Mask Making

 With a heavy heart my most recent preoccupation is finding a good pattern to make masks.  These times are very challenging and as friends have pointed out, it is easy to be a good person in good, easy times, but much harder to stay on track during times such as these.

I resisted this activity for some time.  It seemed to me silly to make masks when I knew that I didn't really know how to make an effective mask, and I didn't want to be involved in a make work project.  But, as the time has gone on, and the news continued to be so disheartening, I 'pivoted' my thinking.  Now I am feeling that at least this is something that I can do.  It is so important to feel productive.

In my first few days of isolation at home, I couldn't focus on any activity.  I couldn't even walk into my sewing area.  I was restless and sad.  Making masks has given me the opportunity to use the skills and materials I have, to feel productive again, to have a focus.  For that I am grateful.  I am also grateful that I am in a position to do this. I am healthy, strong, have food in my beautiful home, and have the social supports through all the media at my finger tips.  This is a challenging time, but not nearly as challenging for me as for others.  I will continue to make masks until the day (hopefully soon) that they are no longer needed.  

On the Cover!

Just received the latest copy of PRESENCE which is "an international journal of spiritual direction".  This is vol.25, No.4 dated December 2019.  I am thinking that this is justifiable match for my work.  Although it wasn't my intention when I created this piece, whenever it has been exhibited the feedback I get is that it feels very biblical.  People have referenced different bible scenes, and even different bibles but it is the most common comment I receive.  It gives me pleasure to know that the editor also felt that it has a spiritual quality.  Although I am forever questioning the role that traditional religious practices play in finding peace, I do pursue a journey of inner spiritual peace and am happy to know that this is reflected in my creations.

Schweinfurth Art Center

On the Path II

An image of me with my work that had been juried into the prestigious Schweinfurth Art Center show in Auburn, New York this spring.  I certainly can tell how uncomfortable I am posing (and I am sure you can too) but apparently this is what is done since many artists around me at the opening were doing the same thing.  I have never been comfortable having my picture taken.  This evening was no exception.  

However there was great buzz in the gallery and it was a wonderful show.  An honour to be part of it.

This is a photo taken that evening that includes the entire piece.  If you recognize it as similar to my work that had been presented in Washington at the SAQA show, you would be correct.  I reworked the piece to include the suggestion of landscape and in so doing, I created a more solid shape. This is why I entitled it "On the Path II" .  I am not convinced that this was an improvement.  I think the floating figures without an obvious path left more to the imagination.  However, the first version was very complicated to photograph and to present.  In this version the exterior shape is very specific and so begs the viewer to understand why the shape is as it is.  

The bottom line for me is that it is all good learning, as I am on my path of learning and creating and learning and......

Wont You Come Sit by Me

                              Wont You Come Sit by Me 

12" x 9.5"

This work began with a photo of my dear father (now departed) in a very rare moment of repose.  My parents bought a piece of land when I was very young, in the woods, on a plateau on the side of a mountain in the Laurentions in the province of Quebec, Canada.  This may sound very 'la di da' but it actually was, and still is, a very basic, underdeveloped, part of the world where the lakes are all still quite clean and alive with frogs and fish, where you will still see a heron sweep in for a feed, and the loons call to their loves.  In other words, a nature paradise.  Eventually my parents had young Freddie build a small log cabin for us on the plateau.  Freddie decided where to dig for the well tromping through the woods with a divining rod.  Sure enough, we dug and found our water source.

Throughout the years, my family has always spent a significant part of our summers there as has the next generation. ....

                 Detail

Ahh, you ask, all very interesting, but what about this photo?  Well, my father was a man who wouldn't spend a dime he didn't feel was necessary and would rather spend hours in the basement fashioning a hook and eye for a door out of old wire than buy one.  So, he always had projects.  He also prefered his quiet pursuits than the rambunctiousness of the family antics.  So it was very unusual to see him sitting in a lounge chair like this, outside, just hanging out in his Tilley hat.  I suppose thats why I took the photo.

Stitching detail

I would like to think that he was sitting here watching his grandchildren run around the cottage, enjoying the sun on his face, and feeling the joy that this piece of paradise brought to all of us.

Detail of Tree

The work was done with free motion stitchery, on dyed and painted fabric.

Detail

The figure was free-motion stitched using a water-soluble stabilizer under silk organza.

Best Friends

Best Friends 

22.5" wide x 27" high
This work began with a very successful photograph I took of two happy children of a Bushman tribe in Tanzania.  We were privileged to be invited into their world for a visit.  My son was invited to go on a hunt with the young men, was given a bow and arrow and invited into the fire circle that was the preparation ceremony for the hunt.  I stayed back to play with the women and children and encouraged them to see themselves (probably for the first time) through the lens of my camera.  It was an unforgettable experience.

detail.  This work, as always, begins with white PFD cotton.  It has been dyed, printed and stitched.

Detail of printed work with stitching.

This is a detail of the photograph, gotta love the joy!

Detail of hair stitching

This work will be on Display at the Propeller Gallery.  Show Opening tonight:  Reality Vanishing In Plain Sight: A Curated Show of Altered Images

upcoming show

UPCOMING EXHIBITION

Reality Vanishing In Plain Sight A Curated Show of Altered Images October 2 — 20, 2019 ​Opening Reception: Thursday, October 3, 6-9 p.m.​ West Queen West Art Crawl: Thursday, October 10, 7-10 p.m. Meet the Artists: Sunday, October 20, 2-5 p.m.

Kaleidoscope Of Lives Once Lived, David Brandy (February 2015, Archival Pigment Print, 28"h x 42"w)

Selected from a Call for Submissions for photographs that make use of the altered or fabricated image Reality Vanishing In Plain Sight presents 24 artists exploring strategies of appropriation and manipulation to create revealing new images in a broad array of mediums. Curated by Peter Friedrichsen, Tom Taylor, and Jack Wayne.  Exhibiting Artists:  Valerie Ashton, Christopher Bradd, David Brandy, Melanie Chikofsky, Kathleen Clayton, Ulla Djelweh, Matthew Grimm, Brian Groberman, Shelagh Howard, Laura Kay Keeling, Robin Kingsburgh, Andrew Lennox, Michelle Letarte, Joann Maplesden, Rafaela Oliveira, Frances Patella, Alejandro Rizzo Nervo, Mike Steinhauer, Rennie Taylor, Daniela Tiger, Andres Vosu, Shelley Wildeman, Ross Williams, and Lingxiang Wu. So excited that two of my pieces have been chosen for this show:   "Best Friends"  and  "A Helping Hand".   If you are able, I would love to see you at the Opening of the show on Thursday, October 3rd at 6 pm.

A Helping Hand

A Helping Hand

14" x 15"

This work began with a photograph I took of siblings who were part of a blacksmith family of the Datoga tribe in Tanzania. We had a fascinatingly wonderful visit with this warm and welcoming family.  The patriarch had 3 wives; one had just given birth, and another was pregnant during our visit.  He was a very jolly man, laughing and joking with all his children while he worked over the fire, bending found metal into little arrows for the local bushmen, and bracelets for visitors.  He held the metal pieces with both his toes and his fingers with equal skill.   He supervised his son whom I had asked to create a bracelet for me, and I wear it still.

a detail of the portraits

background detail which began with multiple surface dying techniques. 
The tree was an embellishment with free motion stitchery.

another detail highlighting colour and free motion stitches.