As part of this month’s Textile Museum of Canada Digital Residency, we’re profiling a number of artists and professionals associated with the museum and wider community. See all of the profiles here.
What’s your connection to the Textile Museum?
I have been a longtime supporter of the Textile Museum. I have included my work for their fundraisers and recently participated in their Conscious Consumption series where people came to do a hands-on project of printing and I was part of a panel discussion on keeping production local.
What do you do in your industry?
I am a textile artist and known for my screenprinted drawings which I make into bags and home accessories.
In your opinion, how can textiles tell stories?
Textiles can tell stories in many ways – your personal experience is one aspect and the other is the history of material and technique. It links you to people and places and to one of the oldest forms of craft.
What’s your favourite place in Toronto to do some creative thinking?
My favourite place is Trinity Bellwoods Park and Allan Gardens. It’s nice to escape to some green spaces when you’re in an urban environment.
One of the Textile Museum’s current exhibitions features the works of Itchiku Kubota, whose artistic career focused intensely on the kimono. What do you think we can learn from this kind of creative dedication?
I think that textiles have become fast and about making things quickly and cheaply. What Kubota’s work teaches us is to slow it down and take in the process, because the process is just as important as the end result.
So much of our attention is drawn to the digital and virtual possibilities of art. Can you explain what role textiles play in your day-to-day life?
Textiles are tactile. I think that textiles are so personal – it’s the clothes we wear and the objects we use in our everyday and that close personal relationship to textiles makes me feel more a connection to this material.
Name one artist of any discipline and any era who never ceases to inspire you.
I recently came back from a trip to Japan and one of my favourite brands is Mina Perhonen and what I like about their textile work is how the patterns are created with simple shapes and their range of colours makes each of them have a unique story.
Visit the NOW Digital Residency: Textile Museum of Canada
