World of threads Festival

I found a great website to the world of threads festival which takes place in toronto and oakville Ontario. The festival will be taking place in December which i am hoping to get to on my christmas break but this website has many great resources to amazing textile artist with awesome interviews.

http://www.worldofthreadsfestival.com/artist_interviews_menu.html

Sprang

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2pcDEnN3Jk

So i learned of this technique while i was researching for my final project and my theme being interaction with nature. As i was initially intending on using wool and felt as my medium i soon found out that there was so much more i should start exploring. I started with researching numerous textile artists and just getting a sense of what possibilities were out there. I came across Edith Meusnier. She is a French textile artist and environmental artist. She makes the most beautiful installation pieces in nature.  playing with light and illusion outside. Her art is apart of the landscape.

Now going back to the technique of sprang, which is an almost forgotten form of textile technique she uses this technique in many of her pieces. Sprang is originally from Denmark and as noted in the video the first known piece of textile found in Europe was in fact a sprang textile. And the material which she has become fascinated with is gift ribbon. Instantly her art caught my eye and her process and concept was similar i decided to try to make a sprang piece i tried wool, and string, and even tried gift ribbon. I still need a little more guidance with the technique but it really is an interesting technique which i think i will explore deeper.

Quilt and Sketch book

 So i have finally started my quilt and i have the top of the blanket complete at the moment. As for the process of the quilt... i wanted to make something simple just to learn the process and kinda teach myself through it not having to worry too much when i make a million mistakes. first problem i made for myself was not cutting the rectangles equally. i used the rotary cutter for the last few rows but hadnt done the same for the first 5. in the end i managed to fit them together but i learned my lesson and how to save my time next time. im will be hopefully completed on the christmas break.

these are just the other sketches from my book to add to my blog sketchbook.

Joseph Beuys

A German Fluxus, Happening and performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist and theorist. Working with concepts of humanism, social philospophy and anthroposophy. Themes of definition of art, social sculpture. 

He is now considered on of the most influential artists of the 20th century.

beginning his military training as a radio aircraft operator he attended zoology and biology at the university on Posen and this is when he began to seriously consider his artist career. after serving in the war and receiving many injuries in the field he finally returned to kleve where he was born and met a local sculptor Walter Brüx and painter Hanns Lamers who encouraged him to become a full time artist. He joined the Düsseldorf Acaademy of Fine Arts. After his masters he was in small shows showing his drawing mostly.

My favourite piece is "America likes me and i like America" is really interesting how he puts himself in danger and never does touch the ground in america. Coceptually really strong and i love how the felt acts as his barrier and safety from the coyote. Just shows another prospect of felt as an endless possibility medium. 

Do-Hu Suh

A korean sculptor and installation artist in Fibres. earning a BMA and master of fine arts in Oriental Painting at Seoul National University he also served his term of mandatory service in the korean military he relocated to the U.S. to continue his education at the Rhode Island School of Design and at Yale University.
Now living in New York he frequently visits korea. Some of his major themes include Migration, and inhabitation of public space. Suh creates site specific installations that question the boundaries of identity. The work explores the relation between individuality, collectivity and anonymity.

Wow.... His work in unbelievable the scale and the concepts are amazing. he does beautiful installations polyester fabric, his ability to structure it, i cant wrap my head around it. His structures are meticulously created. One of my new favourite inspiring artist i would have to say now. 

Phil Allard

From Montreal, with a bachelors in graphic design at UQAM. Not finding much biography information unfortunately.

Allard works from salvaged materials where he mainly is involved in installation works. He works with materials that are available in large quantities. His interest lies in the impact of humans activities on the environment, and with that the consequences of long term consumption habits. He questions the real utility and function of material when manipulated and grouped into structures.His goal to immerse the audience into a dreamlike atmosphere reflecting through humour and derision.

i find his installation pieces amazing the size and quantity of objects are incredible. These are all pieces which are moved around in location which sums up to be a large audience to comment on the environmental effects of humans. 

Barbara Todd

A minimalist artist who is best known for her Quilting.

She is from Galt Ontario and studied fine arts at University of Guelph.

Her first exhibited quilt was the “Cover/Undercover” quilt

She worked in Banff in 1981 till 1993 where she moved to Montreal beginning her black on blue quilts, which were inspired from dreams, poetry and children’s drawings.

The Coffin Quilt has to be my favourite piece from Barbara since it is such a dark theme for a quilt. i see some historical reference with the spiral quilting which implies the way to the afterlife which is noted in many historical art pieces. the dark colours and quaint coffin forms is very beautiful.   

Some interesting themes she has worked with are security blankets, side-by-side, stone days and political sensibility.

Now she lives in Montreal and in New York where she teaches at Emma Willard School and at Concordia University.

Steven Spazuk

This may not be a textile artist but i have recently discovered his artwork and have become really inspired by his technique.

the technique spazuk uses is called the soot technique where he uses a flame to draw on a gloss paper. 

he mainly focuses on the body and portraits and birds also seem to be a reoccurring theme in his work.

i wonder the possibilities of doing it on other surfaces? which reminds me on the burn test we did with materials and how some are more resistant then others. perhaps there is a fabric possibility?

  

Ixchel Suarez

Man of a thousand faces

Wow, I am amazed with this particular piece! I have been interested in this theme of faces and noses, particularly in former sketch books where i primarily would draw everyones nose in the room while in class.

But not only is the composition so wonderful but the colours she weaves are incredible. Next semester we will be starting weaving which im thinking Ixchel Saurez will be a major inspiration. 

The colour in all her pieces is my main attraction and curiosity in her work.  

Amanda McCavour

Seeing this i was amazed at the possibilities with sewing! Amanda sews on water soluble fabric as drawings and makes large installation pieces.  

This makes me really interested in testing out how fragile this technique would be, it looks although it will start to unravel at any moment. it would be really interesting to try one of my drawings out.