Evolve closes October 2, 2022

Turning Forever To the Heart

Hand stitch on taffeta by Judith E Martin

12" x 12" sewn to heavy paper and framed under glass 20" square.

This piece is part of EVOLVE, an exhibition of six women artists at the Propeller Gallery in Toronto Ontario.  The show is at the gallery until October 2 , continue to view online for another 30 days.  The exhibition was curated by Loree Ovens.

On October 2, Judy Martin will be in attendance at the gallery from 1 - 5:30 pm.  She has three pieces in the exhibition.   

Click on this link to view the works in the exhibition along with artist statements, bios and also a gorgeous video created by the Propeller gallery.  

Click on the artist's names listed below to visit their professional websites.  Chum-Im Kim, Liz Menard, Eva Ennist, Saskia Wassing, Judy Martin and Loree Ovens.  

Turning Forever To the Heart has sold into private collection.

Closing talk for In The Middle of The World now on Youtube

Melanie Girdwood-Brunton, exhibition manager at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum beautifully introduces the closing question and answer session with Miranda Bouchard and the two artists, Judith E Martin and Penny Berens on the YouTube video. 

Michael Rikley-Lancaster the executive director/curator is generous in his closing remarks. 

The exhibition was very well received.  It will next show in Kenora Ontario at the Muse gallery March 20 - June 17 2023.  A catalogue of the exhibition will be published in January 2023.

Click on THIS LINK to view the video.

when my arms wrap you round I press my heart upon the loveliness that has long faded from the world W B Yeats

In The Middle of the World exhibition closed at end of day, December 18, 2021.  (slide show here)

The two person exhibition with Penny Berens / Judy Martin and curator Miranda Bouchard will be touring to Northern Ontario and hopefully Nova Scotia in the next few years.  A catalogue about this body of work will be published in 2022.  

The two pods on the right of image went into a private collection in January.  The collector approached Guildworks gallery and Guy de Carteret acted as an agent with the artist.  The titles of the two wrapped bundles are:  When My Arms Wrap Round (the hanging one) and My Heart (the floor one).  The hanging artwork on the left in the above image is entitled Time Future: Touch the Stars by Judy Martin.    

Photo by Paul Latour

Earthiness and Ethereality in Conversation: An Artist Talk

In The Middle of The World closes December 18, 2021 after a three month run. (Oct 2 - Dec 18)

The exhibition was very well received with many 'in real life' visitors.  Judy Martin, Penny Berens and Miranda Bouchard wish to thank the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte, Ontario Canada.

The show was beautifully installed in one of the most unique gallery spaces in Canada.  

There will be an online zoom event at 2 pm December 18.  The link to pre-register is here.

Miranda Bouchard joined up with Judy Martin and Penny Berens in 2016 with the idea of creating an exhibition of new work by these two senior artists that would dig into their personal belief systems and express the deep connection each feels with their individual rural environments.  Judy is from Northern Ontario and Penny is from Nova Scotia.  

The artists wanted to be free to seek and explore new directions yet have a support system that kept them on track.  Miranda ,with her natural depth of understanding combined with her experience in art management and curatorial work was able to provide that kind of support.  

Miranda will lead the conversation during this zoom event, just as she has led the many conversations the three have had through online meetings and emails and face to face studio visits over the last five years.  The two artists approach their work from different slants.  

Judy's work is more meditative than descriptive.

She gets brave by looking at other fine artists' work and lives.

She believes that art made from cloth has power.

Cloth is familiar and our bodies understand it at a deep level.  

Time and timelessness combine in her work, and the marks she makes are evidence of lived time.

Her work is about the huge topic of being human.  She talks about the inner world a lot. 

Penny loves nature.  

Penny walks every day in nature with her dogs and observes it closely.

She works in solitude and allows her work to change as it goes along, but the basis remains her experience of living in a rural environment.

Her work is meditative and brave.  "No matter how you think about it" she says "you're completely exposing yourself in your work."

Over the years, Miranda has become quite familiar with the two artists and sees differences and similarities in their work.  She brought organization to the conversations and often used categories to clarify things.  

inner / outer /in between  

touch changes / heart changes / time changes

change  / open / share 

heart / head / hands

Miranda will lead the conversation on Saturday.  She has promised to ask some stimulating questions.  

Here are two examples: 

Q:  What keeps you curious?

Q:  Where does vulnerability show up in this exhibition?

These kinds of questions open up ideas and it will be interesting to hear what we say.  It will not be scripted.    The gallery has promised to record the conversation and share it with people who have registered, so that if you can not make the exact 2 pm date in this busy pre-Christmas time, I encourage you to still register and watch it later.    Here is the link again. 

https://mvtm.ca/mvt2/event-page/middle-of-the-world/

There will also be a live Q and A with those who attend.

All photos in this post are by Paul Latour except for the 4th and 5th ones (Judy Martin)

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. 

The Wild Pure Aesthetic Wonder exhibition in Woody Point, Newfoundland

from left to right, I Dream of Wild Places by Rachel Ryan, Coyote felted sound mask by Jennifer Galliott, Spora, a wall mounted sculpture by Barb Daniell and Beginning with Time by Judy Martin (side view)

I imagined plant spores as terrestrial asteroids, colonizing new environments"  Barb Daniell

Beginning With Time: reclaimed wool blanket, wool cloth, plant dye, wool thread 78 x 90 inches by Judy Martin

"I want to create immense areas of emptiness filled with repetitive small marks, like the cliff faces in Gros Morne"  Judy Martin

Gloria Hickey at the closing reception of the exhibition.  Gloria gave a walk through, sharing personal anecdotes of the process of curating this innovative exhibition.  Background, Barb Daniell's Spora, foreground, Jennifer Galliott's Coyote.

"In an increasingly urbanized and technologically advanced society, wilderness may well be our most rare and precious resource.  Pristine wilderness cannot be manufactured.  Wilderness is as the heart of Gros Morne and the challenge for this exhibition was for the artists to bring the wild into the heart of their art"  (from the curatorial statement)

Foot Rest of the Earth: Serpantine periodotitte and Cushioned from the Past: Lichen Encrusted Granite, both by Linda Hope Ponting.  Wool yarn, knitted, woven, felted and needle felted.  These are the size of boulders, the top one 38 x 20 x 6 inches, the lower one 34 x 28 x 20 inches.

Rosalind Ford, with one of her two suspended elder ducks.  Fracked, screen printed cotton, embroidery and plasti-dip. 

"The proposed fracking activity presents a large undetermined threat to the birds in the area." Rosalind Ford

Into the Boreal by Shoshanna Wingate   ecoprints on fabric, stitched and embroidered.  Birch, alder, larch leaves, raw silk, original poems.

poet and artist Shoshanna Wingate

poem by Shoshanna Wingate inspired by birch leaves

"Engagement with the natural environment is a foundation for my own work and I hope to find a new way to expand tradition." Shoshanna Wingate

Beginning of Time by Judy Martin, seen from reverse side.  Both sides are the right side.

The Wild Pure Aesthetic Wonder exhibition closed on October 18, 2015.  It had hung all summer (from May until October) in the Woody Point Discovery Centre in Gros Morne National Park.  The Discovery Centre was visited by 25,000 people.  Each of the pieces was created especially for this exhibition.  The co-curators were Gloria Hickey and Philippa Jones, the sponsors of the exhibition were the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador and Parks Canada.  View or download the catalog of the exhibition.  There is also a curatorial essay available , click here to read it.