Community Threads Week 35

The Community Threads tapestries are coming along slowly. The momentum seems to have slowed somewhat and I hope this is not a sign that enthusiasm is waning. Jackie, on the right, has been working steadily away on the gobelin loom over the last month. Here she is showing Susan Menzies, an artist herself, how to weave tapestry. This is Susan's first attempt. Susan also brought along 2 boys who were in here care over the March Break. They too tried their hand at tapestry weaving. Below, the section of the Community Threads tapestry that Jackie has been working on. I love all the textures and its taking on a three dimensional look.

I brought in a video of the birthing of the Community Threads project that I put together to show those in attendance. I think it re-inspired us all. We're looking to promote a local musician(s) music track to add to the video and then put it on YouTube. It's a wonderful chronicle of the projects unfolding. I was also told  that the historical society had visited on Wednesday. I think the tapestries are looking great! I'm really pleased with the results so far!

Comminity Threads Week 28

It's been a while since I've been back to visit the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners at the Gibson Centre in Alliston and it was nice to see some familiar faces as well as some new ones. Above, a newcomer to the guild: Jackie Teunissen. She's lived the last many years in Geneva, and moved to Caledon a couple of years ago. She's enjoying the tapestry weaving process and looking forward to continuing in participating with the guild's activities. The tapestries are progressing wonderfully. Some of the people that have been weaving on them regularly include Valerie and Elizabeth, who have really dedicated their time and efforts to producing their tapestry banners. They are feeling confident to make changes to the tapestries, both editing out the composition, and changing colours, as they think is appropriate. I applaud that they are taking artistic license. They have even decided that they will make some new paintings, of historic properties in the municipality to include in the tapestry banners, and therefore eliminating images that are duplicated in the some of the tapestries. Excellent and all the while, expanding their knowledge of the history of the muncipality. Sandi had some good stories about the churches in the area and we'll have to post this to the blog because it's intriguing. Their pride of place is coming through as they all work on this project, which they in turn put into the project.

Another new face at the guild is Deb Chandler. She's giving tapestry weaving a try on the 'learners' tapestry loom before moving onto the the large gobelin loom.

Jean and Valerie were back this week working on the finishing of the first completely woven tapestry banner. We'll have to start giving some thought as to what title we want to give each tapestry. Linda and Sandi discussed what new pictures needed to be taken, and then transformed into paintings. Linda felt so confident in their newly acquired artistic skills that she didn't feel she needed me to help them do the paintings! Linda reports that visitors to the weaving studio are frequent, which also means that this encourages traffic at the Gibson Centre. Linda and Sandi also talked about bringing some of the portable tapestry looms to the community libraries, and to the mall in Tottenham to promote the project, the Gibson Centre, and the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners in the months to come. They will be giving a special presentation the Alliston Historical Society March 14.

I'll be visiting the project about once a month for the next year to help out, see what developments there are, and give advice when needed. The group are doing a great job! Don't hesitate to stop by and weave on the Community tapestries...everyone's contribution is welcome.

Perseverance

The president of the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners, Linda Needles, wrote to me recently to update me on the progress of the Community Threads tapestries in Alliston. I'm including what she wrote below. I've also attached the latest tapestries to be completed by assorted members in the group. I'm very proud of them for having the courage to undertake such an ambitious project AND following through with it. What dedication and perserverance, qualities that all weavers and spinners and possess in abundance!

Linda writes: “After receiving the “Artist in the Community” grant from the Ontario Arts Council in the Spring of 2011, Line got us into high gear to begin our “Community Threads” project. This was a project with a timeline of 2 years and, with her enthusiasm and energetic approach to begin the project, we all thought, “My Goodness, what have we gotten our guild into”?
We photographed local sites, painted pictures, made cartoons, sorted wool, gathered looms and began. Newbies we were but oh, what Line helped us learn.


Well 6 months have passed and our fears have been dissipated and our enthusiasm engaged because, we are well on the way.

We’ve come a long way from July, when we began by taking photos of the New Tecumseth area, of activities and places of interest. These photos have now been realized in the paintings and cartoons and are coming to life in the few sections of the tapestries that have been finished.

Elisabeth and Libby are working on one loom (a Penelope), having taken it home Dec 1 and now have finished 2 sections of one tapestry - a golfer and a guitar player.


Valerie also took home a Penelope loom and finished four sections to complete a whole tapestry. Yay, only 11 more to go!

The large Gobelin loom at the Gibson Centre is busy each Thursday during our open studio day. Ann has been working on one of the tapestries and has 1 ½ sections complete. Corrie, Nellie and Linda have been working on the other one and are starting the second section. Nellie, our senior member wants to work on some tapestries at home so she bought herself a new Kromski harp loom to work on during the winter.


Other members gather each week to weave on the tapestry looms and floor looms, to spin, sort wool colours, plan new projects and provide encouragement to all as we move forward with the Community Threads. Our turnout is usually about 12 people, considerably increased from 6 months ago.

This project has generated a lot of excitement and curiosity in the community and consequently has brought in many visitors to our studio, many of whom are directed there by the Gibson Centre staff who are great promoters of the project. In addition, as a result of this project, we have gained a few new guild members who are willing to try their hand on our sampler loom. Recently the Canadian Tapestry Network Newsletter featured the project with lots of pictures and a lengthy article. An article was also written up for the Ontario Handweavers and Spinners Fibre Focus.

We hope to engage more community members and start to make presentations to community groups as well as demonstrate in public places to share our enthusiasm with others.

Community Threads: Week Ten

Sunday September 11 was the opening reception of my tapestry exhibit Wholeness, featuring mostly tapestries and some other fibre related work. This event was also the official launch day for the Community Threads tapestries initiative funded in part by the Ontario Arts Council and undertaken by the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners Guild. The event was well attended and by my count, about 60 people came by to the Gibson Centre for Community, Arts and Culture. Quite a few of the guests came from out of town and had a minimum of one to two hour drive each way. Thanks to them for braving it. Among the guests, shown here in this photograph, Lynda Mitchell Reynolds, the Executive Director of the South Simcoe Arts Council, Mike MacEachern, Mayor of New Tecumseth. To learn more about this lovely towship go to http://www.town.newtecumseth.on.ca/

Since I had two years to prepare for the solo exhibition, I was able to create about 6 new pieces.....5 of which were tapestries. Shown here, are two of my most recent pieces which the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners helped in the finishing. These two pieces entitled Chakra 5 and 7 are shown here left to right. The chakras present us with a system to weave together body, mind, heart and spirit. This system of beliefs works well in describing how I choose to live my life and practice my artistic and artisinal endeavours, always trying to keep in balance the various needs we have as humans.
The Gallery at the Gibson Centre is a wonderfully restored historic warehouse. It once was a home to manufacturing agricultural machinery. It has been in the Gibson Family a long time, who make a significant contribution to Alliston's economy. They have a fleet of transport trucks that do much of the hauling for Honda, who also employs a large number of people in the area. The building was donated to the community to host its various social and cultural activities. I liked that it had a cash bar for people which meant I didn't have to be out of pocket for refreshments.

I thank Sharon Robinson and Greg Rodrigo for taking most of the pictures (and videos) of the event. Most of the pictures here are ones that Sharon took. Greg put together an outstanding slide and video presentation of the entire process of the Community Threads project to date. Everyone stopped to look at it and were mesmerized and awed.

What has touched me so profoundly is the positive feedback, praise and support of so many people, of the exhibition and the Community Threads endeavour. Debbie Harris, herself a talented tapestry weaver, couldn't believe that the designs for the tapestries had been done by people who had never painted before. Only two or three people had had a lot of experience painting. The rest were novices.

The weaving guild members continued weaving on the Community Threads tapestries during the reception. Here we see Janet Fayle at the top and Elisabeth Bishof at the bottom. Both of these two women have been working steadily during the entire project thus far.

Here a guest, Michelle Brady, an Art Director in the film industry, tries her hand at tapestry weaving.





Funded in part by the Ontario Arts Council.

Community Threads: Week Eight

It took two days to set up my solo exhibition. Barb Hilts, a well esteemed fibre artist and gallery curator for the Gibson Centre assisted me in hanging all the tapestries and other related fibre work. The show and setting work well together. It would have been a gruelling task to try to set this alone so I am thankful that Barb was able to assist me. I have several new tapestries never before seen in an exhibition for those of you who may be wondering if you've seen them all before.

While we were setting up, these two lovely ladies were preparing lunches for people who came to the eating area of the Gibson Centre. On the left Thelma, a volunteer at the centre and on the right, Audrey Gibson, whose family donated the historic building in which the Gibson Centre is situated.

Also while we were setting up the exhibition, Executive Assistant, Marsha Slack. Each month a ticket is drawn to win $1000.

We continued to mix the colours for the tapestries and we manage to get one full tapestry done each session we get together. From left to right, Elisabeth, Jean, Valerie, Allanah and Nicolas. Nicolas also made up a tapestry butterfly dance which he demonstrated for us! Very cool moves! We should have put on some up beat music. Sharon Robinson, Nicolas' mother was there as well as Chris. They gave us plenty of moral support and gave us some welcome distraction from our tasks. Janet Fayle and Valerie Splaine continued working on creating the cartoons with the overhead projector. Sharon Robinson emailed to say: "Thank you ..... for bringing this whole new exciting and learning project and experience to our community!"

On the last day of setting up my exhibition, Barb helped me to bring the gobelin tapestry loom from the third floor to the main floor exhibition area. This is the loom, shown here, that we are using for our Community Threads tapestries . Here Chris at the right, stands beside Sandi Nemenyi, and beside Sandi, Linda Needles. They, as well as Janet, have taken a real leadership role in this project.
Corrie Parsons is shown here starting on weaving the third tapestry. Elisabeth Bishof continued with it when Corrie was ready to move on.
Elisabeth became totally entranced while tapestry weaving and discovered that she really enjoyed the process.

While I was setting up the exhibition, I met Susan Menzies, who is has been the resident artist at the Gibson Centre for the last three years. She has also worked in animation and enjoys mentoring young people.

Next week Snap magazine will be coming to the Gibson Centre to do a story on the Community Threads project and my tapestry exhibition. Hope you all come out and put yourself in the spotlight for this momentuous occassion.

In closing I'd like to tell you about Sharon Robinson. She takes donations of knitting yarn for the CFFC, (Canadian Food for Children) whose friend, Frankie, is down in Guatemala working with the premie babies while traveling and visiting many clinics sponsored, opened and run by the CFFC. Frankie is a neonatal nurse and teacher at Mount Sinai Hospital and two other Toronto Hospitals. It is her 5th trip to one of the 22 countries that the CFFC assists in donations and medical aid. When Frankie returns from each trip with photos of these beautiful villages where communities living in such poverty and no hope, Sharon and her community get are more motivated to do what they can to help. Mother Teresa's motto inspires them: we can't change the world, but we can bring light and hope. Sharon and her friend Frankie hope to have 3000 baby gift sets and they have already prepared 2030.... these gift sets include a baby blanket, receiving blanket, cloth diapers, plastic diaper pants, pins, hats, booties, socks, face cloth, soap, undershirts and sleepers. All donations are accepted for all sizes of babies, children, adults, medical supplies and art and school supplies, food and dried eggs and flour and cereal etc. The high schools do a soap and salt collection several times a year and the teenagers are remarkable in their dedication to make it as successful as possible.... Any donations can be droppbed off at the Gibson Centre, attention to Sharon Robinson.

Sharon writes: "On behalf of Frankie (who is truly a huge force in helping keep CFFC running) and CFFC we are very thankful and appreciate all the ladies from our guild, who have donated so much beautiful quality materials, fibres and clothing of such excellent quality." Sharon and Frankie are always appreciative of any donations no matter how small or big as it all goes directly to the those we promise to serve and help.

Community Threads: Day 7

The countdown is on. One more week before my solo exhibition Wholeness opens and since the Community Threads project is part of the exhibit and there are a lot of things to get done before. Barb Hilts popped by hoping to chat with me about those exhibition details, alas I had to stay anchored to Alice's Attic to get everything ready for next week. Barb, herself a fibre artist and Gibson Centre gallery curator, must be recognized for her important contribution to this project. She invited me to submit a proposal to the Gibson Centre for an exhibition and then it snowballed from there.
There's nothing like working in a team and today we worked really well together. I think the best kind of art is one that involves lots of other people, with all their gifts and talents that they bring to the table. Actors, singers and even musicians get to experience collaboration with others, but it doesn't often happen for craftspeople and visual artists. For me this is a revitalizing and refreshing way to work together with others to make all of this happen.
Lots of people showed up to lend a helping hand and we don't have pictures of all of those who did show up today. Here Nicolas Rodrigo volunteered to continue working on the cartoons for the tapestries, enlarging the designs into the size of the finished piece. The picture above, from left to right, Corrie Parsons, Nellie Waterson, Jean Kazmierczak and Janet Fayle and I know that Nathalia Smugden also came to help out with finishing my tapestries. Elisabeth Bishof worked on one of the smaller tapestry looms. She said that she enjoys the preparation more than the weaving, but thought she might like to try the tapestry. Dawna Beatty worked on a guild weaving project.
Our main challenge today was figuring out a way to position our cartoons on the gobelin loom so that they would remain attached while weaving. I think it took about 6 of us to devise a method, without making permanent physical adjustments to the loom that is only lent to us. Finally we found a way and we were ready to start weaving. In this photo from left to right, Jada Needles giving a massage to Sandi Nemenyi who is beside Linda Needles. We must thank Linda for taking many of the photographs that we used for the designs of the tapestries. The two people who started the first few rows of the tapestry weaving was Lucy Tavares and Sandi Nemenyi and Sharon Robinson made movies and took pictures of the events as they unfold.

Here, Nada tries her hand at tapestry weaving.

We had many special guests today. Above you saw that Jada Needles joined in on the weaving, but her brother Clark also came along and stayed with us for the day.
Here, the president of the South Simcoe Arts Council tried her hand at weaving on the tapestry and said that she could stay all day. It made her forget about everything else.

We were also very pleased that Angela Drainville, the Executive Director of the Gibson Centre, joined us with her son, Cohen.

Sandi Nemenyi sits with Chris, who was looking longingly at wanting to try her hand at the tapestry weaving. Alas, she broke her arm (or wrist) while out jogging on a trail. Not only that, she fell on it twice on the same jog! Ouch. That had to hurt!

Sandi shows the design she is translating into tapestry.

Linda Needes brought in the Alliston Herald dated August 16 which features a great article and pictures of the project. My scanner isn't working right now but as soon as it is I'll post it on the blog, hopefully in the next few days. Linda Needles spoke to one of the Gibson Centre board members last and they would like to visit and see our progress.Someone from the historical society also approached Linda, said they'd like to come to the Gibson Centre for one of their monthly meetings, possibly in February or so, in order to see the tapestries and hear the story of them. Now that’s community outreach!

Community Threads: Day Six

On the way into set up the Community Threads activities in Alice's Attic at the Gibson Centre, I rode up the elevator with Lynda Mitchell-Reynolds, who I believe is the Executive Director of the South Simcoe Arts Council. She has been very supportive of the Community Threads project and very accommodating. How she gets any work done with us making so much noise is a wonder as her office is very nearby!
Things often don't go as planned and so in those situations one makes adjustments and accommodations to the changing circumstances. We had hoped to continue creating the cartoons for the remaining ten tapestries, alas, the bulbs that Sandi Nemenyi ordered for the overhead projector had not arrived for today. One of the tasks we continued doing this week was matching the yarns with the colors in the paintings, and creating 'butterflies' for the various colour shapes in the design and then coding them for easy access and weaving, sort of like a paint by number idea. Nicolas Rodriogo and his mother Sharon, shown here in this photo, assisted me in this task. We talked about many things together and one of the things that Nicolas and I discussed was mastery when he commented how quickly I was getting the task done. According to Malcolm Gladwell in his book 'Outliers', where he discusses what makes individuals successful, the magic number is 10,000. This is how many hours one needs to be practicing a skill set before one has reached mastery. Then it becomes like breathing....like a second nature.
Because we couldn't continue with the tracing the cartoons with the overhead projector, we focused on other tasks. I am really grateful for all the help doing the finishing work on my own tapestries, that just might be ready in time for the exhibition! I wasn't expecting it but it seems like it might be a real possibility. In tapestry studios of the past, and some current ones, many hands would be working on all stages of the tapesties. So it's a continuation of a historical practice. Helping out at this task today was Nellie Waterman, Valerie Splaine, Betty C, Nathalia Smugden, Sandi Nemenyi, Janet Dryden, Allanah Bishof and Janet Fayle....I think that was it.

The last main task that was accomplished today was getting the headers woven on the tapestry looms. First priority was the gobelin loom which will be featured in the exhibition and will remain for its duration.
Here Corrie Parsons and Lucy Tavares are doing this task. I found out from Libby that the gobelin tapestry loom was lent to us by Elaine Bresselier who hails from Penetang.

Libby Hoffman prepares a smaller tapestry loom. I believe she said it was Dutch and it has the most lovely little metal tapestry fork I've ever seen.

Gayle Wheeler, Elisabeth Bishof and Jean K were also in attendance and assisting us in various ways.

In this photo, myself and Lucy Tavares continuing to work on the headers. At the end of todays session, we are now ready to start weaving the first two tapestries. How exciting!

Day Two Community Threads tapestries

The excitement emanating from the participants and filling the room generated by the Community Threads project has increased exponentially from last week. It was palpable. It is galvanizing weavers, painters, Gibson Centre staff, in a positive, stimulating and creative way. The joy in the room was abundant and I felt so lucky to be a part of this Community Threads project.















So lucky to see transformed before me the participants faces, as their fear about going outside their comfort levels subsided, their self doubts pushed aside, and they joined in the fun. People who were not comfortable in painting last week, joined in this week, bringing paintings they had tried on their own, and joined the others in continuing to create paintings today. People like Flo Thomson (above) who has been in Alliston since 2003 and has lived in Ontario for a number of decades and originally from Newfoundland. Today Flo decided to paint the Obelisk in Alliston, a monument to the founder of Alliston, William Fletcher, 1791-1871.


Lucia Tavares came out today and without reservation jumped in and created a painting towards the project.










Jean Kazmierczak preparing skeins.












Other activities were occurring at the same time. Elizabeth Bishof, Jean Kazmierczak and Nellie Waterson were helping to prepare wool skeins for the dyeing we’ll be doing with Pat Burns Wedland and Barbara Hilts August 6 & 7. The dyed yarn will be then be used in the weaving of the tapestries. Nellie mentioned that the town of New Tecumseh was named in honour of an Shawnee Chief (1768-1813). On line I learned that he fought against white rule, but ended up joining forces with the British in the war of 1812 when they captured Detroit.

Nellie Waterson winding balls from skeins.














Libby Hoffman painted the Gibson trucks, Janet Fayle created a number of landscapes
A few participants braved doing figures....Linda Needles of Scottish dancers, Sandi Nemenyi of a pianist, Mattie Sullivan of hockey players and Allanah Bishof of a female guitarist. All had never tried figures before so they must be commended on taking the risk. Carol Watson, an artist and felter, contributed a winter scene, and will bring in others to contribute to the Community Threads project. Barbara Hilts also got on the painting bandwagon. Barb said she would reserve the gallery for October 2013, when we will hang all 12 tapestries and present the self guided brochure which she will create.

Libby Hoffman












Assembling the Gobelin Loom

Carol Watson, Gayle Wheeler and Dawna Beattie












with chief engineer Mattie Sullivan












The gobelin loom set up.


























Judy Pirone from the Alliston Independent who wants to feature the Community Threads project in the paper and weave the tapestries. Beside her Mattie and Flo.

I applaud all of the participants in going outside their comfort level. It is so endearing to see how very humble everyone is about their own artistic and creative talents. How courageous of them to attempt to paint and to create these paintings which will later be translated into tapestries. Their lack of confidence in their artistic abilities only made for more vibrant, vital paintings. I think these feelings are a very important part of the creative process requiring a vulnerability, uncertainty, receptivity, taking the process of making and creating moment by moment, and being present to the flow of your creative forces.

I am learning so much too about the history and community life of New Tecumseh, the important facts about the community and area that I was entirely unaware of. I am getting to know the people participating in the Community Threads endeavour. Making new connections and new friendships.

To those still in the wings, succumb to your curiosity and come see what is going on. We welcome any contribution you can make to the Community Threads project. Warps to be prepared, skeins to be wound, looms to be dressed. We need someone who would be good at making calls to companies and charitable organizations for their donation, no matter how small. There are still a few things that have to be paid for that are not covered by the grant. Next week we’ll also be collecting all the paintings, and organizing them into the final designs for the tapestries. Come and contribute in some way to creating a lasting legacy for the community of New Tecumseh.

Community Threads tapestries Day One

I was totally impressed with the paintings that were produced by the guild members and guests of the Nottawasaga Handweavers and Spinners, most of whom do not consider themselves artists. I agree wholeheartedly with Picasso who said that everyone is an artist. So many of us have heard so many negative messages about art, about making art, and were well trained to focus our energies and talents into other domains. But if you take a minute to recall your childhood, remember how easily we engaged in the activity of making pictures and how freely we did it. This session was about disconnecting from our critical voices and freeing ourselves to freely make marks on the paper connected to our theme - images that represented community.


People selected mostly photographs they had taken from the the municipality that are representative of the community. Some people also sought out other sources such as magazines and the internet as other themes that represented community were lacking. We've decided to have another painting day next Thursday July 21 10am to 1pm. Eventually these paintings will be translated into designs for 12 tapestries that we hope will hang in different venues in the municipality with an accompanying self guided tour brochures. This suggestion was from Angela Drainville, the Executive Director of the Gibson Centre. She also gave us the title of the project which we felt was very appropriate.

After a brief lesson on design and application of the paints, we got started, hesitantly at first, but before we knew it people were creating amanzing results. Janet Fayle said " I didn't believe I could do it!" When Donna Beatty was done, she said it was ''uplifting" and Allanah Bishof said that painting made her feel good. Mattie Sullivan enjoyed painting with a group and that this was stimulating for her and generated a lot of ideas. She made reference to really being able to get into the 'flow' that happens in painting and being creative. Libby Hoffman was interested in how the painting could apply to her weaving and Gail Sheldon agreed. Painting has many applications for the weaver as a source of colour inspiration for fabric, spinning and dyeing. It will give you ideas about combining colours that you may never have thought of combining before. Valerie wasn't too sure about how she felt about painting but she said she would do it again which is a great sign. In addition, what she was able to produce was remarkable and showed no sign of her uncertainty. Linda Needles felt she'd rather be knitting which, since she was painting madly away, showed what a good sport she is and a team player! Thanks Linda! We had a few experienced painters in the group that joined us as well: Barbara Huson, Carol and Joan (sorry....didn't get last names). Carol and Joan helped some of the novices with the application of paint. We appreciated their input and contribution.


This project is made possible by the generous contribution of the Ontario Arts Council and many volunteer hours and donations.