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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...

Letting go and getting on it

by | Mar 22, 2025 | Abject, Abstract Painting, Acrylic, Art Discourse, Artist, Crochet, Doilies, ECUAD MFA, Fiber Artist, Fiber Arts, Fibre Arts, Found Materials, Hand Stitching, Handmade, Handwork, Imagination, Joyful Making In Perilous Times, MakingIsConnecting, MFA, Personalispolitical, Re-use, Reimagine, Stitching, Tactility, Textile Art, Upcycle, Vancouver

Our job as artists is to imagine different futures (Originally published Feb. 23, 2025 on Substack)I made a bit of a scene when Friedrich Irrgang confirmed that he was retiring after 62 short years in the timepiece-repair business. And just what will become of my...

The future is fungal

by | Jan 18, 2025 | Abstract Painting, Carlyn Yandle, Crochet, Embroidery, Entanglements, Fiber Artist, Fibre, Fibre Arts, Found Materials, Hand Stitching, Handmaking, Joyful Making In Perilous Times, Joyfulmakinginperiloustimes, LA Fires, Mapping, Material Exploration, Mixed Media, Mushroom, Mycelium, Nature, Painting, Pattern, Renewal, Repairing Is Caring, Spore, Vancouver

Mushrooms and more for troubled times When you spend a good portion of your winter cowering from the cold and the rain, it’s hard to fathom the fiery desert winds that are obliterating entire neighbourhoods just a three-hour flight south. In the near-real-time images...

Beyond a cozy retreat

by | Jan 10, 2025 | Art Quilt, Collaboration, Experimentation, Fabric, Fiber Artist, Fibre Arts, Form And Function, Found Materials, Geometric Art, Hand Stitching, Handmade, Handmaking, Improvisation, Joyful Making In Perilous Times, Joyfulmakinginperiloustimes, Meditative, Quilt, Quilting, Sashiko, Textile Art, Use Object, Vancouver

Handmade quilts of found fabrics layer up multiple meanings The squirrels that inhabit my head have been threatening to start a roller derby so I’ve shut it all down by doing something constructive: I’m literally wrapping myself up in my ongoing Perfectly...

Time to find focus

by | Jan 4, 2025 | Abstract Painting, Acrylic, Carlyn Yandle, Creative Process, Distraction, Distracts, Fiber Artist, Geometric Art, Joyful Making In Perilous Times, Joyfulmakinginperiloustimes, Painting, Pattern, Personalispolitical, Political Art, Process, Quilt Painting, Trump, Vancouver

Depicting a distracted mind might not be helping Disrupting the grid, upending predictable patterns. Acrylic on canvas, sewing pins, 24” x 24” (Carlyn Yandle) If the person I share the bed with is to be believed, this morning (as of this writing) I announced in my...