‘To hold place’ Project
A couple of years ago I took a short online workshop with Debbie Lyddon, a UK textile artist, to make a sculptural textile vessel that would hold a personal treasure. I love her work, her process and her point of view about her art. I found that the idea of a textile piece holding something important to me; that it could be both a figurative and a literal keeper of a ‘place’ and that it could also hold that ‘place’ for me, was a concept that I could not let go of. A one-hour workshop became a much larger project.
I began thinking of places that evoke a visceral response in me. Where was the ‘place’ that allowed me to breathe fully, deeply, completely, and that sustained me and replenished me? I knew immediately: the Canadian west coast includes a temperate rainforest, and open ocean shoreline and an urban center that is that ‘place ‘ for me. I have photographed this ‘place’ over and over.
This set me on a path of creating mixed media and structural textiles pieces that paid homage to each of these areas. The pieces allow me to contemplate and imagine. They allow me to artistically respond to a memory. They hold treasures for me. They tell my stories. And they hopefully hold a place for me in their essence.
This project is evolving all the time. I add and take away from the plinths regularly. They remind me of my favourite places, encourage me to go back often for inspiration and provide a starting point for other art projects
