New Work for Guildworks in 2024

Soft Jewel Heart    a hand pieced and hand quilted     2019,  28.25  x 27.25 inches

  

Framed in a wooden shadow box with no glass.  

Part of the new season in Guildworks in Bloomfield, Prince Edward County, Ontario.

Sold into private collection in May 2024.

Beauty Emotion Spirit Soul exhibition was extended until May 3

Beauty Emotion Spirit Soul    found fabrics, applique, embroidery, hand stitch  49" x 49"   2019   Judy Martin

Thank you Cristina Masotti, owner of One Sky gallery.
Shown here, one of the pieces that sold from the exhibition. 

Cloth of Time Opens in Halifax at Mary E Black Gallery, Halifax Nova Scotia July 12 2018

Not To Know But To Go On, stitched textile Judy Martin hangs from the ceiling in centre of gallery space.
 Cloud of Time, stitched textile by Judy Martin hangs from the ceiling in the window of the gallery. 
The Sun, The Moon, And Also The Stars by Judy Martin are also suspended and hang in front of the left wall in above photo

I love to stitch by hand.
I need to do it every day, or I do not feel settled.
I stitch for an hour or two every  morning before breakfast as a way of preparing my inner self for the rest of the day.
I schedule appointments for the afternoon so that they do not interrupt this quiet time with my self.

Daily Scratchings by Penny Berens hangs on right wall in above photo

I think a lot about love and things spiritual.
The tactility of those marks made with thread help me to communicate my ideas.
The gentle bumps of thread in cloth beg to be touched, even when we are in an art gallery where touching is not allowed, yet we still know how pleasurable the simple repeated stitches will feel under our caressing fingers.

Penny Berens and Judy Martin at the opening of Cloth of Time, July 12 2018

Touch has been called the mother of the senses,
because it is able to reach each of us on a more emotional level than the sense of sight.

Stone Pathways (left wall) and Cris Cross (right wall) both by Penny Berens

The largest piece in the exhibition, Not To Know But To Go On, addresses mortality and the relentless rhythm of time.  Fabrics that I've saved for years were couched onto artist's canvas with an entire skein of cotton embroidery floss each day, for three years.
Inspired by the Finnish rugs of my heritage and the writing of Agnes Martin, this piece makes the whirl of time visible.

Cloud of Time  by Judy Martin encourages light to shine through, like a cloud  

The large wall piece, Cloud of Time,  although created with the same techniques as the sculpture, has colours that are limited to that of a cloud filled sky and is not a journal, but a document of one year of time.

The Sun, The Moon, And Also The Stars, three hand stitched drawings on felt by Judy martin

The Sun, The Moon, And Also The Stars, are three smaller wall pieces that evolved through the practice of creating small daily collages.  Plant dyed velvet and other fabrics were stitched into individual designs on backings of wool felt.  These were then stitched together.  When I ran out of felt, I turned the pieces over and drew onto them with black thread stitched marks.

Susan Charles, director-durator of the Mary E Black gallery spoke at the opening reception

I think that the main reason I make things with cloth and thread is that the process heals me.
Creating something that was not here before gives me a sense of well-being.

Also, I consider my stitched pieces to be poems as much as they are drawings or sculptures, but I'll talk about that another time.
Judy Martin 2018

The exhibition continues until August 26, 2018
Mary E Black Gallery, Halifax Nova Scotia

Perivale Gallery Opens for 2018 season on Sunday May 20

I Will Always Carry You      a Love Meditation
silk and hand stitch, mounted on linen  19 inches square (framed)

Your Vulnerability Connects You To The Rest of our Suffering World    a love meditation
Antique silk that is shattering, hand stitched, mounted on linen  19 inches square (framed)


Four Love Meditations and Two oil paintings will be part of the Opening Exhibition of the Perivale Gallery this May 20 at 1 pm until 6 pm
Live Link to the gallery begins at 7 am in the morning   here


Perivale Gallery
1320 Perivale Road
Spring Bay Manitoulin Island
P0B 2B0
705 377 4847
705 210 0290

The Whole Shebang

 The Cambridge Art Galleries  (The Idea Exchange) in Cambridge Ontario will be show-casing the entire colelction of Canadian Contemporary Fibre Art November 24 2017 to February 18 2018.

Judy Martin's 1993 quilt "Hold Me" is part of this collection, acquired in 1994.

The text couched into the border reads:  "When you consider something like death, then it probably doesn't matter if we try too hard, are awkward sometimes, or love one another too deeply in order to know life.'"

 The entire quilt is made of rayon cloth and is hand quilted and embroidered.

There will be a symposium to discuss the collection on Saturday January 27, 2018.

Guided tours of the collection run on Tuesday evenings 7 pm and Saturday afternoons at 2 pm.

For more information, click here

Masterworks: Abstract and Geometric opens in Houston at International Quilt Festival

Mended World is one of the 29 art quilts on display in this exhibition which will tour the world until 2020.
Judy Martin and her local community on Manitoulin Island Canada created this meditation panel  2009 - 2012

The fabrics are donated and thrift shop linen damask table cloths and new silk
hand and machine constructed by many hands
hand quilted by many hands

View all the works in this exhibition through a slide show  available here.
Judy was asked to make an audio file about this piece.  Listen to it at this link.

November 3 - 5 2017 at the festival in Houston 

Hard Twist 12: Yarn at Gladstone Hotel

Judy Martin 's ironing board covers are part of this exhibition which opens August 23 and runs until January 7 2018

The opening reception is September 7 2017 at the Gladstone Hotel Queen West Toronto Ontario at 7 pm

here is link to facebook information

see all the pieces in the exhibition flash by 

Meditation Panel Workshop Gros Morne, Newfoundland october 16-17-18 2015

Judy Martin is teaching Meditation Panels at Fibre Arts Newfoundland.
The three days are packed.

Day one:
bead stitch and introductions
looking  at the Manitoulin meditation panels
reverse applique
digital presentation of the archetypes
drawing
stitch and flip foundations

Day two:
show and tell of participant's work
eyelet stitch, stem stitch
digital presentation on how the meditation panels were constructed
making visualization foundations
quiet work
presentation of texture magic
hand stitching practice

Judy Martin showing her french knot sample in Newfoundland

Day three
more hand stitch practice
digital presentation on stitch
covering large areas with piecework
using the design wall
quiet work, quiet work
digital presentation of the instructor's own work
critique and plan what will happen next with your work