Leisa Rich

Remaining Behind After Humans Have Gone, 2024

Repurposed and recycled fabrics and clothing, thread, dyes [36" X 48" X 2"]

Nature will subsume everything we leave behind, should we become extinct. In this gorgeous garden, nature has run amok, and tenacious grackles have taken over. They are hidden amongst the flowers and fauna, awaiting their next opportunity for adventure. I have layered silks and cottons, new and recycled fabrics, and free motion embroidered over the surface, creating depth and texture. The grackles are done by free motion embroidery - "painting with thread" - using a common sewing machine. They sit slightly off the canvas, and create a stunning, intriguing embellishment. Viewers will come closer and they will reveal themselves! I also hand painted, using dyes, to increase the depth and color.

Boisali Biswas

On the Island, 2022

cotton, rayon yarns, cotton and silk fabrics [28" x 58"]

On the Island is from my series of using a simple clothesline as a metaphor, connecting women of the world over generations ".....the colors dazzling as they soak up the sun, and tie us with invisible knots of love like the voices of our grandmothers from a distant past......"

Merill Comeau

Acadie 4: Acadian Diaspora, 2024

materials: repurposed textiles, paint, stencil ink, threads. methods: composting, stenciling, hand and machine stitching [88" x 78"]

Acadie 4 gives visual voice to my ancestral Acadian roots and colonial history. The Acadian colony in Nova Scotia provided a possible democratic model for European settlers co-existing with aboriginal peoples peacefully and in mutually beneficial collaboration and co-habitation. After over 100 years as an independent settlement, Acadians declared themselves neutral in the French-English war over ‘ownership’ of Canada. They refused to bear arms for or against both European countries and refused to bear arms against aboriginal peoples. They were subjected to mass genocide and banishment by English authorities. The Acadian diaspora is evidenced in French speaking towns in Maine and the Cajuns of Louisiana. Eventually some settlers were allowed to return to Nova Scotia with the agreement they did not return to their homes; these descendants can be found in small towns of Nova Scotia. Comeauville is where my relatives re-settled.

Helen Geglio

Ordinary Oracle: Talismanic Cloth, 2023

Cotton, silk noil, found domestic textiles, small objects [46" x 32"]

The oracle is a woman of great wisdom who speaks truth, offers insights and predicts change. She dwells among us.

Myania Moses

Ghosts, Angels and AmazonsGhosts, Angels and Amazons, 2023

Cotton Fabric, silk screened with Procion MX dyes, cut up, re assembled, stitched back together, machine stitched and embroidered with cotton and rayon threadCotton Fabric, silk screened with Procion MX dyes, cut up, re assembled, stitched back together, machine stitched and embroidered with cotton and rayon thread [W 37" X H 31"]

Ghost, Angels and Amazons was my response from healing from childhood trauma. The ghosts of previous generations haunted our household, fortunately I had angels in my community who could fill in as substitute parents in my healing process. I had to develop an inner Amazon in order to heal and protect my spirit child.

Mary Babcock

ʻOlaʻa (with detail), 2022

hand-stitched and laminated household wax paper, thread [84" x 144"]

Patterned after aerial mappings of vulnerable ohia-lehua forests- keystone tree of Hawaii’s native forests and watershed - used by scientists work to uncover the vectors in the spread of Rapid Ohia Death. The work explores the dual edge of human intervention.

Lesley Turner

Bedrock I, 2024

Linen cloth, earth pigments, cotton thread [17" x 21 1/2"]

Vancouver Island, the rock I live on was scraped bare by moving ice during the last glacial age. A succession of plant and animal life built up the soil enabling us to live on this once bare rock. Linen cloth was placed on a granite bedrock boulder and painted with earth pigment. Responsive stitching highlights the marks left on the cloth.

Laili Lau

Los Nevados 2, 2023

yarns, fabric scraps [24" x 15" x 4"]

Alicia Bailey

Strigaformes, 2024

Book: paper, small mammal bones, thread, yarn, wool, dyed cotton tape Box: book board, synthetic fabric, wood, hot foil, leather, paper, small mammal bones, plant specimens, cast acrylic [11.25" x 9.5" x 1.8"]

A single sheet of paper that was made at the Morgan Paper Conservatory holds stitched text and, hidden on first glance, a selection of small bones extracted from owl pellets stitched in place. Housed in a bespoke box that forms part of the artwork.I recently realized that I haven't had any owl sightings in far too long, nor have I been able to add to my collection of owl pellets. The distinctive late night or early morning hoots of owls is only rarely heard. Such realizations can send me down a road of dismay and disconnect with the state of the world and my place in it. With the likelihood of being able to go to a previously abundant owl pellet collecting site diminishing, even disappearing, I'm compelled to share some of the tiny bits that so captivate me with others. This was a time consuming book to make. A wish to use materials that enhanced both the look and feel of the paper I started with turned me towards weaving and felting, so I had to learn about both of those techniques for working with fiber. The decision to use woven and felted fiber on the book case necessitated more experimentation, trial and error.

Victoria Smits

A Softer You, 2024

Hand-stitched diminutive outlines of artist’s father’s tools made from avocado-dyed cheesecloth, cotton thread, used dryer-sheets (includes needle-nose pliers, c-clamp, adjustable pliers, hammer, needle-nose pliers with wire cutter, wrench, Phillips screwdriver, putty knife) [various sizes]

A Softer You is a collection of eight hand-stitched contours of my father's tools and is part of a larger body of work exploring the impacts of insecure attachment. The tools function as reinvented iconic symbols marking the initial imprint of insecure attachment and how understanding creates opportunities for transformation. While it is impossible to dissect the intricacies of my or anyone's attachment experience in a short explanation, my father's tools throughout childhood were a symbol of his attachment style: they were ordered in neat, classified rows on a pegboard in his workroom and when one disappeared or was out-of-place, he verbally and emotionally ruptured and created fear. These diminutive versions of my father's tools offer regeneration: what if these tools, symbolic of fear, were accessible? What if their identity were reinvented toward engagement and warmth?

Caren Garfen

Moral Compass, 2024Moral Compass, 2024

Cotton, silk threads, 42 compasses. Hand stitch [65cm x 45cm x 6cm]

‘Moral Compass’ addresses the unprecedented resurgence of antisemitism since the Holocaust, focusing on attacks against Jewish people in public spaces, places of worship, workplaces, on holiday, and through social media. The piece highlights incidents occurring globally today. It questions whether society has lost its moral compass where respect for individual identity and heritage coexists with the normalisation of antisemitism.

Linda Colsh

Caryatids, 2021

used paper coffee filters, cotton fabric, paint, thread, stiff batting [8"x22"x7"]

The women on this double scroll represent caryatids, stone architectural supports carved in female form of the Erechtheum on the Acropolis. The two volutes replicate the form of an ionic column capital. I screenprinted images of 32 women I photographed in the streets onto paper coffee filters onto the paper-filters side of the double spiral. I save and repurpose the filters as memories of friends and conversations shared over coffee. The other side is printed with stone patterns on fabric. Drawing from the concept of caryatids as strong women, I chose the elderly women because of my interest in how experience and stamina enable people to cope with the often-overwhelming world they navigate.

Norman Sherfield

The Dance, 2022

Waxed linen, porcelain tschotske and found objects [10.5 inches H x 5.5 inches W x 4 inches D]

Sharing your life with another, enjoy the dance, life is always an adventure!

Wilma Butts

Balance in Blue, 2023

Silk fibre, ceramic (Mixed Media) [40"H x 40"W x 2"D]

“Balance in Blue” is an homage to the strength and fragility that balance in nature's diversity. The hard ceramic structure evokes impressions of rock, shell, coral or wood, while the translucent fabric suggests petals, mushrooms, seaweed, rushing water or a flowing breeze. The interpretation is in the mind of the beholder. It's a simple study of natural contrasts...hard and soft, light and dark, translucent and opaque, fluid and rigid. Nature presents these amazing contrasts everyday. It's the balance of these elements that makes the magic of our natural world.

Kate Kretz

Une Femme D'Un Certain Âge, 2014

Crowdsourced grey hair of many women, hand embroidered on black cotton [33" x 22"]

Hair is like the rings of a tree, it records illnesses, stress, pregnancy, etc. I crowd-sourced the grey hair of many women, and hand-embroidered a silver dagger on black cotton.