For an idea of the complete show catalogues are available to purchase from SAQA. Images of all 45 quilts in the exhibition can be viewed at this link.
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| Prayer Cloth: Hope by Judy Martin 2024 golden rod on cotton, stitched with red thread 40 x 40 inches |
Two of Judy Martin's new works have been chosen by Craft Ontario to promote the award applications on social media. Martin won one of the awards in 2024 (the Gladstone House award).
Martin's work is featured on Craft Ontario's Instagram account (here) and on the council's facebook promotional page. (here).
Applying for the Craft Council awards helps an artist to gather their work together, take stock of what has been accomplished, and what direction one might want to go in future work. Judy Martin
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| You Are A Single Star by Judy Martin Fifteen Dresden Plate appliques made in the 70's, new wool, natural dyes 90 x 90 inches, 2024, hand stitched with wool and cotton thread. |
Ontario Craft Council highlights the 2025 awards on their website, as well as listing all 2024 recipients.
The title, Yin Yin, refers to the philosophy of yin and yang.
If
yang is fast, yin is slow, if yang is sun, yin is moon. Yang is my outers self, while yin is my
inner.
The first side of
this small piece shows off the raw tactility of the wrong side of reverse
applique dots, metaphors for our interesting, vulnerable inner selves.
The back of the
piece, usually against the wall, is marked with the right side of those same
dots.
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| yin yin on display in the STARDUST exhibition, 2023, Gore Bay Museum |
My work explores the idea of inner self.
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| yin yin on display in the INSIDE OUT exhibition, 2023, Homer Watson Gallery, Kitchener, Ontario Canada |
Humans have two sides, public and private. With two 'wrong' sides, this piece represents private and private.
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| Yin yin in SOFTER and DREAMIER exhibition 2024, Festival of Quilts in Birmingham UK |
An original quilt made with three layers of material. The
first layer is made from hand dyed linen. The middle layer is wool
batting. The third layer is white wool
gauze.
A grid of hand dyed velvet dots covers the surface of both
the front and the back of the quilt. On
the first side, these dots are surrounded by raw edges of linen, while on the
second side the dots are neatly finished.
It was while making the dots that the artist discovered the importance
of the second side, or what she terms ‘the inside’. The ‘inner world’ has since become her
primary subject.
Yin Yin is 27 x 36” Reverse applique, hand quilted with cotton button thread.
This week, Yin Yin enters a private collection in the USA.
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| Her Arms Wrapped Round and My Heart, bundles of broken branches wrapped with dyed wool hanging in front of Underfoot the Earth Divine, Judy's dyed linen and wool quilt. As they were installed in Artsplace, Annapolis Royal Nova Scotia, September 2024 |
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| My Heart with The Forever at the World of Threads, Oakville Ontario, October 2023 |
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| Her Arms Wrapped Round with Eternity at the World of Threads Festival, Oakville Ontario in 2023 |
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| The two bundles installed in the Douglas Family Art Centre, Kenora , May 2023 background is Penny Berens' Waiting Between Night and Day, hand stitched linen |
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| Poet in Love An old whole cloth quilt, silk velvet, chemical dyes, rayon, silk, natural dyes, wool prepared for felting, silk applique thread, cotton quilting thread layering, patching, dyeing, mending, hand quilting, wet felting by Judy Martin, 2022, Ontario |
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| Shroud Recycled bed sheets on a found canvas frame, macrame yarn, off-loom weaving, layering by Anna Wagner-Ott (1948 - 2024) in 2023, Ontario |
In renewal of self relating to the delicate balance of vulnerability and resilience, my art mirrors a return to the raw, conflicted human condition, born from personal experiences and emotions.
Through colour, texture and form, my work visually articulates the rich tapestry of the human experience, crafting a narrative of my emotions and existence. exhibition catalogue page 72-73
Renewal, SAQA Canadian Regional Exhibition, opened in Kenora at the Lake of the Woods Museum (the Muse) on January 23 and will continue on display until March 22, 2025.
There is a beautiful catalogue available with an essay by juror David Kaye. If you can't visit the show in person, perhaps you might like to purchase the catalogue. Shall post a link.
Lake
Linen, silk, wool and shibori back, indigo dyed, hand embroidered, hand quilted 66 x 52 inches, 2014
Above Us
silk, cotton, cotton threads, chemical dye, hand embroidery-quilted, 81 x 40 inches 2015
This textile will be on display until November 2025. Martin won the 2024 Gladstone House award through the Ontario Craft Council. There was an award ceremony on October 30. The award is$1000 plus an exhibition for one year in one of the guestrooms. All of the Gladstone House guestrooms have original art in them.
