Sea States

 

Recently, I heard blue water sailors discussing sea states. I was intrigued by the term and investigated the Beaufort scale. I love the idea of the sea having a recognized state of being. Water movements, air movements and waves in varying degrees of calm and violence. A beautiful and ancient metaphor for our psychological states, based our own continuously shifting conditions. 

 Katia Mokeyeva and I have a shared exhibition at Timeless Textiles in Newcastle, Australia in March 2016. In our conversations around this exhibition, Sea States presented it self as the perfect theme. We both live and create on the Pacific Ocean, but in very different coastal environments. Our collaborative felt collection will be exhibited on another part of the Pacific. A clear artistic narrative developed out of this geographic triangle; one that explores this common relationship with the sea, and its states of being. Sea states refer to the overall condition of a large body of water—with respect to wind, swell and current—at a particular moment and location. Each sea state offers a beautiful metaphor for our own personal, overall condition, and an excellent platform for exploration in surface design through feltmaking. It's a very exciting project. 

 And it has to start somewhere! For me the long process of building a new exhibition collection begins with this dress. A transition piece from the SHIFT exhibition 2015 to the Sea State exhibition 2016. 

   

A long dark steely grey layout...itself like a great sea swell. The darkness is so atmospheric...like a wintery sea, under overcast skies.

  
Texture is absolutely key to this piece, so to add more dimension I shibori dyed some of the silk organza that would become the wave forms. 

 

The beauty in creating work for exhibition is the opportunity to take time, and work with complex surfaces, in ways that are hard to justify with more everyday felt works. 

 

Slowly and gradually, I built up the wave forms. Each one requires gentle and patient hand work to create the connections of the organza waves to the felt base. This slow time is perfect for thinking/sinking/diving deeply into the theme. What it means for this piece and where I might go with it in the next work.  

 The finished shift dress has many layers; transparencies through overlapping crests high above the surface. 

 

Rachel is my most wonderful model. She is always calm and elegant, impossible to fluster. She keeps her internal sea state at about 1! 

What you don't often see in any of our photo shoots is what is happening on the edges. This photo shoot included a family picnic at the beach....and while Rachel settled into her demure sea state beautifully, there was a lot of action around her....Sea state here is a perfect metaphor for how we hold ourselves as parents...our internal composition while surrounded by blustery winds and strong currents! 

 

The uncropped pictures. I just had to share these with you...this is real life! The ebb to the flow in the thoughtful, reflective felting time in the studio!

  

The dress holds upright the dimensional scupltural forms. They wash over and around the dress like a great wave....And then, once underwater, the wave forms take on a whole new aquatic life...like waving bull kelp... 

 "Kelp’s survival depends on flexibility and extensibility. Each alga can grow up to 20 to 45 m (22 to 49 yd) long and consists of a holdfast, stipe, float, and fronds. The holdfast uses a flexible network of root-like haptera or anchors to attach the kelp to the ocean floor. By being flexible, the haptera allow the kelp’s base to rotate slightly, thus providing some protection from the high torque created by waves." (Biomimicry Guild Report) 

We all need this kind of anchor, and flexibility. 


 

Now, whenever I look out at the water, I try and determine the current sea state. A new way of viewing a familiar environment. I would say this dress has a sea state of 3. There are much more wild conditions to come .....

    

Respiration: an Outdoor Felt Installation

One of my big summer projects is an outdoor felt installation created for the juried exhibition LandArt @ ArtCraft.

I have been fascinated with Land Art for many years, and allowed the whisperings of a felt installation to roam around in my imagination...When the call for entry for this exhibition came up, I knew exactly what my proposal would be...I was juried into the show, but given a different location to the one on which I had based my proposal. I didn't think much of this until many months later when I was ready to approach this new work, and started to spend time in the space. My original idea just did not respond to the environment.   So I visted regularly, observing and sketching and thinking...until the new work presented itself. (I will tell you sometime about the original idea, as I still plan to make it and present it in a different location this summer!)
 

In Land Art I see two distinct relationships. The artist meets the site and responds to it's characteristics, developing a relationship and then a concept for that space.  And then the artwork meets the site,  and it too responds to it's characteristics. How will the artwork react with the changing seasons, weather patterns, growth of plant material, animal behavior, movement of the light, and wind? There are so many components to be aware of  and potentially respond to. It is a very exciting and dynamic "gallery"!
  It has been a fascinating process,  immersing oneself in the space, observing it's seasonal nuances: the light, the wind, the foliage, the earth...

 In the late spring when I saw the strong leaf patterns, emerging on the trees, I knew this would be the right form for this work. A collection of felt leaves, connecting the trees with the earth, filling in the air in between. When we started the installation, I was amazed to see the leaves moving in the breezes, coming up from the harbour. I had no idea until that moment that there would be a kinetic aspect to the work. But it is perfect. The air movements change the relationship each leaf has with the sunlight, illuminating the surface patterns in new ways, with each viewing.

 My artist statement on the work sums up where my planning went within the space... 

As an environmental art sculpture, Respiration relates to air and light. The soft, wool felt forms stand in relationship with the strong vertical lines of the trees, grasses and plants within the garden.  The white felt leaves have delicate surface textures, telling a story of  movement; of air currents and rhythm. As the sun moves, the felt leaves are backlit and illuminated, showing their patterns with different intensities, casting shadows and being cast upon by shadows of the surrounding foliage. Air movements catch the leaves, changing their relationship with the light and the viewpoint of the observer.  Respiration is constructed in natural, untreated, white wool and bamboo, primarily from local sources.

Respiration: the act of breathing, the conversion of oxygen (air) into energy....we do it...the leaves do it...The leaves have an inbreath and outbreath, an empty side and a full side depending on the position of the sun. They catch the breath of the wind and move and change... 

 I've been making and installing one or two leaves everyday. This continues my relationship with the space. Everyday I visit, and change it a little...changing the space, and also adding to my vision of the sculptural work, as it grows.  The last pieces go up tomorrow and the exhibition opens on June 26th. 

If you re in the area, I hope you can join us for the opening!

LandArt @ ArtCraft
June 26 – September 20 2015


Mahon Hall 114 Rainbow Rd, Salt Spring Island, BC

Opening w/ Artists on Site: June 26     5:30-7:00pm

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

SHIFT travels to Vancouver

‘SHIFT’ includes oil paintings by visual artist Barbra Edwards and sculptural feltmaking by fibre artist Fiona Duthie. Both artists use local, natural materials and subject matter in their work with a focus on texture, layers, and colour relationships. Although the artists feel a deep artistic connection, their works are produced autonomously in their respective studios on separate Gulf Islands. In bringing their pieces together, the artists invite the viewer to draw connections between the works and notice their mutual perspectives.

Barbra Edwards’ paintings use dialogue between form and line to interpret her view of the environment on a cellular level. She explores sense of place and how each of us sees things from our own perspective. Edwards cites the natural environment as a major influence on her artwork, and her new series is textured, with vibrant colours surrounded by calm, atmospheric space. She lives and paints on Pender Island.

Fiona Duthie‘s sculptural felt garments employ geological surfaces created through fabric manipulation, stratified textiles and mapping imagery to explore biography and individual perspective. There is a sense of movement in each piece, inferring a geographical, emotional or mental shift. Fiona Duthie is an internationally recognized feltmaker known for her dynamic sculptural clothing and fibre artwork. Felting since 1996, Duthie has a full-time studio practice based on Salt Spring Island.

July 8 – August 8, 2015 Artist talks: Sunday July 12, 2 p.m. Reception: Sunday July 12, 3 p.m.

Seymour Art Gallery 

www.seymourartgallery.com

North Vancouver, BC

Peaks & Valleys :: Surface Design Online Exhibition

This is a very special project. The first online exhibition of the Surface Design Online Challenge.

The Surface Design Online program is all about experimentation and pushing yourself further into techniques, whether they are new to you, or familiar friends.  I created this challenge and exhibition to continue this exploration with participants from the previous classes.

There is nothing like an exhibition with it's deadlines and parameters to make us stretch our creative thinking. This is  about pushing ourselves to create beyond our usual scope. Challenging ourselves to make something better or different than we have before...work in a new direction, a new scale, take techniques further, shake up our creative practices. Hit a few walls...and break through them.  This stretching is how we all grow as artists....

This is the challenge that was set for the participants in this years exhibition:

Peaks and Valleys. Mountains and Plains, Crests and Troughs. Highs and Lows.....we have all experienced them, whether geographically or emotionally....and creatively!  What could be a more appropriate theme in dimensional surface design than this! Explore the theme as literally or metaphorically as you wish.

And they did. And did so exceptionally...  All from very different levels of experience and creative backgrounds....all employing techniques from the class, but creating work that is completely personal and individual. I think they are all brilliant!

Please do come by and take a look, read their words on how they interpreted the challenge, and share in our enthusiasm and passion for this medium.

Peaks & Valleys :: Surface Design Online Exhibition

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Note: We will do this again next year, and the exhibition is open to everyone who has taken, or is currently taking the Surface Design Online class.

Starting in balance....

The Valhallas- the view from our cabin....

In my book of everything (my special black book that some of you will know!) this year is looking just fantastic, and got off to a wonderful beginning with some quiet personal time in a most beautiful place. The Valhalla Ranges in British Columbia. (I honestly did not appreciate the name of the place in looking for a perfect retreat until writing this!).  
 

Our cabin in the woods...I'm in the middle- almost a head shorter than my youngest two boys!

 My family was in need of some snow time, so we headed up into the mountains where we had rented a log cabin in the woods looking out over gorgeous lake towards snow topped mountains. Idyllic. Quiet. Peaceful. Restorative...as were the natural hot springs we visited in the area...within our creative practises we need some soul nourishment....inspiration that has nothing to do directly with art, craft and design.

I've been working non-stop since returning on my sculptural pieces for my upcoming solo exhibition in Vancouver next month.  More pictures and blog posts of this will come in the next few weeks! It's coming together...at least I tell myself that and believe it (a little) having worked on a few exhibitions now...it feels very tenuous at the moment, but I recognize this as part of the process and normal for this stage.

And I gave an artist talk and workshop to the Victoria Weavers and Spinners Guild this past weekend. They are a vibrant, rich group. It was truly an honour to be invited. They have such full life experiences and a wealth of knowledge and skill in the fibre arts that is deeply humbling and inspiring to be around.

The workshop was in a beautiful space. Lots of light, and a great group of women willing to laugh, explore, get excited about new techniques! It is so energising and enlightening to teach these workshops. I love it.

Hi Leola! She is a dear friend, and I'm looking forward to visiting her in her studio this spring....

A great start to the new year with a trinity in balance that I hope will continue as a theme through 2015. Some time in the natural world, relaxing, dreaming, thinking, breathing (heart); some personal art development time (hands), and some teaching and demonstrating (head).  Each one feeds me in different but equally important ways.  If I can keep the the ratios right, I hope to move through this year in a much more healthy way than the last two.  It feels like a promising start!

Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Terra Textures-Surface Design in Felt Workshops

 Katia Mokeyeva and I are absolutely delighted to announce a workshop series to be offered this April at the Okanagan School of the Arts in Penticton, BC.

 The idea is to create a mix and match workshop combination where students can chose an assortment of classes, learn very different felting styles from two enthusiastic, supportive teachers, while creating a complimentary collection of felt wearables. We work from a similar starting point...nature as our inspiration and the space that feeds our creative spirits....and from this core, we then work quite differently in every way...in design, layout and felting process....but both with an emphasis on surface design.   We will both be offering  two  x one day accessory classes, plus a three day garment class on the weekend.

The Okanagan School of the Arts at the Shatford Centre in Penticton is a perfect location for our workshops. Lots of room and a very supportive space, in a beautiful natural setting. Lake, mountains, orchards in bloom, vineyards...it's quite idyllic....


Full workshop information and registration through the Okanagan School of the Arts will be available On December 15th, 2015. I'll send you the links when that happens.

It really is very exciting! 



Warm wishes, 
Fiona



 

Online Felting Workshops: Spring 2015

  Registration is now open for the four online felting classes I'll be offering in Spring 2015.

 The Surface Design Online class has gotten bigger every time I've offered it....there is always just one more idea that comes up, related to the materials. Because of this and student feedback from the Fall sessions, I've extended the class to be 8 weeks long. We have two built in studio weeks. These are break weeks, for you to catch up on the previous two weeks worth of materials, or to implement these new techniques in a project. I think it will be a wonderful addition. A comfortable sense of community builds up in the classroom, and having a few more weeks together will be great.

Felt Bags Online remains the same, covering everything you need to know to make a great seamless bag. These can be any style- open market bag, messenger style with flaps, or more sculptural.

  Felt illuminated Online will take a different format this Spring. It will be released over three weeks, with week one covering wool breeds and surface techniques for great illumination, week two covers drum, bell and empire style lampshades, and week three covers ball styles as well as more unusual lampshades.  There are two different methods for resist construction and layout, in order to create your perfect light!

Felt Jewelry Online will be available this Spring! It is also taking a different format and will now be a four week class, with each week covering a different basic aspect of feltmaking; flat felt, cords, beads and balls.... The felt jewelry class is best suited to beginning feltmakers or intermediate feltmakers looking for a light and pleasurable class..  

For full information on each class, and to register, please click on the images above.
I love teaching feltmaking...and this online format has been wonderful to be able to connect with feltmakers all over the world. I hope you'll join us in February!
 
Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Okanagan School of the Arts Workshops 1

  I have been working in one version of my most perfect place... there are several variations on this... but this is definitely a good one. The Okanagan is beautiful. And home to Canada's best wines, including some amazing reds. I'm staying on the Naramata bench, right on the KVR walking trail, in a vineyard... overlooking the lake.... with fine sunrises and sunsets. It is heavenly...and that is just my mornings and evenings.

  All day I spend at the Shatford Centre, home of the Okanagan School of the Arts. Some days I am teaching... and then others I am there as Artist in Residence. I'm using this time to tidy up some old work, refine my plans and goals for 2015/2016 and then start to enter into the mindspace for my upcoming exhibition in February. It is a wonderful world! Even with a separate studio space at home, and older children now, who are pretty self-sufficient, it is still a unique experience to go to a different space and focus. I think that is the key....to have clear goals to work towards in this special time set aside....with some breathing spaces allowed for...of course...and a fine glass of local red wine.

  This weekend was a three day session on Joomchi Feltmaking. We had a small class, due to a few cancellations, so I had the opportunity to make my own piece as a demonstration. With experienced feltmakers in the class, we delved deeper into perfect fit in garment construction and with a focus on lots of surfaces and composition techniques. 
All of the pieces were beautiful and perfect for their individual wearer and creator...

 

  And my own, red study....working with a single colour to really highlight the textures in the piece.

   This is first class I have taught in years that was not full. It was a tiny ego hit...being honest with you... but not for long...this smaller class size opened up opportunity to go much farther with my students and create something alongside them. We had more time for discussion and even a short "felt clinic" looking at past projects and tips for improving each work. It was a great gift of space and time.... These were three calm, creative, wonderful days, in an incredible setting and facility. It was pure pleasure.

And there are still 4 more days to go....
Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Hegira: A SHIFT dress

 
Hegira

He·gi·ra

hiˈjīrə,ˈhejərə/ : any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place. 

Usually an exodus or migration.  C16: from Medieval Latin, from Arabic hijrah: emigration or flight

This is the sisterdress to Migration.  I wanted to take the wishbone sculptural elements and use them in larger, more transparent forms.  An individual path compared to that of the many in Migration.

  Hegira was a watery dress from the very beginning. The large sheer panel in the middle of the dress, both front and back, illustrates a journey, broken at times, and coming from or starting with a fork or confluence...Rivers with portages, canals with locks, seas with storms...this was created with layers of silk gauze, with resists to prevent the one superfine merino wool layer from obscuring the path.  This dress is lighter than light.

 

  Different materials mirror the motif; resists, 3-D sculptural elements and silk organza.  The journey can look different but we can arrive in the same place....some are more obvious than others...The forms are like tracks...not continuous...they would take great observation and patience to find and follow.

  This dress was dyed on a full moon dyeing day this summer, which makes it feel just right to tell it's story on another full moon indigo dyeing day today. It is always a wonder-filled to experience to pull the textiles from the indigo vats...

  Hegira had many dips into the indigo vat....developing an intense deep blue...
I added pathways of stitches...but I think there are still more to come ....

  This dress looked wonderful exhibited as a scuplture, but it's story feels even more complete when shown worn on our beautiful island....reflecting the journey by water we all take to get here...

  How can I resist adding more pictures...so beautiful....shades of indigo captured by Amy Melious...(and the model's name is Indigo also)...created and engaged with water...and the moon and some ocean stars....

  Hegira....the lightest definition of this word sums up this process...a journey to a more congenial place....
Warm wishes, 
Fiona

Rift : A SHIFT dress

  The layouts in this series of dress sculptures were so complex. There were often multiple layers of resists, or else multiple layers of patterning. The designs had to be thought through in that reverse thinking way required when working with resists, and also with transparencies, opacities, and inclusions.  My brain was burning with keeping it all held in order to get to the end result. Thinking through on what will show on which side of the garment and where, and what will happen if it is overdyed. Where would each design element fall on the body when shaped into the 3 dimensional and worn. Left and right, front and back, inside and outside....all parts were relevant...all at one time. 

 

 The lightest layers of wool roving made me think of skin tissue healing. So relevant to this dress full of (beautiful) scars and my intentions. 

   This dress is made of shadowy shards. Like flakes of obsidian. But cradled within a softer surface....Black and white forming shades of grey over time.  Geology is just so prominent in many of the SHIFT dresses. This piece has elements of all rock formations, sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic; tectonic shifting, escarpments...  It is hard, sharp and cut, but softened around the edges in overall dress form, like a tumbled stone.  Geode like inclusions; seams of precious earth....scars, dreams, wishes...life in general. Not simple.
 They are pushed up and out of the base textile; carved and twisted through the fulling.  Complicated, (if you chose to think about it) like the shadowy base.

  This dress is sinuous and feminine on the wearer, and full of tactile metaphors.  I like that it can be just a beautiful dress, and can also hang as a sculptural form filled with intention.  

  The techniques used in this piece will be part of the Fall felting retreat in Quebec this October. I'm trying to get the details posted about this as soon as possible....there's lots going on right now...lots of big events vying for my attention...but this is up next! 

  It's not all serious thoughts and introspection! I've got lots of plant dyeing lined up for the next few days...some summer lightness...warmth, sunshine and flowers; folly and experimentation!
Warm wishes, 
Fiona