From January 16 of January 27, 2020, I will be representing my first duo exhibition, Facets, with Libs Elliott in Toronto as part of the DesignTO Festival. This year marks the 10th anniversary of this festival and celebrate all things design: from craft objects to elaborate art and installations, to interior design and architecture.

“A facet is one flat side of something that has multiple sides. The term can be scientific, describing molecular structures and precision of gemstone-cutting, but facets can also describe the richness and mess of human life. The flat planes of facets become geometric forms when depth is added.”

Libs Elliott, Vortex, Rendering.

Libs and I discussed the possibility of exhibiting work together in June, when we were teaching at Quilt Canada together in June 2019.  I have not shown much work outside of quilt shows and it had been a while since she had exhibited work outside of this network. We share attitudes about how quilts exist outside the quilt world and the domestic realm. We both desire for quilts — all quilts — to be celebrated as art objects and that showing our work in different contexts would be one way to do so.

Two of the pieces that I will be showing have been long armed by me! I have recently started renting a longarm machine and started exploring what my voice might look like in longarm quilting. Below is Statement Piece, which is from my book Patchwork Lab: Gemology. I didn’t get a chance to make this black-and-white version for the book, but wanted to render it in a neutral colour scheme with an alternate outer gemstone. Libs’ Tattooed North fabric collection was perfect to show how the quilt would like in prints rather than solids.
The exhibition venue is a public one, open to lots of traffic throughout the week. Daniels Spectrum is hub to a lot of art organizations and art programs for people of all ages. Our work will be exhibited in the hallway galleries on the ground floor for all to see as they come into the building and go to their respective activities. The approach is that of speaking to an audience — through our quilts — that is not familiar with quilts other than as domestic objects, often from generations past. I’m excited to see the work in such a public setting.
Join us for an artist talk and reception on Thursday, January 16 at 6 PM – 8 PM. All the details can be found on the DesignTO Festival website.

“Quilts are flat only in theory; in reality, they develop depth at the levels of construction and meaning. Layers of materials and seams give minute but significant dimension. Their use as functional objects also render them three-dimensional – on a bed, folded up, thrown on a couch. By wall-mounting them, they can be perceived as art objects divorced from their use and seen for their richness as connections to the past and bridges into the future. The black, white, and greyscale schemes of the work in the exhibition allow both the intended geometry — and its altered purity in a pliable medium — to show through.”

I am so grateful for the opportunity to exhibit my work as part of the 2020 DesignTO Festival, made possible through a Presentation Grant through Arts Nova Scotia.