Quest Art's 2019 Innovations Juried High Craft Exhibition

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Traditional books have text and images printed on paper and enclosed in a cover. I make books that depart from this form in structure and materials. I use stitch, stains, found objects, recycled papers, and manipulated digital imagery. I was weaned on space opera like Dr. Who and Star Trek. These two books speak to a fascination with maps, charts and tales of exploration of new worlds. They map a cosmos, or Small Universe that may be past or future. The Small Universe could be imagined or real, but it is certainly a mysterious place that demands further exploration.

Dimensions: 18 x 18 x 5

100 word Artist Statement about the work: This grouping of the Series 7 Turnings consists of three pillars turned on a lathe from a single beam of Canadian douglas fir. The three turnings measure 48”, 66” and 78” tall and they are all 7 ½” in diameter. They are finished with an ebony dye and black wax and mounted on steel bases. The turnings are designed to be shown in a cluster. Together hey become a ‘family’: souls, guardians, markers of life and human presence. They look upon us without judgement, but in their seeing, we exist.

Dimensions: 198 x 19 x 19

100 word Artist Statement about the work: I have a llife long habit of collecting and filling up knick knack shelves with all sorts of odd miniature things. Each little shelf offers up its own little narrative. It seemed like a logical next step to use this format to present a narrative for my work. "An infinite Amount" is a series of vignettes which refer to personal thoughts, and experiences. They are all over the place. Some are random thoughts and events, others are intense, profound, and of great significance. They are like a diary, therefore, the images are intentionally encrypted to retain an element of privacy.

Dimensions: 90 x 60 x 8

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Bowl Materials: Black Chlorite with Italian White Alabaster strips; Walnut Oil; Stand Materials: Gabon Ebony, Hard Maple; Epoxy and Wood Glues; Walnut Oil,

Dimensions: 92 x 33 x 61

100 word Artist Statement about the work: I am interested in exploring memory through depicting both the brief, almost ephemeral, nature of experiencing a major weather event and the telling, and re-telling, of the sighting. As well as major storms, a part of our narratives are the mundane, the every day weather that we reflect on, or revel in. In all my work, although each work takes months to finish, the process is spontaneous. I visualize, conceptually, the finished work but do not make any preliminary drawings. The compositions develop organically from my title, the fabric and my process of selecting, cutting, assembling, and overstitching

Dimensions: 170 x 132 x 2

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Every time I worked on this leaf green piece I felt as if sheltered by a tree. The small repetitive movements of my hands as they made the marks calmed me during a whirl of personal and world events. A worry cloth, it is stitched with green and red marks that add interest, weight and texture. Most of the stitches that I added were eventually folded into tucks and although the marks are still there, they are hiding. With my work, I strive to express our emotional and vulnerable inner world. I believe this is what art does best.

Dimensions: 75 x 57 x 1.5

Dimensions: 147 x 106 x 2.5

100 word Artist Statement about the work: My work is primarily socially focused, on a variety of themes. It is important to me to use my work to ‘shine a light in dark corners’ – to highlight issues that I feel require discussion and attention. I do this via symbolism, use of media, and sometimes humor. My influences are current affairs and history, as it relates to my community. Excellence in craft and beauty are important to me when making objects – it is my opinion that beautiful objects tend to draw in the viewer at which point they can then explore the topic at hand more completely.

Dimensions: 190 x 83 x 56

100 word Artist Statement about the work: Shoulder or neck collar to be worn for warmth and/or as a fashion statement. Wet felted, some needle felting, with the base from merino roving and long curls from the Leicester Long Wool sheep and short curls from the Teasdale Sheep. The collar was wet felted using wool from its natural state with no dyes involved ending in a result of different variation of the colour white. No sewing took place which allowed for the wool to help dictate its shape.

Dimensions: 14 x 22 x 1.5

Dimensions: 21 x 10

100 word Artist Statement about the work: These two works are results of my ongoing research in pillow and gourd forms. The pillow piece was created in Japan during a two-month residency program at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park and completed in Brandon after I returned. The gourd piece was constructed using locally sourced clay from Brandon, Manitoba. My ceramic works focus on small-scale sculpture which explores the soft qualities of clay and large scale installations using universal symbols and subjects that are closely related to the human body. Making objects is making meanings. We confer meanings on materials and objects by merging them with our history and personal psychological world. By doing this we unconsciously establish an invisible connection between the objects and our personal experience.

Dimensions: 15 x 33 x 23

100 word Artist Statement about the work: These two works are results of my ongoing research in pillow and gourd forms. The pillow piece was created in Japan during a two-month residency program at the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park and completed in Brandon after I returned. The gourd piece was constructed using locally sourced clay from Brandon, Manitoba. My ceramic works focus on small-scale sculpture which explores the soft qualities of clay and large scale installations using universal symbols and subjects that are closely related to the human body. Making objects is making meanings. We confer meanings on materials and objects by merging them with our history and personal psychological world. By doing this we unconsciously establish an invisible connection between the objects and our personal experience.

Dimensions: 45 x 19 x 19

100 word Artist Statement about the work: City Living tackles over-population and urban sprawl. As the human population grows, so does our need for more spaces for us to inhabit. This need for constant growth has created an ever changing city skyline. This growth, though advantageous to the human population is detrimental to the natural world as our development means its reduction.

Dimensions: 42.5 x 9.5

Dimensions: 150 x 120

Dimensions: 120 x 60 x 2

100 word Artist Statement about the work: My medium is traditional rug hooking. It becomes contemporary through the choice of my materials: papers of different kinds. Loop by loop, I build a surface and a story. My current interest is in domesticity: the recurring domestic work that keeps a family and household functioning. The repetition of tasks resembles the repetition of the loops. Over and over the same actions yield a surface, a pattern. These tasks, over time, create a structure onto which lives are lived. Nothing is as it seems. The surface betrays the depth of the issue.

Dimensions: 183 x 86 x 4

Dimensions: 11 x 26 x 26