Monday, October 31, 2011

Exhibition: India Flint's "Mapping Country"


Visiting artist India Flint takes the opportunity to show the public some of her work while in Canada to  teach a workshop on natural dyes through NSCAD's Extended Studies.

Mapping Country

November 1 - 12, 2011


Anna Leonowens Gallery1891 Granville Street

Opening Reception Monday October 31st at 5:30PM

Gallery 3 

 "India Flint works with windfall leaves, cloth and stitch to make pieced textile works in which the colour is printed directly onto the cloth from the leaf. Flint explains:

No toxic adjuncts are used in this process that relies on variables such as the water used to make up the dye bath, the composition of the dye vessel, the plant material employed and the responsiveness of the fibre to generate colour on the cloth. Each dyed fragment involves a walk; maybe through woods and forests, fields and paddocks, along rivers and by the sea or through suburbs and cities. Windfall leaves are collected at previously determined trig points such as the call of a bird, the end of a verse of song in my head or the simple counting of steps. The pieces are documents of place; maps and landscape ‘drawings’ formed through the application of colour derived from the land."


Wednesday, October 26, 2011

A Very Kind Morning

A hot bath, the last of the raspberry Jam, a zine picked up at the Zine Fair and City mail dilivered in person to our mailbox. No adress needed.



City Mail is definitely the neatest Halifax born idea since Burrito Bike. (you could order cheap delicious burrito's till 2 am on saturdays delivered on bicycle by dear friends or familiar strangers.) Burrito Bike has since moved on with it's creators to select areas of Toronto. But City mails is still going strong despite its birth mother moving on to Sackville New Brunswick.

You can drop vaguely addressed envelopes off in special post boxes at select locations and a very diligent post lady will get it to the recipient on bicycle, no postage necessary.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Home sweet home

I moved back to Halifax a month and a half ago and had a lovely time scraping wallpaper layered in years of paint from the walls of my new room. I Painted it a bright buttery yellow to make up for the long dark winters I'm so accustomed to here on the east coast.



After  visit to the annual Pop Explosion Zine fair  I was inspired to run home and set up the corner of my room intended for drawing and illustration attempts. Its time to take my self a little more seriously....and designated, inspiring spaces -however small - are a huge help!

Golden Rod from Needham Park.

When i drove from Ontario to Nova Scotia I could see the goldenrod along the highway as it seemed to pass through seasons from summers bright early blooms to falls fading flowers as we got closer to the coast. When i arrived and talked to a few wild flower enthusiasts I found that it had bloomed early and quickly went out to gather what little i could salvage before it was gone entirely.

 I don't know if it was the lackluster blooms or the silks less absorbent qualities but the resulting dye bath was a soft yellow green this time rather than the bright limes i've gotten used to.

but it was beautiful none the less and as always it's part of the magic of natural dying. It might also be that part of the universe that is trying to finally tell me to reign in the bright colors and temper my pallet.



I did a few simple post mordant tests but in the end stuck with the muted yellow-green for the main silk piece. It will likely become a scarf with a simple rolled edge.