

Did you know… Horses are the most common animal found on a carousel but “menagerie” animals like bears, boars, birds, cougars, elephants appeared as well. See the children’s carousel on the Midway for more animals carved by our team.

Did you know… The rounding boards of the original PTC

#40 were heavily carved and contained a panel portraying a European-type pastoral landscape, painted in oils in a highly romantic style. The painted scenery panels within each rounding board section depict an early Edmonton scene on the Fort Edmonton Park Carousel.

Did you know… The exterior pavilion was designed to complement the historic look and provide protection to the carousel parts from the harsh Alberta elements and to meet with noise bylaws. It is not original to the PTC as it was a portable carousel protected only by a railing put up around the outside area of the ride.

Article courtesy of Fort Edmonton Park fortedmontonpark.ca

Craft Tours

Craft curious? Join us for Culture in the Making experiential Craft Tours. Connect with your community of craft artists and supporters on curated boutique tours to artists’ studios, and behind the scenes of museum collections, cultural sites, galleries and more.

Many of our tours include hands on workshops from world renowned Craft artists from across Alberta. Created for new audiences, these workshops give participants a chance to learn more about the artists, their Craft mediums, and inspiration.

Bring your curiosity and connect to your creativity as we build community and meaningful experiences centered around Craft.

Snap shots from recent Craft Tours:

1. Craft Tour at the Military Museums in Calgary with Michele Hardy and Dick Averns

2. Indigenous Craft Appreciation workshop with MJ Belcourt Moses

3. Make and Take Craft as Therapy with Richard Boulet and Marilyn Olson

4. Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre tour with Heidi Gedlaman

5. Pysanka workshop with Christina Koscielnuk

6. James Ziegler Workshop at the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre

7. Making Jewellery with Alternative Materials with Kari Woo at the Alberta Craft Gallery (Calgary)

8. Fern’s School of Craft Textile Tour and Workshop

9. Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre tour with Katie Ohe

10. Blacksmith Workshop with Shawn Cunningham of Front Step Forge

11. Screen Printing with Natalie Gerber

12. Mary Shannon Will exhibition tour with Michele Hardy (Nickle Gallery)

13. Experiential Tour and Workshop with Sandra Sawatzky

14. Behind the Scenes at Leighton Art Centre with Lindsay Corbet

Meet the Maker

On a lovely mid-winter day, I had the opportunity to meet with Bonnie Datta in her old farmhouse outside of Airdrie AB, where original parts of the structure date back to the late 1800’s. Her family moved there in 1954 and she returned with her husband in 2002, as a full-time weaver and fibre artist. Her studio is set up in a series of solarium like additions with warm sunlight pouring in from all sides. I see three large looms, several plants and some cozy places to sit with coffee and a sketch book. She also has a great number of books and yarns placed strategically throughout the space for easy access. It’s an inviting and peaceful place.

A mathematician at heart and in her formal training, the intricate structures of weaving call to her. Bonnie holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from the University of Calgary and a Masters Degree in Mathematics from the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, Rhode Island, USA. Bonnie worked in the computer industry for twenty-five years.

She has taken too many tapestry and weaving courses to list here. As well as teaching, she has written several articles and written monographs on Six-Hold Tablet Weaving and Flesbergplegg WeftFaced Weaving. She has helped to inform the expansion of 4-hole tablet weaving to the 6-hole version, and all the colour dynamics that opened up from that transformation.

In 1996 Bonnie divested herself of all unnecessary flotsam and became an ‘itinerant weaver.’ She loaded up her 30 foot trailer and their Ford Econoline van and roamed for seven years, teaching, weaving and researching. At this point, she’s been weaving for thirty years and has no plans to slow down.

In Bonnie’s highly analytical mind, articulate speech and precise technical standards, she classifies things as either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ –no pressure here!

Interviewed by Corinne Cowell, Alberta Craft Council: How did you get started with weaving and fibre?

Bonnie Datta: Fibre has always been my creative outlet. When I was about four years old, I used to embroider little motifs onto flour-sack dish towels with my grandma. Even then, I loved that we made something useful that added a touch of beauty to the mundane task of dish-drying.

I started weaving in 1989 when I began classes in the textile department of AUArts. I was inspired to take up weaving as the type of embroidery I was doing required a certain structure and it was hard to find suitable fabrics.

CC: Why do you continue to weave?

BD: I still love to make functional objects that are a pleasure to use. I also love that the design process requires considerable calculating and planning. Weaving tends to be rhythmic and repetitive, almost meditative. The amount of movement involved also provides good exercise. Most days I walk about 2km on my loom treadles.

CC: Can you explain a bit about the complexity of weaving?

BD: There are a lot of calculations – yarn requirements, spacing of warp and weft, take-up and shrinkage etc. There is also a lot to know about looms, about how to use and repair them. A very systematic approach is required to weaving, from making a warp, beaming the warp, threading the heddles, sleying the reed, then tensioning the warp, inserting the (thousands) of weft picks, and finally finishing and washing. Yarns must also be well understood as there is an endless list of variables there too, from weight, grist, fibre, spin and so on. Then there is colour, a study unto itself.

CC: Why do you use the fibre you use?

BD: I prefer natural fibres such as alpaca, wool, silk, and hemp. I do use some rayon but that is considered to be a reconstituted natural fibre. Most of the alpaca I use is raised and spun in Alberta. I buy wool, hemp and some alpaca/silk blends from Quebec and my silk comes from Assam, a place along the original silk route.

Muga Silk is rich in colour, lustre and strength and I love it. It’s very hard to get as it only comes from one state in India and the insecticides and herbicides used in growing tea are harming the Muga Moth.

CC: Your work is so cozy and beautifully made, what are you inspired by?

BD: I’m inspired by beautiful weaving from all parts of the globe. I am also fascinated by tessellations, moire patterns and mathematical concepts like the Fibonacci Sequence.

CC: What is important for you in your weaving? Technical excellence? Colour combinations? Usability? Comfort?

BD: All of these are important. Colour would be the least though as while I enjoy all colours and their combinations fascinate me, there is no clear way to know what others prefer. Comfort is important and that is why I use so much alpaca, it being considerably softer and smoother than wool. I think the wraps and throws I specialize in are prime examples of usable objects as they can be a baby blanket, a versatile travel piece, comfort to an elderly or ill person, or a warm fashion statement. Technical excellence in mandatory in my work.

CC: What are you currently reading about?

BD: Weaving, cooking and my family history.

CC: How does your environment affect your work?

BD: Life is so peaceful on the farm. We see a lot of wild animals and experience the seasons very dramatically. I love working in silence and often the only noise we hear is the train a half mile away. In summer we have abundant flowers which provide materials to dye some of my fibres. We harvest our small garden in the fall and enjoy a quiet winter. In short, it is the ideal situation for two retired people to live and pursue their pent-up interests. For me, a day without weaving is a like a night without sleep.

Opposite page: Bonnie Datta in her studio

This page (top to bottom): loom shuttles with bobbins: alpaca, silk; weave structure will produce a fabric with waves and bubbles Ribbons nylon cord; tablet weaving with four-and six-holed tablets Repeating Bears, wool; tapestry with polar bear tessellation

The Craft Spectrum

Craft in Context

In 2020, the craft sector accounted for $2.4 billion of the culture GDP in Canada.

(Statistics Canada, 2021)

UNESCO recognizes that crafts, amongst other creative activities, address the basic needs and rights of children, “building creativity and self-esteem, helping them to work on personal issues and trauma”

(UNESCO, 2009)

In 2019, Craft Councils across Canada sold $14,024,577 in Canadian craft.

(Canadian Craft Federation)

Craft in a Tweet

Craft is a form of making that pairs material traditions with contemporary skill, design, and technology.

It is a broad and flexible term, but at its core, craft is a meaningful way to connect with ourselves, with each other, and across borders.

We invite you to share your #craftinatweet online with us.

The Canadian Crafts Federation (Fédération canadienne des métiers d’art) has produced a seminal new text for craft in Canada: The Craft Spectrum. As the national arts service organization, it is our goal to create connections and champion craft through advocacy, collaborative projects, and professional development with our many member organizations across Canada - including all the Provincial and Territorial Craft Councils. Through our Craft Spectrum project, we provide new language to describe the sector, what it means, and the impact it can have.

Craft is a living creature, complex in its existence and evolving alongside humanity and society. The act of making is intrinsically tied to culture, technology, and the ideals of beauty and art, as well as the health and wellbeing of communities, economies, and education. How and why craft artists create, and the way in which we describe this activity will continue to shift over time.

The purpose of the Craft Spectrum document is to provide those working outside of the craft sector, with an introduction to craft.

The Canadian Crafts Federation acknowledges, respects, and values the diversity of voices, perspectives, and experiences of craft from across Turtle Island. By developing a spectrum of craft, rather than a rigid definition, space is created to find your place in craft, rather than a set mould you must adapt to.

I would like to thank everyone in the arts community for their interpretations and contributions to the development of this document.

This includes the members of our advocacy committee, the community testreaders, as well as everyone who shared their personal definitions in writing, in person, and online. From lecture halls to social media, from studio visits to gallery openings, in quiet corners of conferences, and across the loudspeakers at the podium — you have been heard, and you will continue to be heard.

It is no easy task to put this language in writing, and I am confident that if nothing else, we will continue to discuss the meaning of craft as the future unfolds. In the meantime, we humbly present this living document addressing the spectrum of craft.

Thank you all, for the continued conversation. Forward In solidarity, Maegen Black CCF/FCMA Director

FAQ

What is the difference between art and craft?

Craft is not distinct from the world of fine art. Often set apart by its material origins or skills-based approach to making, craft crosses the lines of definition. Makers are artists and artists are makers — fine art borrows from craft, and craft rightly assumes the moniker of “art” — you can’t have one without the other.

What makes craft unique in Canada?

Many rich making traditions are rooted in communities across Canada, and the materials, tools, and teachings found there. The style of ceramics from Nunavut’s Kivalliq Region is distinctive to communities in the North, as the Cheticamp hooked rugs are to the makers of Cape Breton. In towns and citites across Canada, makers also gather in community spaces, guilds, and learning studios — each unique to the region and its people — informed by a synergy of shared knowledge, supply chains, and local expertise.

CCF/FCMA @CCFFCMA

www.albertacraft.ab.ca

Return Address:

Alberta Craft Council 10186-106 Street

Edmonton, AB T5J 1H4