“Composition” inspires a new body of textile work in 3D.

The practice of Art is really the means by which I interract with and process my experience of the world around me so it is not unusual to find one body of work inspiring another. The Investment Pieces grew out of the Pandemic Project, “Composition”, that exhibited (very quietly) in the space in 2020.

“Composition” comes from the latin, componere, meaning put together,

how something was formed…what something is made of.”

The works of Composition have been on their own journey since 2020 having been purchased as a unit by a long time supporter and collector. The original 16 panels, now framed will be waiting in the wings on the gallery perimeter as the 12, 3D bodices of The Investment Pieces Series make their debut center stage.

Composition’s Bouquet mounted in her beautiful new frame. 20” x 20”, quilted and collaged textile. Techniques include dye sublimation, painting, batik, quilting, machine and hand stitching. 2020

**Read the backstory of the 16 panels of Composition to gain a little context.**

Composition took an introspective view of formative experience that aimed to connect fabric and thread to the gestural essence of my brushstroke. The work of art was a vulnerable process that required processing, and gave voice to the inner child at play with materials. I

In this show the 16 panels of Composition, will become the supporting cast to this new chapter of personal development. I don’t share their backstories in the same way I will be with the Investment Pieces bodices so I am choosing to share some of their stories in this blogpost so they don’t feel left out.

Art and textiles in particular benefit from a personal interraction. I hope you’ll get to meet them along with the characters who will be sharing their stories center stage during this new exhibition.

The gift of time.

When our world shut down the comfort of cloth and creative practice allowed me to engage with the experiential nature of textiles, to connect to memory and to explore the ideas of narrative, dialogue and story. In this personal work I got to look at formative experience in new ways. The process helped me to empower the protagonist, review old stories from a new perspective and begin a powerful personal healing journey.

“Colour united with materials, symbols surfaced, patterns appeared and rebloomed. Text played an important role as my inner child came out to play”.

Format and formatting…

The square format references social media and the current tendancy to make private moments public. The square is also a reference to traditional quilt blocks that assembled in groups to create utliitarian comfort. I am always a painter but textiles were some of the first remnants that inspired within me, creative play. I clearly can’t follow a pattern but in my work as an art quilter I like to employ a modern twist on traditional approaches. The final way I merged the two arms of my studio practice with this work was to mount the textile panels onto a solid surface and stretch them much like I would a canvas in preparation for painting

Composition Puzzle comes with a sublimated prescription.

I grew up inspired to make something from nothing. My mother’s sewing machine created matching sister dresses and bikinis with regularity so I gained an early appreciation for the crisp tissue of the sewing pattern. These rustling papers came with lessons that taught me to read the symbols and directions that I came to think of as not just instructions but as a directive. There was not a lot of flexibility accompanying sewing patterns that unfurled from their compressed envelopes in delicate unruly sheets.

By superimposing familiar sewing notations across a dye sublimated detail from my painting practice I was attempting to show the difficulty I have colouring within the lines and adhering to a prescribed path. Directives can be confining and I like to allow space for creative. potential. As a maker and creator I have to ask, do we need to be told what to do or how to do it? The contrast between the curvilinear shapes and the rigid line work was intended to emphasise the contrast between a formula and the creative free will that might reevaluate a problem from a new perspective.

Composition Dialogue partners insight with hindsight.

We each bring a unique perspective to our experience of the world. Our lives are a compilation of the experiences we engage in, intentionally, or otherwise. Not all interractions or events will be memorable but some memories are experiences that we cannot forget. As I began to play with materials within my daily practices, crafting processes and techniques were called into action in different ways. Meditative notes for example were written in molten wax on silk instead of pencil and paper or typed on a device. This panel, Dialogue, documents an early interraction with education and the sting of authoritarian disapproval that resonated decades beyond the action.

Our internal dialogue at times needs some redirection. The release of emotion in healthy ways, in this case, comforted by crafting practices, helped me to move beyond a negative story and in turn to view formative experience through a new lens, one that empowers the protagonist and combibnes hindsight with personal growth.

Composition Intrinsic bloom brought about stillness from action.

All that we need lies within. Sometimes it takes a little time and a more thorough look to come to that realisation. In this work details of a painting practice evolved into foundations from which to build a new narrative in textiles. There were 8 dye sublimated samples I unearthed in my studio with an eye to beginning this project. They provided a restricted lens from which I could examine my personal marks and the gestural quality of my brushstrokes moved through changes in scale and media. These samples, details from my painting practice, became abstracted compositions that graphically resolved independantly.

With a discerning focus I began to seek and find intrinsic blooms within the marks. The quilted line became a drawing tool as I attempted to make distinctions betweeen positive and negative space. The rhythm of the quilted line formed repeated patterns and echoed shapes in the backrounds. Floral motifs evolved and these I came to call my intrinsic blooms.

Composition; Childs play.

When I paint I don’t paint a single canvas in isolation. Instead paintings develop in series as partners, cousins, pairs and trios. So too with this work. Each foundation inspired it’s own journey. Some began on a similar path to its predecessor. “Child’s Play”, built upon the experience that began its excavation with “Dialoigue” and sought to unearth intrinsic blooms inspired by insight and hindsight above. Motifs were simple and primitive and reiterated the fact that this work was largely about the inner child invited out the play.

The poppy, a perennial performer that grows on every continent and has cultural connotations for many cultural groups has been a subject in my painting practice since I can remember. I use the poppy as a vehicle for colour and love their personified personalities and organic, environmentally affected shapes. The poppy became the star of this show as I made an effort to define intrinsic blooms and floral motifs within the expressive nature of my personal marks. The solitary poppy bloomed brilliantly in the forground while the spiralled endings of my first numbers that so irritated Mrs lamb, my kindergarten teacher, bloomed freely and with purpose. I’m proud to say all attempts to slap the creativity out of this protagonist, failed.

Composition: Shroud

This panel combined dye sublimated details gathered from my painting practice with sheer batik layers.

I love to garden and I love other peoples gardens. So much so that I once named a painting series the Trespassing Series because inspiration was gathered from the gardens of friends I was yet to meet. The poppy has only a fleeting bloom where I live but it is an inspiring perennial player. The poppy is strong, resilient and vibrant. This one blooms in contrast to our general expectations in blue instead of “poppy red”, a colour we know in recall without having to imagine it. This bloom is a self starter that has grown beyond the limitations of a long ago story. I called it Shroud because the intensity of colour was tamed by a layer of silk batik that shares a storied layer of formative experience.

Composition Bouquet.. the gift of acceptance.

Always buy yourself the flowers! or in this case, create them. The Pandemic was an anomoly but it also provided an opportunity for me to get quiet with the comfort of cloth and crafting processes. Calm reflective moments with needle and thread in hand became a healing balm and a way to address personal dreams, fears, insecurities and limitations. Universal growth begins with the personal work of reflection, reaction and reconciliation that helps us to recognise who we truly are and what has brought us to this present moment. Explorations in this piece included simple embroidery stitches, hand and machine work and a continuing focus on contrasts and intrinsic blooms. I unearthed a whole bouquet within this painterly print and deemed myself worthy of accepting them.

Composition Six words: Need…

This panel is about narrative, about the primal need to be seen and heard. It also came to express an opinion about the stories we tell oursleves and the ones we are told that we come to believe. Text, sewn in capital letters is superimposed over the painterly imagery to emphasise the importance of the individual words.

Words are important! They are powerful and integral to our interractions with others. Words come with all kinds of nuance, they fill our minds and memories and populate our plans. The residual impact of words we share or are shared with us might remain well beyond the few moments it takes to speak them.

Our words and our ability to communicate are a powerful gift. We can never fully estimate or appreciate how our words will resonate for others and vice versa. This piece is a reminder to use our words wisely, with empathy and to share them widely. Our voice is our power.

Composition Merger. Emphasis rests where our attention is laid.

This panel is representative of growth with its cup half full, or full to overflowing. This cup is never empty. Text played an important role in this body of work. In the creative process words began as a written reel, a stream of consciousness, inscribed on a range of surfaces by various means. Words were at first literal and descriptive but soon evolved through crafting practices like batik where they evolved from a mantra to become a decorative motif or a sublimated reference point.

Marks were not intended to be legible notes, the story was less important than the action of writing the words. Instead the words contribute to the crafted layers embedded with story that carry only the gist of a narrative.

Patterns and patterning were other themes that contributed to this project. I enjoyed the many quiet hours spent in pockets of sunlight at home repatterning thoughts and ideas and finding comfort within the vulnerability of the working themes. This piece felt like a tropical garden as it grew and merged many layers and processes into a coherent whole.

Composition; Rembrance. Colour speaks multiple languages.

When I became a canadian citizen on one winter’s coldest day, my then 4 year old daughter, a Montessori grad, proudly exclaimed she spoke three languages, English, French and Australian. I refer to this panel as speaking multiple languages in it’s title because as an expat, then landed immigrant, with an accent, I was often misunderstood.

“Colour quiets me, colour lets me sing. It is my language in all its affectations of nuance, of syntax, of pronunciation. My voice is most clear in colour.”

Art making and colour in particular have been a perennial salve. Within my creative practice I have not been misunderstood in the same way I could be in conversation. Additionally this panel merges whole cloth and pieced quilting techniques to infer my commitment to history; mine, yours and ours, my work as both painter and art quilter and my continuing intention to evolve and to grow through all experience.

Composition Three sisters Independant yet united.

Of course I’m a middle child…In my ongoing efforts to seek and illuminate intrinsic blooms within my painterlly marks I encouraged these three tulip shapes to bloom. I collaged off cuts from printed samples, combined silk remnants layered with dense meditative notes written in wax and simple hand stitches to create this multi layered panel.

The marks and my collaged choices evolved to infer a sisterhood, three independent yet united vessels who share foramtive experiences yet because of individual perspectives and perceptions can render the same event in very different colours. I particularly love the metallic nature of the yelllow and tan addition and its complex layeres that reduce the written words to a patterned motif stitched with varigated thread.

Composition Reflection evolved from remnant beginnings.

From the left overs of the last is always a great place to begin. Nothing exists in isolation. Like “Remembrance” above this painterly panel immediately suggested a poppy form. To this I added an all important community at its core, a gathering of silks pieced from scraps that gathered at my feet while I created my first internationally exhibited art quilt, “Flourish”. In an arts practice experience has a cumulative effect. Our work is built upon past actions, ideas, processes, and skills that are continually revised and expanded. New perspectives are brought about through exploration and discovery and most importantly through play. Curiosity is a gift. If you have not allowed yourself to get curious with materials recently, now might be the perfect place to begin?

Maybe you’ll join me in the gallery for some mindful moments and creative play?

Composition Bodice, a uniform story.

The bodice is a universal garment; supportive, protective and decorative. It is something worn that invites self expression. Themes evolved and were revisited in this work as the project evolved and grew beyond its initial parameters. The sewing pattern was again referenced on the left side of this bodice panel. French knots in regular intervals help to define the positive space and infer uniformity and structure. The addition of just one colour on a simple background created both rhythm and pattern and a rare example of me working with taupe. Contrast came into play too. As one not usually inclined to colour within the lines, I couldnt help but to take over the right side of the composition by collaging salvaged scraps from multiple aspects of my studio practice with machine and hand stitches.

The right side of the brain, control center for creativity, perception and intuition is reflected in the material choices I made to encourage this half of Uniform Story to bloom. The many small items that came together to produce this bodice may also be harbouring the literal blood, sweat, and tears, that helped the composition to bloom beyond it’s initial parameters into an expansive and colourful garden. This panel, in hindsight, became a pivot point and the inspired support that encouraged future work on the Investment Pieces Bodices in 3D.

Composition Re blooming rubric.

A rubric is a method of measuring aims and goals in an established pattern. I had to get creative to add another layer to this rubric and to reevaluate the narrative that followed my creative addition to the drawing of my earliest numbers.

My kindergarten teacher was not the most pleasant introduction to formal education. She happened to live just a block from my house but not once do I recall riding my bike down her street in all the years I lived in my hometown.

Interestingly, when this body of work was introduced to WAVE visitors in my backyard at the lake, many were drawn to the naievite of this “cute” image. I reluctently told the story to some whose impressions changed with context. In creating this vignette it was important that the lamb be subdued. A field of blossoms, inferred safety in numbers and the sanctuary that is my creative practice. With these tools employed it was easier to counter the 11 slaps on one hand and 13 slaps on the other Mrs Lamb so diligently administered because creativity was not part of her narrow curriculum.

Composition Grace…Perception and perspectives

A photograph taken through the frosted winter window of my exchange district studio was dye sublimated to become the foundation or current lens through which experience was revisited. and reviewed. Our perspective and perceptions are our own. They grow and develop alongside our experiences. Who was to know a costume party ( fancy dress ball if you’d like the Australian translation) would leave such a resounding impression. 4 year old me dressed as a fairy experienced the cardboard box clad robot as a real threat. Many thought this was funny, I am told, but I nevefr saw the humour in it.

In this panel the new perspective seen through frosted windows gathers a powerful staff and just like Nanny McFee tamps the ground to regain her personal power and render the image mute. The poppy is again the star of the show. Collaged from scraps gathered into an impression this work also references my painterly oeuvre.

Composition Rebirth: Acceptance and renewal.

Art history has always been a passion and an informant. I love a little subliminal reference, a play on words or a cultural or historic connection. Botticelli”s Venus made for a literal analogy as this project progressed. Contast came into play as I balanced the icy dye sublimated studio image, the representative of a personal lens that reflected both past and present with the poppy’s red. Collaged layers helped to continue the narrative and evolve the story of growth, transformation, and change. For those unaware of the 13 surgeries I’ve had on my right knee you might notice the embroidered scar Venus wears. The icy image was appliqued off kilter to suggest an ocean and the protagonist being at times caught up in the swell or waves of experiences that continue to roll. The garden that blooms at her feet suggests the perennial nature of our dreams and our fears and the recurrent path we take to excavate the layers of experience as we grow and change through our personal histories.

Note. This venus is wearing slippers because of a slip up with scrissors that cut off her foot. oops! I know in her heart Venus has always wanted a pair of crocheted mary janes.

Composition Foundations…

The final piece of this body of work began with the capture of a meditative moment enscripted in wax on silk organza. There was no intention to share actual words. They were not important. Instead the residual shapes of marks faded like the events that originally inflicted their messaging. Words that began as a mantra reduced to simple marks that then became a motif, a residual pattern and a reminder to look within instead of beyond. We are agents of our personal power. Within us is where all possibility exists.

This panel combines elements from all aspects of my studio practice and of course makes the poppy the star of the show. Resilient, resonant, resourceful and definitely seen and heard.

**The Papaver Princess** is one of the bodices you’ll meet while The Investment Pieces are on exhibit at 101-219 Provencher Boulevarde, Winnipeg. Shown here in progress. November 2024.

Thanks for following along to read the stories that fueled this project. These panels will be on exhibit

WHERE: at la Maison des artistes visuels francohone at

101- 219 Provencher Boulevarde, Winnipeg.

WHEN: The opening is 7-9pm, February 6th, 2025

The work will remain on exhibit until February 22nd.

You can always find me on Instagram here for updates and images of the show insitu.

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I look forward to introducing you to the next chapter of this body of work.

all best, Amanda