Artist Talk: In the Middle of the World / Penny Berens, Judith Martin, Miranda Bouchard (curator)
Stitching Landscapes of Vulnerability, Bravery and Humility
The naturally-dyed, slow-stitched textile works of Judith E. Martin and Penny Berens inspire ways of seeing, sensing and reflection that are simultaneously outwards, at our surroundings; and inwards, at the landscapes within us.
Martin and Berens render time visible, and touch tangible, through the hand-stitched marks that accrue, map-like, across the surfaces of layered fabrics, forming worlds within their works. Martin explores inner immensity, recording and reflecting upon the mutable nature of emotions, thoughts and dreams. Berens looks outwards at and to nature, creating work informed by experiences with and within her ever-changing environment.
In the Middle of the World ushers audiences into the liminal space between earth and air, ground and sky, mind and body, knowing and sensing, static and shift. The earth provides material and metaphor; the world is mother and muse, subject and symbol. It is central to the artists’ ways of seeing, making and understanding.
Stirred by and searching for both meaning and feeling, the artists commune with and convey the gravity of vulnerability, bravery and humility. These works of stitch, natural fibre and plant-based colour speak of the intimacy of human connection that many are seeking out and leaning into amidst these turbulent, socially-distanced and tech-driven times; of connections to tradition and the environment, and the urgency to renew them before it’s too late; and of the importance of knowing and accepting one’s location in the world.
Miranda Bouchard
Curator
Penny Berens, audio artist statement describing her work "Chasing the Moon"
Penny Berens describes the story and nature of her stitched wall hanging “Chasing the Moon.”
Artist Profile - Penny Berens
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Penny Berens was born in Bournemouth, England. Her early life as a child in a nomadic military family had a huge impact on her during those formative years. Penny was finally able to form permanent roots when she and her husband settled in Canada with their young sons on January 1st, 1975. Since retiring in 2007, she and her husband have made their home in the coastal woodlands of Granville Beach, Nova Scotia.
Penny has a City & Guilds diploma in Embroidery & Design but her education in stitch started many years earlier at the age of four under the loving guidance of her mother and two grandmothers.
Penny’s work has been shown in solo and group shows across Canada and internationally. Teaching and encouraging others to follow their own stitching path has been an important part of Penny’s creative life. She now shares her process and sources of inspiration on her blog “Tanglewood Threads”.
Her work is hand stitched and embroidered on plant dyed cloth over several months and sometimes years. Penny’s work for In the Middle of the World reflects her life living close to nature and her observations on her local landscape and its changing patterns through the seasons and indeed the years.
Penny Berens
penny@berens.ca
tanglewoodthreads.blogspot.ca -
Artist Profile - Judith E. Martin
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Canadian artist Judith e Martin combines traditional hand stitch, local natural dyes and used domestic textiles to connect us poetically with our own interior worlds. Her large format textiles are included in several Ontario public art collections (Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Cambridge) as well as the International Quilt Museum in the USA and the Canada Council Art Bank.
Martin has exhibited her work internationally and holds two BA degrees in fine art; one from Canada (Lakehead 1993 chancellors medal) and one from the UK (Middlesex 2012 first class honours).
The artist grew up on a large rural property in Northwestern Ontario ten miles from anywhere and believes that the solitude of long summers is how she discovered the inner dreamworld that is her subject. For the last thirty years, Judy and her husband have continued to live far from the urban on Manitoulin Island in the Great Lake Huron.
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Artist Profile - Miranda Bouchard, curator
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“I’m an arts manager, visual/community artist, independent curator and consultant with a diverse skill set and 20+ years of experience and learning in the nonprofit arts, culture and heritage sector.
I’m a creative and tenacious team player, committed to lifelong learning and passionate about arts and culture, collaboration and community. I enjoy contributing as a collaborator and champion, working closely with artists, organizations and communities to support the development and realization of goals and projects through conversation, exchange and co-creation.
I’m also the Artistic Director at Thinking Rock Community Arts, a rurally-based nonprofit community arts organization. We’re a team of artists, cultural workers and community members that co-creates spaces for dialogue, mutual understanding and artful social change through multidisciplinary, multi-generational, cross-cultural community arts projects. Our current multi-year Social Fabric project explores local textile- and craft-based artistic approaches to learn how things have been made here over time, and sparks conversations about the people, traditions and lands of Algoma and beyond.”
Miranda Bouchard
Curator -
