List of WORKS
Catalogue 1
Pat Adams
b. 1943, Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Canada
Prairie Sunset, 1983
77.5 x 148 cm
rug weaving, pick on pick technique; wool, linen
MacKenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina Collection, 1983–8
“The Prairie shaped my weaving.” This simple statement by Saskatchewan artist and weaver Pat Adams makes clear the motivation behind works such as Prairie Sunset. Subtle colour gradations, brought to life using multiple shuttles on his large Glimakra loom, define a vibrant, uninterrupted space. Like the Métis sashes he later produced, these landscape weavings speak to an identity closely bound to the land.
Reproduced page 122.
Catalogue 2
Pat Adams
b. 1943, Tisdale, Saskatchewan, Canada
Remember That Sunset We Saw from Here One Time?, 1984
79 x 147 cm
rug weaving, pick on pick technique; wool, linen
Collection of Julia and Yolande Krueger
Pat Adams has described his weaving process as beginning with an image in his mind’s eye. Every step is planned in advance, from the sequence of shading to dyeing his own yarn. The end product is like a memory, an artifact of the original image in his mind, a reality humorously illustrated in this landscape-within-a-landscape.
Catalogue 3
Ilse Anysas-Šalkauskas
b. 1942, Berlin, Germany to Lithuanian refugees
Rising from the Ashes, 1988
203 x 120 cm
pieced and knotted; leather
Collection of the Artist
A student at the Alberta College of Art (1976–1980), Ilse Anysas-Šalkauskas credits Katharine Dickerson for teaching her how to weave and instilling an experimental approach. After graduation she began investigating the use of locally sourced leather scraps—upcycling and thrift a part of her family ethos. Rising from the Ashes is the second leather tapestry she created. It represents healing and survival against all odds—as Lithuanian refugees in Germany and later as immigrants to the U.S. and Canada. It also references her deep appreciation for the undulating landscape of the foothills in western Alberta with their cycles of growth and decay. Ilse Anysas-Šalkauskas continues to work with fibre, most often quilting and appliqué, and is teaching her granddaughter how to weave.
Reproduced pages xviii, 129, 198.
Catalogue 4
Cindy Baker
b. 1975, Leduc, Alberta, Canada
I know people are stealing my things, 1998
42 x 108 x 4 cm
latch-hooked; acrylic, wool, cotton
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
Cindy Baker is a fat activist and queer rights advocate based in Western Canada who frequently uses craft to skew ideals concerning beauty, gender and sexuality, art, and value. Her series Welcome Mats (1997–2007) employs latch hooking—an artistic medium used primarily by amateurs—for its subversive potential. In her words, she creates “welcome mats for the not necessarily welcome. Just as actual welcome mats cannot be taken to mean that anyone standing upon the doorstep is welcome within, my welcome mats should not be taken to mean literally what they say.” Baker exploits the ambiguity of what artist and cultural theorist Allyson Mitchell has referred to as “abandoned craft” to express and explore alterity.
Reproduced page 154.
Catalogue 5
Susan Barton-Tait
b. 1948, Campbellton, New Brunswick, Canada
Nepenthe, c. 1977
110 x 209 cm
free-form weaving; dog hair, wool, assorted fibres
Collection of the Artist
After arriving in Winnipeg from the U.S.A. in 1974, Susan Barton-Tait found little encouragement for her off-loom explorations until the arrival of Aganetha Dyck in 1976. The two soon became friends with Barton-Tait assisting Dyck with felting experiments in her studio. Barton-Tait’s own unconventional approach to materials is evident in this loom-based work. Using yarn spun from dog’s hair which she and her friends collected, Barton-Tait’s weaving evokes the long-corded coat of Nepenthe, her Hungarian Puli dog, after whom this work is named.
Catalogue 6
Inese Birstins
b. 1942, Madona, Latvia
Mindscape, 1978
177.8 x 96.5 x 17.8 cm
free-form weaving, hand-dyed; jute, sisal, mixed fibres
Collection of Surrey Art Gallery, Gift of Bruce Ambrose
In 1978, with only a few years of weaving instruction under her belt, Inese Birstins conducted two residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts: Sculptural Weaving and Fibre in Architectural Space. Mindscape, which dates to this period, suggests Birstins’ command of her medium and commitment to pushing the limits of weaving through an exploration of natural materials and textures, an expansion into three dimensions, and references to inner thoughts and landscapes. Birstins was one of a handful of Canadians included in Constantine and Larsen’s groundbreaking book, The Art Fabric: Mainstream (1981) with her felted work Interchange II (1979)—possibly created during the Banff Fibre Interchange residency of 1979.
Catalogue 7
Rose Buffalo
d. 1988, Standing Buffalo First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada
Ta-Hah ‘ Sheena, 1968
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
110 x 36.5 cm
latch-hooked; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection
Reproduced page 48.
Catalogue 8
Brenda Campbell
b. 1942, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada
Woodlands Undercover, 1975
298 x 360.5 x 8 cm
weaving, wrapped coils, rya; natural wool, cotton, fleece
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 1977.042.001
Considering Brenda Campbell’s Pop-inspired weavings of the same era, Woodlands Undercover’s lack of colour is startling. Rather than overwhelm the senses with bursts of greens, pinks, and purples, Campbell challenges viewers to be present, to carefully consider and respond to what is in front of them. Technically sophisticated—Campbell studied at the Alberta College of Art and worked with Douglas Motter and Associates—Woodlands Undercover exploits numerous techniques in one piece: tapestry, wrapping, and rya (knotting used in shag rugs). However, the title hints at something more—pockets of woodlands filled with hidden drop-offs and tucked-away animals, secrets only revealed to those who slow down.
Reproduced page 182.
Catalogue 9
Nancy Crites
b. 1951, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Threshold: No Laughing Matter, 1991
41 x 65 x 4 cm
hooked rug technique; latex condoms, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection, C92-93.01a
Pink and blue condoms—hardened over time to a caramel brown—spell out the word “WELCOME” in Calgary artist Nancy Crites’ unconventional hooked rug, a work created during her early years in Prince Albert, SK. According to the artist: “This mat is a reflection of my concern with the AIDS epidemic and demystifying the condom to ensure safety and protection. [It] is a statement about crossing the line into private space, be it physically, sexually, or otherwise—respect, permission, and safety for all involved must be considered.”
Catalogue 10
Nancy Crites
b. 1951, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Threshold: No Laughing Matter II, 2022
53 x 71 cm
hooked rug technique; hand dyed felted wool, sari silk, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection, C92-93.01b
The pink and blue fibres of this hooked rug recall the colourful condoms used to create the first version of Threshold: No Laughing Matter thirty years earlier. While the original mat spoke to the role of condoms in ensuring “safety and protection” during the AIDS epidemic, her updated version “expresses concern for the role and implications of the Welcome Mat during a global pandemic. Who crosses the threshold into your private space, your home, studio, etc.?”
Reproduced page 155.
Catalogue 11
Katharine Dickerson
b. 1947, Duluth, Minnesota, United States
West Coast Tree Stump, 1972
226 x 297 x 267 cm
twined, supplemental weft; jute, spindle spun wool, burlap
Collection of the Canada Council Art Bank, 74/5-0968
Katharine Dickerson was already a celebrated artist and weaver when she moved to Calgary to teach weaving at the Alberta College of Art (ACA) in 1977. She had studied at the celebrated Haystack Mountain School of Crafts with Jean Stamsta and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago alongside Claire Zeisler, before moving to a farm on Vancouver Island. Here she set aside precise technical weaving for a more experimental approach, one informed by her study of Indigenous textile techniques. Her work grew in scale and complexity resulting in the monumental work, West Coast Tree Stump. This was created off-loom in her outdoor studio surrounded by living trees. She created several other large-scale commissions including the immersive West Coast Forest for the Department of Public Works (Douglas Building) in Victoria, 1974–75. Taking over from the retired F. Douglas Motter at ACA, Dickerson’s approach to weaving was compared to the explosive rock of Jimi Hendrix.
Reproduced pages xviii, 78, 129.
Catalogue 12
Aganetha Dyck
b. 1937, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Rope Dance, c. 1974
293 x 37.5 x 30 cm
crochet; jute
SK Arts Permanent Collection, 1976-305
As a child growing up in rural Manitoba, Aganetha Dyck was fascinated by the crocheted doilies and baskets of her Mennonite grandmother. After a move to Prince Albert in 1972, Dyck began to create imaginative forms using this technique, including a pig and piglets crocheted out of copper wire. These works caught the attention of George Glenn, Director of the Prince Albert Art Centre, leading to an invitation to move into the Centre’s studio. There Dyck would be introduced to Saskatchewan’s vibrant weaving community, including Margreet van Walsem, Annabel Taylor, Kaija Sanelma Harris, and Ann Newdigate, among others.
Reproduced page 190.
Catalogue 13
Aganetha Dyck
b. 1937, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Close Knit, 1976
35 x 89 x 391 cm
felting via wringer washing machine; wool
SK Arts Permanent Collection, 2022-074
As a student of master weaver Margreet van Walsem in the mid-1970s, Aganetha Dyck soon became impatient with the demands of loom-based work. After accidently discovering the beauty of shrunken wool, Dyck’s preferred art-making apparatus became a washing machine, rather than a loom, and discarded woolen goods her favoured medium, rather than yarn. Close Knit, created after her move from Prince Albert to Winnipeg in 1976, belongs to her signature series Sizes 8 to 46. The shrunken wool sweaters in this work form a tight, cohesive group, asserting a feminist perspective on the value of domestic life and work.
Reproduced page 118.
Catalogue 14
Murray Gibson
b. 1960, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Prairie Carpet, 1990
tapestry; wool, silk, cotton
Imperial Oil Limited Collection
Over his distinguished career, Murray Gibson has often paid respect to weaving’s long history and global reach by referencing textile patterns inspired by cultures from around the world. Prairie Carpet was commissioned by Esso Resources Canada for the Esso Research Centre on the University of Calgary campus. The tapestry is meant to evoke a “magic carpet ride” over the Prairies and mountains and through the aurora borealis, and to echo the inquisitive journeys of researchers as they explore the universe. Unusually, the top section of the carpet is woven front-to-back so that it can only be read properly when it is folded over—a reference to how knowledge can flip our understanding of reality. Gibson, a graduate of the Alberta College of Art, is currently based in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Catalogue 15
Nancy Goodpipe
1928–2006, Standing Buffalo First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada
Rug, 1968
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
76.2 x 68.6 cm
latch-hooked; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection
Reproduced page 42.
Catalogue 16
Evelyn Goodtrack
b. 1950, Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, Canada
Dakota Rug, c. 1968
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
174.5 x 113.5 cm
latch-hooked; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection
As a teenager, Evelyn Dale Goodtrack (nee Yuzicappi) was one of the junior members of the Sioux Handcraft Co-operative. She attributes the design of Dakota Rug—the only one in this grouping with floral motifs—to a “grandmother from Prince Albert.” Goodtrack enjoyed the community aspects of the project—how everyone chipped in and helped one another—and appreciated how it brought everyone closer to the Elders. This rug was hooked mainly in the evening under lamplight as Goodtrack’s house did not have electricity at the time. Today, she lives with her husband, Hartland Goodtrack, in Standing Buffalo First Nation. The two serve as Elders for the Saskatchewan Indigenous Cultural Centre and are dedicated to educating Dakota and Lakota youth.
Reproduced page 36.
Catalogue 17
Jessie Goodwill
Rug, 1967
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
65 x 76 cm
latch-hooked; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection
Reproduced page 41.
Catalogue 18
Phyllis Green
b. 1950, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
Boob Tree, 1975
109.2 x 55.9 x 50.8 cm
crochet; yarn, wood
Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Acquired with funds from the Estate of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Naylor, funds administered by The Winnipeg Foundation, 2014-128
As poster image for the 1975 exhibition Woman as Viewer, Phyllis Green’s Boob Tree was an instant hit. The Winnipeg Art Gallery’s exhibition for International Women’s Year celebrated a “women’s view of herself and her world” (Zenith Corne, 1978), but also challenged a concurrent exhibition which mainly featured images of women created by men. Whether it was Boob Tree’s humour, punchy colour, use of crochet (a stereotypical female craft), or archetypical resonance, it proved irresistible. As writer Doug Harvey later confessed, “The poster was popular and controversial and seemed to be everywhere in the city—until it became a thing to steal them; a criminal trend in which I confess I myself participated” (Harvey, 2018).
Reproduced pages xix, 146, 168.
Catalogue 19
Ann Hamilton
b. 1956, Lima, Ohio, United States
Untitled, 1979
262 x 250 cm
weaving; cotton, sisal, wool
Collection of Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
Ann Hamilton is a major American artist best known for her immersive multimedia installations that respond to architectural settings and social history. Less well-known are her roots in fibre. After learning to weave with Cynthia Schira at the University of Kansas (BFA 1979), Hamilton spent the following year weaving at the Banff School of Fine Arts. “When I was first in Banff, I was doing work that was very much like [Schira’s]. I still feel a lot of my work comes out of a textile sensibility.” After Banff, she moved to Montréal before pursuing a graduate degree in sculpture at Yale (MFA 1985). Subsequent work has displayed a concern for the “relations of cloth, sound, touch, motion and human gesture” and a “dense materiality.”
Catalogue 20
Kaija Sanelma Harris
1939, Turku, Finland–2022, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Stubble Field, 1984
161 x 142 cm
double weave tapestry; wool
Collection of the Canada Council Art Bank, 87/8-0276
For Finnish-trained artist and weaver Kaija Sanelma Harris, experimentation with weaving techniques has been linked to her desire to transmit sensory experiences of the Prairies through woven structures. Between 1981 and 1987, she created a series of double woven tapestry landscapes “with a major emphasis on color and relief” (Harris in Moppett, 1993). In Stubble Field the rolling countryside around Saskatoon, pricked with straw after harvest, is imaginatively captured through looped elements and a rich palette of earthen tones.
Reproduced page xvii.
Catalogue 21
Kaija Sanelma Harris
1939, Turku, Finland–2022, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Sun Ascending, 1985
396.2 x 86.2 cm (each of 24 components)
tapestry; wool, linen
Collection of the MacKenzie Art Gallery, gift of Cadillac Fairview Corporation Ltd., 2014-12
In 1984, Saskatoon artist and weaver Kaija Sanelma Harris was one of a select group of Canadian artists invited by Cadillac Fairview Corporation to produce textiles to warm the austere modernist interiors of the TD Centre, a complex of buildings designed by architect Mies van der Rohe. Sun Ascending, her largest work and most important architectural commission, is a modular, geometric landscape that recalls in abstracted form the sun rising above an aspen grove, a landscape typical of both her native Finland and her adopted home. The two sets of panels create the sense of a clearing within a thicket.
Reproduced pages xvii, xx, 82, 98.
Catalogue 22
Margaret Harrison
b. 1941, Katepwa Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada
Margaret’s Rug, c. 2005
55.8 x 99.1 cm
hooked rug technique; recycled wool sweaters, tee shirts, silk on burlap
Private Collection
In Margaret’s Rug, Margaret Harrison departs from traditional Métis floral designs to depict a specific place—her home in the Katepwa Lake road allowance community in southern Saskatchewan’s Qu’Appelle Valley. Each element refers to a specific place, story, or women’s task from Harrison’s youth. According to Métis academic Cheryl Troupe, the rug is “a contemporary mnemonic device that allows her [Harrison] to remember and share.” With her mother, Adeline Pelletier dit Racette, Harrison has worked tirelessly to preserve and energize the traditional Métis art forms of rug hooking and silk embroidery. Their efforts are highlighted in the Gabriel Dumont Institute (GDI) films Aen Kroshay aen tapee avec mi gineey: Métis Hooked Rugs and Mashnikwawchikun avec la sway di fil: Métis Silk Embroidery (see the GDI YouTube page).
Reproduced pages 14, 15, 54, 60.
Catalogue 23
Eva Heller
b. 1946, Łódź, Poland
Heat, 1983
Panel A: 227.5 x 95 x 3 cm
Panel B: 231 x 92 x 3 cm
Panel C: 228 x 95 x 4 cm
Panel D: 231 x 97 x 3 cm
shaped tapestry; wool, cotton
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 1985.001.001.A-D
“Sunshine, grass of the Prairies, summer heat. . . . Every winter I was waiting for a Chinook and the first signs of spring.” Eva Heller’s description of the inspiration for Heat points to her interest in translating impressions of nature into magnificent abstracted Gobelin tapestries. Heller received her training at the State Higher School of Fine Arts in Łódź, Poland where guest lecturers included Janina Tworek-Pierzgalska, Anna Sledziewska, and the influential Magdalena Abakanowicz. Produced two years after arriving in Canada, Heat proved challenging for Heller, who lacked a large studio space in her Lethbridge home. Instead, she wove it on a simple frame in a small bedroom and dyed the wool in a large pot in her kitchen.
Reproduced page pages 96, 129.
Catalogue 24
Theresa Isnana Sr.
d. 1977, Standing Buffalo First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada
Rug, 1967
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
86.3 x 55.9 cm
latch-hooked; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection
Reproduced page 41.
Catalogue 25
Pirkko Karvonen
b. 1935, Forssa, Finland
Rapeseed Fields, 1974
230 x 97 x 6 cm
weaving, rya, plant dyed; wool
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 1974.100.001
Pirkko Karvonen was taught to weave by her stepmother in Finland in response to the postwar shortage of utilitarian objects like rugs, towels, and tablecloths. After coming to Canada in 1951, she established a studio practice in Edmonton where she taught weaving to scores of students across the province through the Edmonton School Board’s Extension Services and Alberta Culture. Rapeseed Fields, 1974, offers an abstracted rendering of a canola field and illustrates her masterly combination of design, technique, and dyeing skills. It also recalls the significant efforts of Prairie agricultural researchers in the 1970s to create canola (formerly known as rapeseed), an oilseed crop whose brilliant yellow flowers illuminate the Prairie landscape in July and August.
Reproduced page 128.
Catalogue 26
Jane Kidd
b. 1952, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Landslice #1, 1988
54 x 53 cm
slit woven tapestry with pulled warp; wool, cotton, rayon, linen, silk
Landslice #1 and Landslice #3 are part of a series Jane Kidd wove after joining the faculty of the Alberta College of Art, where she taught from 1980 to 2011. Smaller and more intimately scaled than her large architectural commissions, the works explore woven structure and form. Kidd created the rich texture by pulling on the warp threads, gathering them into a compressed low-relief sculpture reminiscent of geological stratification. Her subsequent tapestries have been more figurative in nature and exploit a rich personal iconography that draws on her research into the history of textiles, the natural world, and the phenomenon of collecting. Kidd was awarded the prestigious Saidye Bronfman Award for fine craft in 2016.
Collection of the artist
Reproduced pages 104, 105, 131.
Catalogue 27
Jane Kidd
b. 1952, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Landslice #3, 1989
54 x 53 cm
slit woven tapestry with pulled warp; wool, cotton, rayon, linen, silk
Collection of the artist
Catalogue 28
Charlotte Lindgren
b. 1931, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Winter Tree, 1965
148.3 x 73 cm
weaving; wool, wire
Collection of Confederation Centre Art Gallery, CM 67.1.36
Charlotte Lindgren’s Winter Tree was featured in the acclaimed Canadian Fine Crafts exhibition at Expo 67 and reflects the artist’s ongoing interest in architecture. Woven flat on a loom in purple wool—a colour chosen for its clarity, weightlessness, and timelessness—the weaving’s three-dimensional form was not realized until hung. Although by this time based in Halifax, Lindgren’s Winnipeg years (1956–1963) played a pivotal role in her development. While working as a design lecturer in the Home Economics department at the University of Manitoba, Lindgren took instruction in weaving from her colleague Lillian Allen. A series of wall hangings created prior to her move to Halifax in 1964 drew the attention of American textiles doyen Jack Lenor Larsen, leading to an invitation to the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deer Isle, Maine. Lindgren went on to represent Canada twice at the Lausanne International Tapestry Biennial (1967, 1969) and to teach at the Banff Centre in the 1970s.
Catalogue 29
Carol Little
1949–2015, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Furrow, 1976
364 x 91.8 cm
twill woven, warp ikat; wool
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 1977.027.001
Carol Little was one of the many former Alberta College of Art students to join Douglas Motter and Associates’ custom weaving business in Calgary, honing her skills from 1973 to 1978, before founding her own studio. She continued to weave throughout the 1980s, focusing mainly on works for exhibition and commission. She later went on to found Handspirits, a co-operative gallery, in 1987, shifting her practice to focus more on batik and painted silks. Furrow was woven during Little’s tenure with Douglas Motter and Associates and bears the company label on the reverse. The subtle bands of ikat and sculptural presentation recall Prairie agricultural landscapes. Place was a recurring source of inspiration for Little.
Catalogue 30
Amy Loewan
b. 1945, Hong Kong
A Mandala “The Circle and the Square,” 1996
66.5 x 45.8 cm
weaving, calligraphy; Shuen (rice) paper, Chinese ink, charcoal, computer printouts
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 1997.168.001
As a mature student in the art department at the University of Alberta, Amy Loewan began to incorporate sensibilities and materials from her Chinese heritage in calligraphic drip paintings. The grid-like woven patterns of this calligraphy led her to explore the process of physically weaving strips of rice paper. The horizontal and vertical strokes of the character for “kindness” were particularly evocative for her and became the impetus for her Project Kindness series. In A Mandala “The Circle and the Square” the word kindness is printed in various fonts from left to right in English and calligraphically written in Chinese from top to bottom. Together with symbols for earth (square) and sky (circle), the work weaves an optimistic cross-cultural statement about the power of kindness to create a better world.
Reproduced page 208.
Catalogue 31
Amy Loewan
b. 1945, Hong Kong
A Peace Project, 2000
95 x 68 cm
weaving, calligraphy; Shuen (rice) paper, Chinese ink, charcoal, computer print outs
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 2000.068.001
A Peace Project is an early example of Loewan’s woven rice paper works which today have evolved into a series of large installations collectively known as The Peace Projects. Appearing geometric and abstract from a distance, the work reveals upon closer inspection a series of words that have been integrated into the rice paper weave: compassion, kindness, respect, understanding, patience, tolerance, gentleness, and forgiveness. In 1998, art historian David Silcox wrote about this series: “Her materials remind us of how fragile human rights are. This simple, powerful, but gently moving work is made of soft white rice paper and ink . . . and these reverberating words invoke ideas, which are the most powerful weapons in the world-wide battle for human dignity.”
Catalogue 32
Crafts Guild of Manitoba
Prairie Barnacles, 1979
approx. 175 cm wide
rep weave; wool, wood
Collection of Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library, 581.00
Prairie Barnacles is a collaborative project which points to the strong communities associated with weaving across the Prairies. Created to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Crafts Guild of Manitoba, it was based on a workshop led by Ken Weaver (an apprentice of the noted American author and textiles promoter Jack Lenor Larsen), directed by Anne Ayre, and installed by Gordon Ayre. Participating artists included: Lee Anderson, Shirley Anderson, George Baldwin, Janet Baldwin, Wynn Buchanan, Andrea Burchard, B. Renton Goodwyn, Chris Grossman, Ruth Johnston, Catherine MacLean, Jean McMurray, Ruby Monds, Henrietta Mullin, Ivy Rollo, Carol Romanyk, and Roberta York. The barnacles were woven on the floor of the Guild in Winnipeg using a technique called warp-faced rep weave (warp rep) in which the warp threads are set closely together and alternating thick and thin weft threads are used to create a ribbed texture. Similar to Jane Kidd’s Landslice series, a strong warp thread on one side of each barnacle was pulled to form the three-dimensional shape.
Reproduced pages 112, 129, 192.
Catalogue 33
Florence Maple
1922–2000
Rug, 1969
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
113.5 x 93 cm
latch-hooked; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection
Marie Florence Maple (née Perreault) was a Métis woman who initially made hooked rugs in the traditional Métis style. After moving with her family to Standing Buffalo First Nation, one of the few First Nations to accept citizens without treaty status, Maple helped manage the Sioux Handcraft Co-operative and taught rug-making skills to the young women of the community. Later in life, she moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Catalogue 34
Florence Maple
1922–2000
Tipi Mat, 1967
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
68.6 x 68.6 cm
latch-hooked; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection
Catalogue 35
Cathryn Miller
b. 1950, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Winter Sun, c. 1977
88 x 120 cm
tapestry; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection, C77.5
Toronto-born artist Cathryn Miller began weaving in 1974 after setting up a studio in Grasswood, a small community near Saskatoon. Self-taught, Miller’s textiles were regularly chosen for the Saskatchewan Handcraft Festival Juried Exhibition, from which this work was purchased by the Saskatchewan Arts Board (now SK Arts). The complex interplay of geometric forms, whether in weaving or in paper, have interested Miller throughout their career.
Reproduced page 174.
Catalogue 36
F. Douglas Motter
1913, Chicago, Illinois, United States–1993, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
This Bright Land, 1976
216 x 350 cm
plain weave; wool, copper, steel
City of Calgary Public Art Collection, Gift of the Calgary Allied Arts Foundation, 1983 990072 A-F
It was a twist of fate that saw F. Douglas Motter take up weaving. Trained as a painter, in 1945 he bought a loom for his wife, Jeanette. “We started weaving as a hobby, but somewhere along the line things got out of hand.” Motter occupied the family loom and eventually founded Douglas Motter and Associates in 1961, a weaving company that produced hand-woven goods, custom yardage, and commissioned hangings. His weavings were highly celebrated and were selected for inclusion in the Brussels World Fair of 1958 and Expo 67. Major commissions included tapestries designed for the Legislative Building in Edmonton as well as This Bright Land, commissioned for the entrance to the Calgary Convention Centre. Motter was the first weaving instructor at the Alberta College of Art (1967–1977) and mentor to Carol Little, who likely wove this work.
Catalogue 37
Ann Newdigate
b. 1934, Makhanda (also known as Grahamstown), South Africa
Collage Preparatory Sketch for Wee Mannie, 1980
41 x 39.5 cm
collage; pastel, crayon, watercolour, pencil crayon, ink on paper
MacKenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina Collection, purchased with the assistance of the Canada Council Art Bank, 1982-16
Drawings are often the basis for Ann Newdigate’s tapestries. Setting two paradigms in dialogue, her work incorporates “the tension between the systematic quality of the tapestry process and the apparent freedom of marks made by pencil or paint in the drawings” (Newdigate, 1982).
Reproduced page 132.
Catalogue 38
Ann Newdigate
b. 1934, Makhanda (also known as Grahamstown), South Africa
National Identity, Borders and the Time Factor, or, Wee Mannie, 1982
99 x 109.2 cm
tapestry; cotton, silk, wool, synthetic fibre
MacKenzie Art Gallery, University of Regina Collection, purchased with the assistance of the Canada Council Art Bank, 1982-15
As a recent immigrant from South Africa to Saskatoon, Ann Newdigate was drawn to weaving in the 1970s thanks to the influence of Prince Albert weaver Margreet van Walsem. Continuing her studies at the Edinburgh College of Art, Newdigate created this Gobelin-style tapestry using a famous photograph of Métis leader Louis Riel that was taken after his capture at Batoche in 1885. According to Newdigate, “the tapestry has an autobiographical element because the date of the photo compares almost exactly with the date of one of the Boer Wars in South Africa when my grandfather was killed at Faber’s Puts.” As the title suggests, her interweaving of colonial narratives crosses borders, and raises complex questions about the erasures and appropriations by which national identities are constructed.
Catalogue 39
Ann Newdigate
b. 1934, Makhanda (also known as Grahamstown), South Africa
Then there was Mrs. Rorschach’s dream/ You are what you see, 1988
181 x 87 cm
tapestry; linen, silk, synthetic fibres, wool, cotton
Collection of the Canada Council Art Bank, 90/1-0261
“With the figure of Mrs. Rorschach, the artist points to historians’ neglect of both women and tapestry. Although Mrs. Rorschach was a practising psychologist, her presence has been hidden from history, overshadowed by her more famous husband, just as tapestry has been neglected by art history, overshadowed by the more prestigious fine arts” (Bell, 1988).
Reproduced pages xix, 129, 158, 159, 180, 181.
Catalogue 40
Ann Newdigate with members of the Prince Albert Spinners and Weavers Guild and the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology Weaving Program
Another Year, Another Party, 1994–1996
114 x 162 cm
tapestry; wool
Mann Art Gallery Permanent Collection
This wonderful tapestry was woven with threads spun over the course of three decades. It was inspired by Ann Newdigate and Annabel Taylor, both of whom received gifts of yarn from their friends and mentors: Margreet van Walsem and Kate Waterhouse, pictured here. Another Year, Another Party commemorates a dynamic community of weavers, spinners and dyers based in Prince Albert, SK, their connections and shared histories. They include: Ann Newdigate, Alice Bergquist, Jill Couch, Sheila Devine, Lorraine Farish, Thérèse Gaudet, Elaine Greve, Mary Hunt, Gail Sheard, Shirley Spidla, Madelaine Walker, Melanie Wiens, Annabel Taylor, and Noella Thompson. The wool was coloured with dyes from local plants by Kate Waterhouse.
Reproduced page 204.
Catalogue 41
Maija Peeples-Bright
b. 1942, Riga, Latvia
Sunny Snail Woofish, c. 1970
35 x 81 x 0.5 cm
crochet; wool, fabric, paint, buttons
Collection of the MacKenzie Art Gallery, gift of Veronica and David Thauberger, 1999-167
The work of California artist Maija Peeples-Bright offers one of the few Prairie intersections of textiles and ceramics, another medium with ambitions to overturn modernist assumptions about art and craft. Peeples-Bright’s sojourn in Regina overlapped with that of her former teacher, the noted Funk ceramist David Gilhooly. From 1970 to 1971, she created a wide range of Funk-inspired works in ceramic and textile, including crocheted “Woofishes,” a play on the word “fetish” and the name of her Dachshund, Woof W. Woof. During this period, she also produced crocheted, woven, and sewn “beast” curtains for the Art Building at the University of California, Davis.
Reproduced page 152.
Catalogue 42
William Perehudoff
1918–2013, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
Untitled Tapestry (Loeb Commission), 1976
120.7 x 160 cm
punch-hooked; acrylic, cotton, latex
Collection of Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Jules Loeb, 1980, CM 80.6.5
In 1975, Toronto collector and philanthropist Fay Loeb initiated a project that would see twenty-three leading artists from across Canada produce designs for a series of limited edition tapestries. The tapestries were conceived as a way to warm the often-uninviting common areas of public and commercial buildings. William Perehudoff from Saskatoon was one of five Prairie artists selected. His tapestry, which is based on a small collage, took advantage of the vibrant hues of acrylic yarn that were used in the tapestry workshop in Mexico. Artisans accentuated the colour edges in his design by hand-carving a deep “V” in the punch-hooked pile, thereby replicating the cut elements of the original collage.
Reproduced page 96.
Catalogue 43
Gayle Platz
b. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Large Tapestry Weave, c. 1974
190 x 66 cm
slit-woven, free-form tapestry; bouclé, chenille, wood
Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Acquired with funds from The Winnipeg Foundation, G-74-12
In the early 1970s, two young experimental weavers, Gayle Platz and Marilyn Foubert, established a shop-studio in Winnipeg whimsically named “Frolicking Fantasy.” The weavers, who had met at Sheridan College in Ontario, were given an exhibition of the same name at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1974. It highlighted their interest in structure, material, tactility, and an expanded understanding of what fibre arts could be. In Large Tapestry Weave, Platz combines wood, bouclé, and chenille into an organic shape with a prominent negative space—a work that demonstrates a myriad of tactile and formal possibilities.
Reproduced page 95.
Catalogue 44
Anne Ratt
d. 1970s Saskatchewan, Canada
Mat (cross pattern), c. 1971
53 x 47 cm
looped; rabbit fur
SK Arts Permanent Collection, N73.5
Anne Ratt was from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and a citizen of Sucker River First Nation in northern Saskatchewan. For her rabbit fur mats, Ratt employed traditional northern Cree techniques that were used to make lightweight, warm, and breathable garments and blankets. Lengths of rabbit fur were cut and dried, then rubbed and worked to make them pliable, and finally looped in a manner similar to crochet using the index finger as a hook. According to Sherry Farrell Racette, an Algonquin/Métis academic, the small scale of these rabbit fur mats and their sale through La Ronge’s Northern Handicraft Co-operative Centre (an alternative to the trading post system), indicates they were possibly a “test product” for tourists or a southern market.
Reproduced page 39.
Catalogue 45
Anne Ratt
d. 1970s Saskatchewan, Canada
Mat (radiating circle pattern), c. 1971
51 x 44 cm
looped; rabbit fur
SK Arts Permanent Collection, N73.6
Reproduced page 39.
Catalogue 46
Elaine Rounds
b. 1943, Harvard, Illinois, United States
Prairie Twill Seasons (Ode to Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter), 1985
104 x 104 cm (each)
twill woven; wool, acrylic, cotton, linen
Collection of the Artist
This suite of four weavings is a celebratory ode to the dramatic change of seasons on the Prairies. When Rounds first moved to Brandon, Manitoba from Colorado in 1970, the landscape did not appeal to her. However, she eventually fell in love with its subtle and sublime beauty and began weaving her appreciation into wall hangings with strong horizontal lines. In addition to the twill weave of this work, Rounds is also known for her use of the Swedish inlay technique. Prairie Twill Seasons (Ode to Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter), has hung in the land titles office in Brandon and in the office of the director of the Rural Development Institute at Brandon University, and it was included in the 1989 exhibition Urban/Rural Landscape at the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba.
Reproduced page 135.
Catalogue 47
Mariette Rousseau-Vermette
1926, Trois-Pistoles, Québec, Canada–2006, Montréal, Québec, Canada
Anne-Marie, 1976
183 x183 cm
weaving, boutonné technique; wool, cotton
Collection of Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity
When Mariette Rousseau-Vermette arrived in Alberta to head the Fibre program at The Banff Centre for the Arts (1979–1985) she was already established internationally as a leading tapestry artist, appearing four times at the influential Tapestry Biennial in Lausanne, Switzerland (1962, 1965, 1967, 1971). Along with her Canadian contemporaries, she forged a new awareness and appreciation for tapestry—a “Fibre Revolution” that would see textile artists experiment with new materials and push the limits of traditional weaving off the wall. One of a series of almost monochromatic works, Anne-Marie embodies modernist restraint and quiet contemplation. Similar works were exhibited as part of major 1976 exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, examples of which are found today in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Catalogue 48
Florence Ryder
c. 1935–2005 Standing Buffalo First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada
Untitled (lilac ground), no date
45.7 x 95.3 cm
Hooked rug technique; wool, mixed fabrics on burlap
Private Collection
Florence Ryder was a citizen of the Standing Buffalo Dakota First Nation located in the Qu’Appelle Valley of southern Saskatchewan. She learned to make rugs when she was ten years old from her mother, Elizabeth Ryder. Ryder’s designs were floral based until a brief stint with the Sioux Handcraft Co-operative encouraged her to adopt geometrical Dakota designs. Unlike the latch-hooked Ta-hah-sheena wool rugs of the Co-operative, Ryder’s hooked rugs are made with used clothing (mostly polyester pants) acquired from the Friendship Centre in the nearby town of Fort Qu’Appelle, resulting in colours that reflect the fashion trends of the recent past. Inspiration for her designs came from a variety of sources, including books, magazines, television, and powwows.
Catalogue 49
Florence Ryder
c. 1935–2005 Standing Buffalo First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada
Untitled (pink ground), no date
48 x 91 cm
Hooked rug technique; wool, mixed fabrics on burlap
Collection of Jack Severson
Reproduced page 49.
Catalogue 50
Jane Sartorelli
1924, Toronto, Ontario, Canada–2006 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Cerridwen, c. 1975
231 x 139.7 x 12.7 cm
free-form macramé; wool, acrylic, mixed fibres
Collection of Nick and Annette Radujko
The 1970s saw the proliferation of feminist art practices—works that sought to recuperate “feminine” techniques, subjects, and bodies in order to challenge patriarchy. It is unlikely Jane Sartorelli travelled to see Judy Chicago’s The Dinner Party when it was launched in Brooklyn in 1974, however, Cerridwen shares much of its boldness, strength, and abstracted feminine forms. Sartorelli began working with textiles in the mid-1960s combining techniques to create her own idiosyncratic style of low-relief tapestry. Her work was shown and collected extensively in Edmonton allowing Sartorelli to support her five children as a single mother. Her subjects were most often figurative, although she experimented with abstraction. Cerridwen is the name of an ancient Welsh goddess associated with rebirth and inspiration.
Reproduced page 153.
Catalogue 51
Hazel Schwass
1925, Wadena, Saskatchewan, Canada–2011, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Untitled, 1974
160 x 80 x 8 cm
free-form tapestry; wool, sheep fleece, bones, wooden beads
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 1974.022.001
In 1943, 18-year-old Saskatchewan born artist and weaver Hazel Schwass devoted 210 hours to the Searle Grain Company’s concentrated weaving study program. Building on this foundation, she continued studies with Margreet van Walsem and Kate Waterhouse at the Saskatchewan Summer School for the Arts in Fort Qu’Appelle, SK, and with Mary Snyder at Banff. Known in Lethbridge as an influential teacher and “the lady who made saddle blankets,” Schwass also produced more experimental works that incorporate elements of her blankets—juicy padding, rectangular shape, and a single fringe—in novel and expressive forms. She was an influential teacher at Lethbridge Community College and active member of the Lethbridge Handicraft Guild; the Handspinners, Weavers and Dyers of Alberta; the Handweavers, Spinners and Dyers of America; and the Lethbridge Allied Arts Council.
Reproduced page 16.
Catalogue 52
Mary Scott
b. 1948, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Imago, (viii) “translatable” «Is That Which Denies», 1988
739 x 99.1 cm
embroidery, deconstructed fabric; silk
Art Gallery of Alberta Collection, gift of Mr. Joseph Pierzchalski, 95.36
As a painter, Mary Scott has consistently pushed the boundaries of what painting is. In the mid-1980s, after working as Assistant Head of Visual Arts at the Banff Centre (1982–1984), Scott’s work began to consider the relationship between surface and ground, image and text, disruption and order. Her series Imago, from the Latin word for “image”, explores Lacan’s idea of the idealized image or archetype—and the phallocentrism which French feminists sought to subvert. Imago, (viii) translatable «Is That Which Denies» is a length of deconstructed silk cloth—not woven but un-woven. The central panel is embroidered with the abstracted image of a Leonardo da Vinci drawing showing the cross-section of a man and women engaged in coitus.
Catalogue 53
Margaret Sutherland
1922, Calgary, Alberta, Canada–2017
The Seed, c. 1984
162.6 x 58.4 cm
Theo Moorman inlay technique; wool
Collection of Red Deer Museum + Art Gallery, Gift of Dr. Kathleen A. Swallow
Margaret Sutherland first learned to weave at the Banff School of Fine Arts, taking courses with Mary Snyder (1973) and F. Douglas Motter (1974). In 1980/81, Sutherland was included in Fibrations, “the province’s first juried contemporary fibre art exhibition,” juried by Glen Allison, Ann Lambert and Mariette Rousseau-Vermette for the University of Alberta (later travelling to The Nickle Arts Museum, now known as Nickle Galleries). Throughout the 1980s, Sutherland undertook numerous large-scale architectural weaving commissions in Alberta, including tapestries for Sun Life Place in Edmonton and Sun Life Plaza in Calgary. Sutherland, who lived for a time in the bush outside Rocky Mountain House, nurtured a deep appreciation of nature, a sensibility reflected in The Seed.
Reproduced page 171.
Catalogue 54
Martha Tawiyaka
c. 1877–1979, Standing Buffalo First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada
Tipi Mat, 1967
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
76.2 x 61 cm
latch-hooked; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection
Martha Tawiyaka, a descendant of Chief Standing Buffalo, was a Sisseton Dakota woman, midwife, and medicine woman. As a founding member of the Sioux Handcraft Co-operative and its “spiritual head,” Tawiyaka worked with other Elders from the community to provide traditional Dakota designs for the young women in the co-operative. Her work was presented to dignitaries and collected by several institutions, the most significant being a large tapestry made for the University of Regina that remains on display in the Dr. John Archer Library. In 1969, she was noted as one of the “Canadians You Should Know” by Maclean’s magazine.
Reproduced page 40.
Catalogue 55
Annabel Taylor
1937, Lucky Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada–2006, Deep River, Ontario, Canada
Ten Shades of Sheep, 1983
133 x 86 cm
rug weaving technique, weft-faced; handspun wool, linen
SK Arts Permanent Collection, Donated by the Saskatchewan Craft Council, 2020-059
Annabel Taylor was a founding member of the Prince Albert Spinners and Weavers Guild and a former student of Margreet van Walsem and Ann Newdigate. Ten Shades of Sheep is a prize-winning example of her interest in natural dyeing and spinning, techniques which she often taught. “The challenge of using a simple structure, a limited palette of colour, pure materials and classic elements of carpet design,” Taylor writes, “have involved me in a process which is simple and direct, a process which has been very satisfying.”
Reproduced page 116.
Catalogue 56
Margreet van Walsem
1923, Zutphen, The Netherlands–1979, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada
Birth, 1971
86.4 x 35.6 cm
tapestry; wool
Collection of Mann Art Gallery, 2005.07.010
Dutch-born artist Margreet van Walsem was introduced to natural dyed wool and weaving by Anton Skerbinc at the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts in Fort Qu’Appelle in 1969. Her work harmonizes a deep feeling for nature with a use of natural materials, an interest in ancient and Indigenous weaving techniques, and a choice of subject matter that “involves being surprised with and wondering about familiar things: birth, death, dance, giving, taking, justice and injustice” (Jasper, 1974). These interests converge in Birth, an image which fuses the moment of birth with the creation of a tapestry.
Reproduced page 157.
Catalogue 57
Margreet van Walsem
1923, Zutphen, The Netherlands–1979, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada
Inside Out, 1977
254 x 127 x 10 cm
slit-woven tapestry with additions; wool
Collection of Mann Art Gallery, 2017.08.016
The later works of influential Prince Albert weaver Margreet van Walsem bring together a deep commitment to carding, spinning, and dyeing with an evolving interest in innovative weaving techniques. Van Walsem became more interested “in the possibilities of structure” (Robertson, 1976) after encountering sculptural weaving approaches at the Sixth Lausanne International Tapestry Biennial in 1973, and through workshops with Jagoda Buić (Yugoslavia) and Ritzi Jacobi (Germany) in 1974. Inside Out is a virtuosic tapestry in which changing loom tensions allows the creation of a multi-form landscape of slits and channels, twists, and folds.
Catalogue 58
Kate Waterhouse
1899–1995, Kerrobert, Saskatchewan, Canada
Kate Waterhouse Archives, 1977
Sample Card: 25 x 38.5 cm
Opened Book: 22 x 30 cm
paper, wool
SK Arts Permanent Collection, Gift of Ann Newdigate, 1998-028
The publication in 1977 of Saskatchewan Dyes: A Personal Adventure with Plants and Colours summarized a decade of intensive research and experimentation by the Saskatchewan dyer and weaver Kate Waterhouse. Assisted by the Saskatchewan Arts Board and classes at the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts, she developed an impressive body of knowledge about the dyes produced by Prairie plants—knowledge that has enriched the work of many weavers in this exhibition (Margreet van Walsem, Ann Newdigate, Annabel Taylor, et al.).
Catalogue 59
Whynona Yates
1926 Leicester, England–1998, Canada
Hanging, 1974
237 x 132 x 20 cm
weaving, twining, rya; wool
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 1997.085.001
British-born Whynona Yates was a prolific weaver whose large-scale textile sculptures and wall hangings were shown across Canada and internationally, including in the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67 and the National Gallery of Canada in 1973. Based in Edmonton, Yates spun, dyed, and created her works using a variety of woven and off-loom techniques, reflecting an interest in weaving traditions from around the world. Hanging features dense, thatch-like rows of raw fleece fringe as well as fine warp threads and a narrow band of weaving at the top. While recalling a landscape, the fringes may also reference a mino, a type of Japanese outer garment made of water-repellent straw.
Catalogue 60
Marge Yuzicappi
b. 1948, Fort Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, Canada
Tapestry (Ta-hah-sheena), c. 1970
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
365 x 183 cm
latch-hooked; wool, linen
Collection of University of Regina President’s Art Collection, pc.1971.3
Marge (Marjorie) Yuzicappi was one of the younger members of the Sioux Handcraft Co-operative and hooked some of its largest rugs, an activity which she continues today. One of her most significant works, Tapestry (Ta-hah-sheena), was made for the University of Regina where it remains on display in the Dr. John Archer Library. Because the rug was too large to lay out in her home, Yuzicappi had to roll it up and work on it in sections. As Algonquin/Métis academic Sherry Farrell Racette notes regarding this piece, her “geometric patterns are both subtle and dynamic, serving the ancient purpose of beautifying a shared communal space.”
Catalogue 61
Yvonne Yuzicappi
1942 Wolseley, Saskatchewan–2009 Standing Buffalo First Nation, Saskatchewan, Canada
Rug, 1968
Sioux Handcraft Co-operative
111 x 36.5 cm
latch-hooked; wool, cotton
SK Arts Permanent Collection