Textile Art

In my early days as a weaver I explored pretty much every aspect of weaving up to and including textiles as art.  In 1985 I was accepted as a student at the Banff School of Fine Art in Banff, Alberta.  The head of the textile department was Mariette Rouseau Vermette (not sure if the spelling is correct) from Quebec and she was a totally amazing lady.  The class leader was Naomi Kobayashi - another truly inspirational lady from Japan.

I had managed to book exhibit time at the Prince George Art Gallery for September of that year and during my time at Banff worked out the details of several of the pieces which were to eventually be installed at the gallery.  This piece was inspired by my stay in Banff, but executed once I got home.  I forget how many yards of fabric I wove - likely 30 or so yards.  The ceiling was about 9 feet high and the longest piece is nearly that with the other sections shorter.  This piece - Waterfall - took up most of the longest wall in the gallery.

Of course it didn't sell.  None of the pieces sold.  Ultimately I realized that I could never earn an income from creating textile art, except perhaps on a very much smaller scale, and I left the world of textile art behind. 

Although I do still have this piece.  Who knows, perhaps one day it will see the light of day once again?