Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Craft Ontario Award Reception October 30

Save the Date for the Awards Reception in Toronto this fall.

Pictured is Judy Martin's Lamentation quilt.  Judy won the Gladstone House Award and will be in attendance to receive it on October 30.


The Craft Awards recognize excellence and celebrate accomplished and dedicated practitioners in the field of craft and design. This year we are thrilled to announce the 2024 recipients, and hope you will join us in celebrating their achievements at the reception of the Craft Award Recipient Exhibition. Special thanks to this year's jurors: Ana Galindo, Annie Tung, Habiba El-Sayed, Heidi Earnshaw, Jean Marshall, and Rob Raeside!

Exhibition Reception:  Wednesday, October 30, 6:30-8:30 PM

Craft Ontario Gallery, 1106 Queen St. W., Toronto
We appreciate RSVPs via email to awards@craftontario.com

Monday, September 16, 2024

Not To Know But To Go On is featured on the cover of Schiffer's new Catalogue

 

The latest catalogue put out by Schiffer Publishing, features Judy Martin's stitched journal, Not To Know But To Go On, a daily practice that documents three years of time and was completed in 2013.  

Not To Know..... is one of the many calendars, diaries, or journals that Tommye McClure Scanlin gathered together for her new book, the first one featured in the catalogue. Click here to view the entire catalog.

Marking Time with Fabric and Thread  will be available October 28, 2024. 

Thursday, September 12, 2024

In the Middle of the World: Artsplace, Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia September 7 - October 26, 2024

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 the 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 continue 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 is too late; and of the importance of knowing and accepting one's location in the world.

All text:  Miranda Bouchard’s curatorial statement.  

Wednesday, August 28, 2024

In the Middle of the World in Nova Scotia this fall

The two-person exhibition, In the Middle of the World, will show in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia this fall.  This exhibition has been on tour since 2021 when it was displayed at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte Ontario as the autumn exhibition.    

The artists are:  Penny Berens and Judith e Martin.  The curator is Miranda Bouchard.  The three of them will speak at the opening reception September 7 at 2 pm.  

There is a catalogue available for viewing online at this link.  It  will also possible to purchase a hard copy from the gallery or from the MVTM. 

Saturday, August 24, 2024

Craft Ontario awards: Judith e Martin wins the Gladstone House Award


On August 14, Craft Ontario announced the winners of the 2024 craft award recipients.

The jurors were:  Ana Galindo, Annie Tung, Habiba El-Sayed, Heidi Earnshaw, Jean Marshall, and Rob Raeside.  There were 17 awards this year, for the complete list of recipients:  please click here 

Inner World, natural dyes on linen and silk, hand stitched, 148 x 128 cm

Judith E Martin was awarded the Gladstone House Award of $1000.  In addition to the cash award, Judy is invited to exhibit her work for one year at the Gladstone on 1214 Queen Street West.   

An exhibition of all award recipients is scheduled to open at Craft Ontario's gallery/shop, 1100 Queen Street West on October 7 and remain on display until  November 3 .   

Thursday, August 22, 2024

The Manitoulin Expositor writes about Judy Martin's exhibit in England

Michael Erskine, associate editor of the local weekly newspaper, the Manitoulin Expositor, phoned Judy and asked her some questions about her experience in Birmingham.  Here is his article, published August 21, 2024.  

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Fibre artist Judy Martin is no stranger to international quilt exhibitions and awards, having been invited to participate in many over the years where she has garnered quite a harvest of accolades for the glory wall.  The artist has just returned from a solo exhibition in Birmingham, England where, not only did her innovative artistic fibre creations go on display, but Ms. Martin was also one of an international group of artists asked to speak and teach at the Festival of Quilts. 


Launched in 2003 in partnership with England's The Quilters' Guild as a hub for people from all over the world to come together and share their passion for quilting, The Festival of Quilts is now the biggest quilting show in Europe, with over 22,000 quilting fanatics from around the globe attending this year.  The festival is also home to the largest open quilt competition in the world, has the largest program of workshops and talks offered anywhere in Europe and hosts some of the leading quilt artists from around the globe.

Underfoot the Earth Divine by Judy Martin

"For nearly forty years, Judith E Martin's earthy, understated textiles have been exhibited and loved in solo and group exhibitions.  Her hand stitched quilt, Underfoot the Earth Divine, (pictured above) won honourable mention in the Fine Art Textile Award, Shortlist exhibition in the 2022 festival and Judy returns in 2024 with a solo exhibition of naturally dyed, two-sided quilts.  A self-taught quilter and proponent of the aesthetics of care and poetry in the practice of quilting, Martin holds two fine art BA degrees (Lakehead 1993 and Middlesex 2012)  Her long-lasting and popular blog, Judy's Journal gives this artist from Manitoulin Island, Canada, an international voice" reads her speaker's bio for the festival.

I had 14 pieces on display" noted Ms. Martin.  She had originally been approached by the festival for 2023, but felt she needed time to put together enough new work for the show.  "I could have entered my old work" admited Ms. Martin, but she decided to approach the show with new works.  So it ws she set about creating the collection that would come to be known as "Softer and Dreamier".

Ms. Martin said she was delighted with the way her work was displayed at the show.  My work is two-sided, she said.  The curation designer built walls with hollow centres that allowed viewers to see both sides.  Usually, quilts are hung against the wall, she said, but he created four pieces that acted as walls but where you could look through and see both sides.  They were practically floating.  My work has never been so well displayed."  

Ms. Martin said that while some fibre artists who work with quilts tend toward something more akin to a painting, she wants her work to evoke the practical origins of quilting.  'Originally, quilts were made to keep you warm at night".  That is what led her to the title of her show.  Softer and Dreamier.  The exhibition took place in the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, affectionally called the NEC. 

Judy speaks with Jo Hall, director of artist galleries for festival of quilts.

The Birmingham show is now behind her, but Ms. Martin has no chance to rest.  She recently won a prestigious award that includes a one-year exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel galleries in Toronto and a modest cash prize.  She is currently showing in a group exhibition in Kitchener, and she also has a show coming up in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.

Ms. Martin is fast becoming one of those overnight sensations that has been laboring in the trenches for nigh onto 50 years.  Ms. Martin says that we have great reason to be proud of the Canadian art scene.  One of the great things about Canadian galleries is that most provide an artist fee, she said.  Maybe that helps to pay for the road trips.  

Photo credit:  Ned Martin.

Saturday, August 10, 2024

The Softer and Dreamier Exhibition - August 1 - 4 Festival of Quilts Birmingham UK

a glimpse of  Your Fragile Life, In the background, Tomorrow is Another Day), center,  Kuutar (which means moon goddess in Finnish)  and in the background, Love the Soul Inside of Me 


Softer and Dreamier

An exhibition of fourteen quilted textiles created by Judith E Martin was displayed at the 2024 Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England in gallery one August 1 - 4, 2024.  There were thirteen exhibitions, nearly 800 competition quilts, countless vendors and ongoing demonstrations, workshops and lectures at this year's festival.  It is estimated that about 20,000 visitors attend the festival over the four day period it is up at the National Exhibition Centre, making it the largest textile festival in Europe.  Judy was invited to present a solo exhibition at this year's festival two years ago.  This was her first international solo exhibition. 

Snowy

Most of the pieces that Judy displayed were created over the last three years.  

They stood out from the rest of the quilts at the festival because of two reasons.  The first, and most obvious, is that Judy's work is all hand stitched.  Most (but not all) of the other quilts at the Festival of Quilts 2024 were made entirely on the machine.  

Snowy and You Are A Single Star

The second thing that makes Judy's work remarkable is the imperfection touch of the hand that connects it to the our humanity.  Her work engages with the viewer on a very personal level.  She references the bed quilt and the body in her work and this phenomenological understanding can be quite profound.

You are a Single Star 


Many of the pieces are made from repurposed fabrics.

Many of the pieces are made from fabrics that have been hand dyed with local plants from Judy's back yard and kitchen.

Far Away Stars, background Snowy, Daydream Believer, and Intimacy

Judith's guest book is full of names from people all over Great Britain, and also Germany, France, and other parts of Europe, as well as the USA.  Many people spoke with the artist who was in the gallery with her work most of the time.  One of the visitors was k3n - or Kathryn, from France, who made two videos for her very popular you tube channel, k3n cloth tales .    

For the 17 minute video that moves beautifully through the entire exhibition, please click this link.  


Another thing about Judith e Martin's pieces in this exhibition is that they are two-sided.  Six of the quilts were hung so that you could view both sides.  She also names each side with a unique name.  

The other side of Far Away Stars is entitled Cloudy Day (above)

Earth and Air and Your Fragile Life

The installation was beautifully done by the Festival Staff.  The textiles were able to hang free and be affected by movement of the air, and this added to the soft and dreamy quality of Martin's work.

Your Fragile Life (detail)