Petrochemical painting has something to say
A pretty and pretty repellent tapestry composed of a lot of bad decisions and ignorance is having a moment. It had a benign beginning eight years ago: to approach painting like making a quilt. It…
The nodes know
Hope empowers quirky denim objects I’ve had this exchange a few times this past week: You’re so busy. What are you working on? Uh… hard to say. It’s hard to put into words this curious…
From break to breakthrough
Making space for the creative process, at home or away The following is a public service announcement for all those cowering from the liquid gunmetal-grey skies on this bone-chilling coast: …
Fibre artwork drowning in metaphors
As of this writing, those living or working on 500 properties just 60 kilometres away have been ordered to seek dry land. Those on another 1,000 properties are being told to be ready for word to flee…
When more is more
I’ve learned to live with a head full of bees but these days it’s all about wasps. So. Many. Wasps. Wasps that retreated indoors last week after the pest-control guy shot up the kitchen fan…
Quilting and connecting
If you stitch it (in public) they will come An artist-instructor friend advised me, as I was preparing my portfolio to apply to art school, that if I was planning to include images of my quilts…
Lessons from the grad show
Art school is just the end of the beginning The concourse was a crush on opening night at Emily Carr University ’s Spring grad show. Seventies’ disco music fuelled giddy graduates clutching…
Taking it Outside
Escaping the dark world of scrolling the socials “Take it outside” was a standard parenting directive back in the 1900s, shouted at the kids when pro-wrestling or trying to extricate a running…
Resistance can be beautiful
Hand-making outside the dominant economic system
Letting go and getting on it
Our job as artists is to imagine different futures
The future is fungal
Mushrooms and more for troubled times
Beyond a cozy retreat
Handmade quilts of found fabrics layer up multiple meanings
Time to find focus
Depicting a distracted mind might not be helping
‘The unknown’ is a monster
I’m betting its bite will be worse than its bark
Tips for tired women
From rolling your eyes to sinking in sawdust Like a dream it was: A half-a-million-strong pink procession on Washington, a sea of singing, shouting, laughing people, surging forward in the shared…
When going back is good
Past failures are invaluable teaching tools This is my picking-up-the-pieces post, which is literally what I’m doing these days (and late nights). With the outlook looking very dark indeed I…
On radical self-care
Making ourselves whole through making First there is shock. I saw it in a coffee shop in a small US city the morning Trump was elected — again. The place was full but hushed. “Are you…
An iron will is needed now
Working out those wrinkles is so satisfyingIf you’re uselessly wringing your hands right about now, pump some iron. Hear me out: Ironing is useful , which, in the few days left before the US…
Dancing on the edge
This craftiest time of year is laced with pain When you’ve recently lost a loved one, certain annual occasions are rough: Christmas, birthdays, anniversaries. For me, it’s Halloween. That’s…
Fleeting thoughts of granny squares
The Wet Coast is no place for this fuzzy fantasy The trees are sun-kissed radiant red and gold as I hunker down to write this, in that little sliver of crisp and dry days between the months of…
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