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Thread Bare
CELEBRATING THE FIBRE ARTS
» Thursday 9 April 2009 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing the creative economy. Join us as artists Janet Armstrong, Barbara Jean Newhouse, Akira Ellen Hanson, and Heather Specken share their enthusiasm for a diverse and creative visual art.
» $2 at the door. Refreshments are available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE
Fibre Arts Thrive in the Okanagan
Fibre arts have emerged as one of the most diverse and creative visual art forms in the last four decades. Once considered primarily a craft, or women's work, fibre arts have become an established medium as exciting as painting or sculpture.
Whether art quilting, weaving, knitting or the creation of wearable pieces, fibre arts are not only visually stunning, but tactile, sometimes practical (or not) and unlimited in their possibilities for media, method and expression. All that is required is the vision and skill of the individual artist.
On Thursday, April 9th at 5 pm the ongoing weekly Okanagan Institute Express series at the Bohemian Café presents Thread Bare: Celebrating the Fibre Arts, the first in a series of events focused on this art form, starting with artists from the North Okanagan, who have taken their creative interpretations to the next level. The host is Dona Sturmanis, a lifelong connoisseur, collector and documenter of fibre arts, as well as journalist and editor. Featured guests are Janet Armstrong, Barbara Jean Newhouse, Akira Ellen Hanson, and Heather Specken.
These artists exhibit, work on commission, teach and belong to guilds ranging from local to international. They have developed unique methods and philosophies in their personal passion that would stun the most jaded of fine artists.
 Janet Armstrong, highly regarded Vernon artist, discovered her passion for fibre arts as a child. By age eight, she was already knitting. Four years later she added sewing to her repertoire. Her work is an extensive exploration of colour and texture. "I like knitting uppermost, but am equally comfortable sitting at a sewing machine."
In 2007 Armstrong accepted a commission for a series of liturgical stoles for a minister to wear for services. She made them out of ties collected from the minister's congregation.
This fibre artist has also been exploring the concept of contemplative knitting--"knitting with intention, imbuing each stitch with love and affection for the recipient." Armstrong knits shawls for friends and family members undergoing changes such as celebration, transition or loss.
She only enters her work in exhibitions when she has something already created. From her home studio on top of her house, she makes commissioned works. Armstrong also offers a dizzying variety of workshops from Freeform Knitting to Wearable Art and is a co-founder of the Okanagan Knitting Retreat held annually in Sorrento since 1999.
 Barbara Jean Newhouse of Vernon-Shuswap says her field of fibre arts--spinning, dying, weaving, felting--"deals mostly with structure rather than surface as fibre is woven into cloth or fused into the felting process." Most of her creations are functional, she explains, and would probably be called wearable art.
Felting and fusing fibres has been an area of recent exploration for Newhouse. "Experimenting with fusing wool and alpaca fleece onto cotton or silk clothing (known as Nuno felting) has allowed me to play with colour, texture and design."
Newhouse became involved with fibre arts in the 70s, studying tapestry weaving at UBC's continuing education program in Vancouver. Studies in complex multi-harness weaving at the Banff School of Fine Arts led to the Textile Arts program at Capilano College where she studied design, art history focusing on textiles, precision dyeing, weaving and surface design.
 Akira Ellen Hanson, a resident of Vernon for more than 40 years, calls herself a mixed media fabric artist who loves to collage. She also creates one-of-a-kind wearable art for Molakira'z Dezignz, in partnership with Mollie Bono. This line of wool outerwear is made using fabric from the Pendleton Woolen Mill in Oregon.
"I consider textiles to be my palette for creating original art pieces," says Hanson. "I am attracted to colours and textures and like to juxtapose contrasting elements."
She taught herself to weave, spin and dye yarn in the early 1970s. As her interests grew and she wanted to expand her fibrous experiences, Her education includes a diploma of fine arts from Okanagan College and a bachelor's degree in education, fine arts major), from UBC.
 Heather Specken began her fibre arts career at eight making clothes for her kitten, progressing to knitting for her favourite doll. By age 13, she was making her own school clothes.
She began her spinning career when she purchased a couple Angora goats in the late 1970s; dyeing and felting came soon after. By the middle of the 1980s she was weaving, using her hand dyed and handspun yarns.
Heather has taken courses in the various fibre arts in Canada and the US. She has entered local competitions with great success as well as conferences in the U.S., coming away with ribbons each time. She has sold her garments and accessories through Banff, Vancouver and various art galleries.
"The fibre arts can be a very precise craft but it also allows for a lot of imagination and colour exploration," says Heather. "Because of that I love it and keep striving to learn new techniques."
Thread Bare: Celebrating the Fibre Arts takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 85th event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007. Express has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet and professor John Lent, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, community activist Don Elzer, dancer David LaHay, architect Jim Meiklejohn, culinary artist and writer Heidi Noble, broadcaster Marion Barschel and others from a wide range of creative fields.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE
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