NS FOLK ART Festival 2025

 

The NS Folk Art Festival was very cool as always. So many sweet people. So many fun chats…and sold a bunch of rugs. 

 

Folk Art is alive and well and I’m feeling pretty dang fortunate.

 

 

Finally

 Finally, a rug hooker has been chosen for the cover artist of the NS Folk Art Festival.

This is opening doors.

Bravo to Felicia Zwicker.

And... bravo to the powers that be to take this step.

 

 

Thank you Matthew Ryan Smith

 Great article by Matthew Ryan Smith on "This SeemsPersonal" which was held at the Confederation Centre of the Arts in lovely Charlottetown, PEI.

"Power disparities became more pronounced after the exhibition opened to the public, as Kenney’s rug-hookings seemed to foreshadow President Trump’s escalating threats of tariffs on Canada’s industries and natural resources. The now-prophetic rug Friends (2024), which features the submissive text “WE HAVE TO BE FRIENDS OTHERWISE YOU’LL BEAT US UP,” anticipated Trump’s bullying tactics toward his northern neighbour, the United States’ closest military ally and trading partner. Ironically, this “friend” is now instigating a future economic recession. And this says nothing of his warnings to annex Canada as the “fifty-first state” or to make Prime Minister Trudeau a “Governor”—both unprecedented threats against the sovereignty of a fellow G7 nation. In this new light, Kenney’s US-themed rugs have become a site of protest and an urgent rallying cry for collective resistance against American imperialism."

 

https://visualartsnews.ca/2025/07/this-seems-personal-autobiography-in-search-of-community/

 

 

Craft and Craftivsm

 I am feeling fortunate to have been included in this publication highlighting craft people across Canada. 

Abstract

Contemporary work in ceramics, fibres and glass is commanding unprecedented attention in the visual arts world. Many Canadian artists have gained recognition for their aesthetic proficiency, conceptual relevance, and skill-based expertise in provincial, national, and international public institutions using these materials. The visual arts community in Canada and elsewhere seeks information concerning the historical importance and significance to contemporary Canadian craft artists of these materials and skills. Craft and Craftivism, edited by Loren Lerner, Janice Anderson, Shannon Stride, and Karine Antaki, is a biographical dictionary of artists working in these media, created as a free e-publication to fill this need. The material is readily available for both pedagogical purposes and the general public’s use. It aims to encourage scholarly interest while acknowledging the artists’ contributions to Canadian visual arts, a path currently encouraged in many Canadian post-secondary art education institutions. -- Introduction.

https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/995653/1/VOLUME%20TWO%20CRAFT%20%26%20CRAFTIVISM-FIBRES.2.pdf

Review of "Seems Personal " by Jon Claytor

 https://billiemag.ca/this-seems-personal/

 

"One of the first works I noticed was a folksy rug-hooked amalgamation of Canadian and American flags by Laura Kenney, with the words “We have to be friends otherwise you’ll beat me up,” spelled out in soft hues of green, teal, and navy blue fabric. Each day the show was up, these words became more poignant as the political situation with our southern neighbors teetered between surreal and absurdly terrifying. The work and the title seem to be shouting out that famous refrain of second-wave feminism and activism: “The personal is political.” It certainly makes the case that now, more than ever, this phrase is accurate and vital."

 

 

Canada vs USA

I was asked to say a few words about my piece "Friends".

https://confederationcentre.com/behind-the-art-talking-politics-with-laura-kenney/ 

A good way to start 2025

 I've always wanted to be in a exhibition that is included as a must-see show..and it happened!

Happy New Year!

https://www.aci-iac.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Newsletter-Winter-Exhibitions-2025_V5.pdf