Last week to see "Fantastic Fungi" at Salmon Arm Art Gallery

What an amazing show, with artist exploring the world of mushrooms!

click here to see info: Fantastic Fungi

If you won’t have time to see this work in person you can go here to see my handmade paper installation all about Irene Mounce a Canadian Mycologist: Mounceae This piece is a culmination of my work at Penland School of Craft papermaking studio and years of learning about natural dyes. The mycorrhizal fungi underneath the book is dyed with wolf lychen and lobster mushroom. I’m grateful to the BC arts Council for supporting me in my papermaking adventures and bringing women’s voices in research of biodiversity forward.

Come and see where the creative magic happens...

Your invited to the shuswap artist collective studio tour May 11th, 11-3. (day before mother’s day)

Address:

This will be the first time I’m opening my home studio to the public for a peek into the life of an artist….

Looking forward to seeing you there!

More to paper than meets the eye...

Pollinators on strike series: How is it made?

There’s still time to visit Lake Country Art Gallery for the exhibition “moral panic, whisper campaigns, wicked problems” on until May 11th, 2024

Pollinators on strike: Attempt for Mars, made at Penland School of Craft in the papermaking studio. On display until May 11th at Lake Country Art Gallery.

My papermaking journey began with hand beating fibers with a stick, standing outside in the snow while I poured pulp onto sheets of plywood and drying paper in front of the fire.

Imagine my excitement to learn the proper techniques at Penland School of Craft. I was so fortunate to spend 6 weeks there learning from a master papermaker from New York. Amy was such a kind and patient teacher!

Papermaking starts with a plant. Cotton, Hemp, Iris, Corn, Kozo and many others. In this picture we are diligently adding flax fibre to the beater. This can take up to an hour or more depending on how well we cooked the fibre ahead of time and many other factors. Beaters are loud yet the time can be meditative and also social.

You really get to know your materials this way

after many hours in the beater (cotton is about 1-2 hours while flax can be up to 8) we add the pulp to a vat and pull paper sheets with a mold and deckle. This is just one way, there’s many other ways…

Hand mixing pigments and creating various coloured pulp

This sheet was formed with a deckle box mixing abaca and flax. Then hand pigmented and washed and embossed with objects for texture.

More random objects to add texture

I’m creating a blowout here with a fogget and stencil (after hand pigmenting the fibres black) This will be “couched” on top of an existing sheet to create the wings.

This has a base layer of abaca and flax, then a blowout stencil of a wing over that with objects for texture. The objects are removed after pressing.

The electric press was so great. I’m used to standing on plywood at home…

close up of “Pollinators on strike: escape from duty” on display at Lake Country Art Gallery until May 11th.

Looking back: Solo exhibition at the Revelstoke Art Gallery, August 2023

The beauty of grief: embracing impermanence

I’ve been thinking about how lucky I am to have had my first solo exhibition at the Revelstoke Art gallery. What a turn out! I had strangers coming up to me and hugging me with tears. I was so moved and felt like all my own years of grief and then pouring myself into creating expressions of grief were making a difference. People were connecting with the art and that’s what feels so gratifying as an artist. You can see their online gallery of the exhibition here: The Beauty of Grief at the Revelstoke art gallery or read on!

All the installations in this show are made of natural materials: hand made paper, natural dyes and fibres. Each piece represents a personal stage of grief I have known.

“Hold on and keep your shit together” 

Family ties and trying to keep all the pieces together can be exhausting. Sometimes it feels impossible to allow yourself to break down. At least not yet. When someone young dies it’s as if there is something left unfinished and yet the needles are left in as a possibility of new attachments. Paper is made with multiple fibers such as iris leaves and hemp, hand dyed with madder, indigo, logwood, weld, lobster mushroom, avocado, oak gall and iron.

“Calm that comes after” 

The sense of peace that came to me after my sister died and the transformation that occurred from anxiety to calm seemed contradictory to expected notions of grief. The thin paper fibres are intended to question how grief appears to be vulnerable and to depict the layers of resiliency that form after a tragedy. I feel the dark layers of bone black pigment made in my fireplace give a feeling of a warm blanket and permission to finally rest.

“Looking for signs”

Trying to see beyond the barrier between life and death is always obscured with mystery. Many people often look for signs after a loss to feel comfort that their loved one is ok. A shape of a cloud or bird call, a dime that appears. Although my family was not religious I found myself looking for hope within any framework I could. I spoke with a Rabi, took meditation classes and turned to oracle cards. My sister passed away on Christmas day and I often find comfort in the warm lights through windows. Handmade paper batiked with beeswax from my own bees, dyed with home made inks from cochineal, weld, indigo and madder.

Brian sweeping up after installation. So many of my pieces have falling off bits of paper and leaves adding to the sense of impermanence

Art takes a team…

“Letting go” 

The journey of attempting to let go can be a long struggle. Feeling the wind and the smell of trees in autumn gives imaginings of new life, repair and growth leading to courage and adventure. I have found that my grief gives me courage to try new things and be bold with creativity. Made of kozo fiber and leaves.

I love how many people were interacting with the installations, getting up close and really sensing the emotions of each piece.

“Swimming in a sea of no one gets it”  

Grief can feel like there is a shadow of yourself interacting in daily life but the rest is sunk. Sometimes people expect you to act and be the same yet you will never be the same. The sea is fragmented so that you feel you are never getting anywhere and that no one understands.Grief can also feel like the bottom of your life has fallen away. After multiple losses there can be a sense that there is no one, yet when looking at the very depths of grief we might find hope such as in the shadows of flying birds or a glimpse of the sun through the clouds.  Made from hemp, kozo and iris fibers, dyed with a banana indigo vat.

“Time expands time contracts while waiting for Godot”

How does time feel when a life fully lived has an end date? What do you do while waiting? My Granny Anne was an artist and draughts person who also grew up in a prisoner of war camp in China. She loved reading and crosswords and listening to the radio. She lost her eyesight and most of her hearing and chose the date of her own death. Time stretched out for eons as she waited, yet for me it seemed time was going too fast. Anne would say “I’m waiting for Godot” referencing the play from the 1940’s, like she’s the central character. When the senses of sight, sound and taste are so dismantled, how is perception of time and the world around us changed? Made from recycled paper, cotton sheets and bone black pigment. Video edited by Sarah. Original source video was recorded several days before Anne died by her care aid Phaedra. 

“Rollercoaster”

For two weeks before my sister passed away there was a wide swing of emotions in the family. Just when we thought we were coming around the corner something would jolt us. One night we were holding vigil by the bedside convinced she would die that night. Eventually everyone went home to sleep but I slept that night in my sister’s hospital room. I was woken by the loud crackling of paper being unwrapped. Rachel was sitting up in bed eating a bar of chocolate. She asked me, “what’s going on? I was having the strangest dreams.” Her husband was inquisitive enough to find out she had accidentally been given ten times too much dilaudid. Rachel held on for two more weeks until Christmas day. Made with recycled paper, bone black pigment, feathers from pillows and plants.

I acknowledge support from The Canada Council for the Arts in help with creation of this project. For more of my work on the stages of grief visit "impermanence and grief" Sarah Hope

If you live in Vernon and have loved ones at Hospice House please take a moment to visit my donated piece “Letting go”

“Letting Go” at Vernon Hospice House near the nurses station

and I wouldn't be where I am without this amazing artist and friend!

Huge major oversight on my last post! I am so grateful for the friendship and partner in art that I’ve had with Sara Wiens over the last few years. She is truly inspiring, kind and passionate about the environment. Together we are spreading the word about the plight of pollinators. Please check out her work at Sara Wiens Art

What pollinators are hidden in this painting?

“Place for the pollinators” but where are the pollinators?

Only 3 more days to visit “The significance of Pollinators” at the Summerland Art Gallery. Show comes down on April 20th. You can visit my virtual gallery of the exhibition here: Virtual gallery after April 20th all pieces for sale on my website

Bees, butterflies, moths, beetles, hummingbirds. They all need places to live.

It started with “A Seat at the Table” in 2019 at the Salmon Arm Art Gallery. An exhibition exploring issues around food security.

As a beekeeper I became aware of my presence affecting the bees. This made me aware of looking for bees within my own backyard and noticed that most of the bees I could see were not mine! I started to think about where do these native bees live? Turns out they love dead standing trees and 70% of them live in holes in the ground.

Me and a frame of honey bees.

I wanted to reflect the fractured nature of our landscapes and also highlight the shapes of their homes in the shapes of my canvas. Here my son and husband are helping me. My head dreams up all kinds of ideas but it’s a group effort to make art a reality.

I often create red raw areas on my hands from pulling canvas. It can be a yoga move just getting the canvas on.

Jig saw hopefully misses my thumb…

The fun part…

Look for this bumble bee on fireweed near the bottom of the painting. The bee panels were painted first back in 2019. They had a spring/summer feel to them.

Look for the metalic green sweat bee in the first panel…Sweat bees love human sweat apparently….

Look for the mason bee up high in the holes of dead standing trees. These mason bees are more effective at pollinating fruit trees than honey bees.

The mourning cloak butterfly loves wild rose. These butterfly panels were painted in 2023 and added to the existing landscape I had started in 2019. These panels have an Autumn feeling to them.

Do you remember popping those white berries on the snowberry bush as a kid? Well check one out in the spring, it’s better than TV! so many different kinds of native pollinators love snowberry (and Oregon grape, willow, goldenrod, wild rose,) This is a checkerspot butterfly who’s babies live on snowberry.

The showy Tiger swallow tail butterfly and its beloved willow….

Matching up the old with the new…Question is what will be the next two panels? beetles? hummingbirds? moths? maybe a night time scene….hmmm. I’m hoping one day to fill a room with these all attaching in one great scene.

Making of the Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

How did this Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly appear on my canvas?

I painted her in the desert in Mexico but I’m not sure they live there. They do however appear in my garden at home in BC, Canada. I was missing my garden. I’ve seen them by the hundreds drinking water by the lake. This one is still available at Summerland Art Gallery until April 20th as she is showcasing her talent as a pollinator at the exhibition “Significance of Pollinators”. Afterwards she will be for sale on my website. 12 x 12 inches 430 can

Having fun adding the shadows and sun coming through the bush I’m sitting under. One way to incorporate experimentation and the moment into my artwork. I wasn’t sure how these areas would play out in the final painting but I feel they gave life to it.

My original drawing on newsprint

Tracing my original drawing onto the canvas which has been prepped with a watercolour ground

Adding layers of watercolour in my makeshift artist studio in our trailer. As a side note these watercolours were my dad’s who died over 7 years ago and I’m still using them after all these years.

Adding more layers of colour

Yay! finished!

Available at Summerland Art Gallery until April 20th: 12 x 12 inches price 430 can

Summerland, Lake Country and Shuswap Artist Collective

Hello Art lovers,

I’m so excited for spring! Life has been busy. Here are some fun art events this spring..

Anna’s Hummingbird, Watercolour, available at Summerland Art Gallery, 8 x 10 Price: 320

“The Significance of Pollinators”

March 16th-April 20th, 2024

The “Two Saras” are at it again! Tomorrow, March 16th at noon is the opening of “The significance of pollinators” at the Summerland Art Gallery with myself and my artist friend Sara Wiens. Sara paints incredible abstract paintings based on the flight patterns of honey bees. There will be refreshments and an artist talk. We had quite the day at the beginning of the week loading the car, stuck in road closures and hanging art. Below is a very sped up version of installing “At home in the wild and messy” a handmade and hand dyed paper installation I created with more than 50 separate pieces on the importance of pollinator’s homes.

Sara Wiens and Sarah Hope

Me and my hummingbirds

I’m also so grateful to be included in the members exhibition at Lake Country Art Gallery with my new works about “Pollinators on Strike”

Pollinators on Strike: Escape from duty, triptych of handmade and hand dyed paper from flax, abaca and linen. made from 3 seperate 16 x 20 panels, price: 2000

close up of one of the panels from above. Flax paper is really tough and durable once it’s dried. This piece was made by beating flax in a Hollander beater for 6-8 hours, hand pulling the sheets, embossing with found objects, and dipping in indigo dye.

Above Artwork by Marcella Moser.

There’s still time to visit The Shuswap Artist Collective exhibition at hOurspace on 4th!

Pollinators on strike: The attempt for Mars, (no paint here!) This piece is fully created from handmade and hand pigmented paper pulp of cotton, linen and abaca. Created at Penland School of Craft during my 6 week residency in their amazing papermaking studio.

Thanks so much to everyone for your support!

Gratitude for my local gallery, Salmon Arm Art Gallery and Happy New Year!

I am so filled with gratitude. My local Art Gallery in Salmon Arm is a gem for visitors and for artists. They are committed to artist careers while presenting contemporary art that is relatable and speaks to the public and our ever changing times. I had the amazing pleasure to participate in two exhibitions in 2023, Le7 Tmicw (Good Earth in Secwepemctsin) curated by Tracy Kutschker and Time|Space curated by guest curator Damen Archer. Both of these exhibitions challenged me and pushed my paper installations past what I could have imagined. My piece “Her voice gives hope for biodiversity” was a deep dive into the research of women being key to the preservation of the natural world. I had no idea how I would relate this. I just started to build and “got out of my own way” so to speak. I created roots and fungi from handmade paper, and found objects (even using old tomato cages I had found in a corner of the garden). This piece reflects on the work of two women, Suzanne Simard from UBC, and Elaine Sedgman from Kamloops, both amazing women who advocate for and elevate biodiversity. It makes connections between forest intelligence and our own human brains as Dr. Simard’s research has uncovered how trees use the exact same neurotransmitters that we do! I also created larger than life underground bee homes to recognize that 70% of bees live underground. This work was definitely one of the hardest things I’ve ever made mostly as it was built on my studio ceiling! (many times up and down ladders) I have just been able to reinstall it back in the studio and it will be on display come spring for studio tours. I’m excited to have people come by to see it.

Lots of help to install!

I shared in my previous letter about the exhibition Time|Space but here’s a recap in pictures in case you missed it: This piece also challenged me as it was my first time doing video overlay and so it took me hours and hours to learn to edit video. This piece reflects on how time feels when someone has chosen their own death date. The video was taken a few days before my Granny died. The paper is handmade from cut up cotton sheets, and painted with hand made bone black pigment.

The Beauty of Grief: Embracing Impermanence

How does grief appear as a pure emotion on the outside of the body? It’s natural to turn away from grief and death yet Sarah has been discovering that there is beauty in both.

Revelstoke Art Gallery August 17th - Sept 10th, 2023

“Roller Coaster stage of grief” opening night

Letting go. paper installation from kozo fiber and leaves

Looking for Signs, beeswax resist from Artist’s own bees and hand made inks on paper

A Place for the Pollinators, Peachland Art Gallery

So excited to be exhibiting with my friend Sara Wiens at the Peachland Art Gallery. Exhibition runs from April 22nd-May 22nd of 2023.

Sewllkwe Exhibition at Salmon Arm Art Gallery

Sewllkwe means water in secwepemctsin. I am exited to be a part of this exhibition of artists exploring the importance of water. The exhibition runs from Nov 4th to Dec 10th, 2022

The Pollinators

I’m so happy to be part of Salmon Arm Art Galleries spring exhibition “The Pollinators”. Opening day tomorrow, April 30th to July 2nd. My work focuses on pollinators homes and the need to keep wild in our gardening and landscaping to provide the homes for beetles, bats, bees, wasps, butterflies and birds.

Close up of At home in the wild and messy, made from hand made papers made with recycled and foraged materials and dyes.

At home in the wild and messy. Hand made papers from recycled and foraged materials and natural dyes

Breaking the binary

I’m grateful to be included in this years pride festival and exhibition “Breaking the Binary” at The Salmon Arm Art Gallery. I’ve met so many amazing caring people and look forward to the future :)

March of the Masks!

Thank you to ACNO for providing opportunities to local artists! The Vernon Community Arts Center offers space for member exhibitions and art studios and classes. This month is “March of the Masks”. I created two small paintings mixing traditional oil paint with my own pigments. These pieces were inspired by my families involvement with “Birds on Parade” with Runaway Moon Theatre. We all learned how to be birds on stilts!

she thought she knew him but then he turned into a yellow headed black bird.jpg
He was surprised to find she had become a great grey.jpg

"Piqw" an exhibition of mini art at the Salmon Arm Arts Center!

Piqw means “to look” in Secwepemctsin. The name was chosen as the title for the Salmon Arm Art Gallery’s latest exhibition of tiny paintings by Knowledge Keeper Louis Thomas. It was fun and challenging creating art that was less than 6 inches in every direction. Below are some paper pieces and watercolors on display. I am so thankful for the Salmon Arm Art Gallery and the amazing work they do.

11ThrownForALoopAtPiqwShow.jpg
12LetGoMiniAtPiqwShow.jpg
hazards of being a redhead.jpg
dancing in the desert.jpg
piqw show with mom.jpg

Artist talks for Dust to Dust!

If you would like to know more about my work on death and grieving for the exhibition Dust to Dust you can watch the artist talks here: thank you so much to all the artists and curator Kate Fagervik