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Petrochemical painting has something to say

by | Apr 11, 2026 | Abstract Painting, Acrylic, Apocalypse Now, Art Blog, Conceptual Craft, Creative Process, Distracts, Doilies, ECU, ECUAD MFA, Emily Carr University, Fiber Arts, Material Exploration, Painting, Petrochemical, Upcycle

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 started when I discovered I could pour viscous acrylic paint onto acetate...

Lessons from the grad show

by | May 20, 2025 | Art Blog, Art School, Conceptual Art, Conceptual Craft, Covid, Doilies, ECUAD, Emily Carr University, Exhibition, Failure, Fiber Artist, Fibre Arts, Joyful Making In Perilous Times, Joyfulmakinginperiloustimes, Making, MakingIsConnecting, Material Exploration, Pandemic, Ravages, Sculpture, Vancouver

Art school is just the end of the beginningThe concourse was a crush on opening night at Emily Carr University’s Spring grad show. Seventies’ disco music fuelled giddy graduates clutching bouquets, hugging, posing for parents’ photos in front of their exhibits of...

VIDEO tour: ‘Joyful Making in Perilous Times’

by | Apr 21, 2021 | Activism, Art Discourse, Art School, Art Show, Artist Statement, Braided Rug, Braiding, Collaboration, Community, Conceptual Art, Conceptual Craft, Construction, Craftivism, Craftsmanship, Creative Process, Critique, Crochet, Denim, Domestic, ECUAD, Emily Carr University, Exhibit, Exhibition, Experimentation, Exploration, Fabric, Fiber, Fiber Artist, Film, Found Materials, Found Objects, Free Store, Handmaking, Handwork, Hearth, Homelessness, Installation, Joyful Making In Perilous Times, MFA, Pattern, Project, Quilt, Quilt Block, Research, Resurge, Scaffolds, Scraps, Slow Craft, Soft Sculpture, Tapestry, Trash Art, Tyvek, Video, Video Tour, Zero-waste Art

Click HERE for a 10-minute journey through the methods and motivations behind this MFA thesis. (Film made by Ana Valine, Rodeo Queen Pictures, August 2020)

Hoping for heat in this log cabin

by | Nov 5, 2019 | Activism, Challenge, Collaboration, Colonialism, Construction, Craftivism, Emily Carr University, Experimentation, Fabricating, Fiber, Fiber Arts, Fibre, Fibre Arts, Found Materials, Gentrification, Grid, Handwork, Health, Hearth, Homelessness, Log Cabin, Making, MFA, Quilt, Quilt Block, Quilting, Safe Supply, Stitching, Subversive Stitch, Vancouver

I have this idea for building healthy community in this pretty/cold city through hand-making. It’s a process of making peace with ourselves and connecting with others, transforming individualized desires (thanks, capitalism) into shared desires for a sustainable life...

Finding new Space in Old Craft of Smocking

by | Sep 22, 2019 | Craft, Creative Process, Crochet, ECUAD, ECUAD MFA, Emily Carr University, Exploration, Fabricating, Fibre Arts, Found Materials, Hybrid Thinking, LOoW, Material Exploration, Mathematics, MFA, Origami, Paper Sculpture, Process, Smocking, Space Craft, Tyvek

Material research using found spun polyester fibre, for an artwork resulting from a year’s conversation with scientists and scholars. (Carlyn Yandle photos) About a decade ago I stumbled across Latvian-American mathematician Daina Taimina’s curious crochet...

‘Foundlings’: Kids’ works of terrible beauty

by | Jul 2, 2019 | Children, Collaboration, Community, Construction, Emily Carr University, Exhibit, Exhibition, Exploration, Fabricating, Fiber, Fiber Arts, Fibre, Found Materials, Found Objects, Foundlings, Judith Scott, Knotting, Making, MFA, Mixed Media, Nature, Playing, Recycle, Trash, Trash Art, Upcycling

Clockwise from top left: “This Little Lump”, Sylva and Shyla; “Garbage Catcher”, Coco; “Little Worker”, Kahlio, Basha and Ari. Everyone is feeling that relentless creep of plastic that is threatening to consume us, the consumers. I...