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.
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
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/
Wednesday, July 16, 2025
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.
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