After two plus years of Covid, things are still not totally normal, however, visits with family inside are now more frequent, so is the babysitting of grandchildren.  Get togethers of certain groups are now in person, mostly still masked.  We are all trying to make our way in our new altered states.  However, exhibitions are starting to be planned and I am working hard on work to be in three upcoming exhibitions with the three textiles groups I belong to.  

Our Summer Residency with Contextural is actually going to take place this year, and I am so thankful for that.  I have done a lot of work at home, but it is just not the same as working in a wonderful room with talented textile artists also working and I am really looking forward to having different eyes on my work and friendly suggestions and comments and people to bounce ideas off.

I am continuing with a flurry of online classes; that has been a really big bonus of Covid.  I hope this will continue as it is so much easier and cheaper than having to pay to go to far away places for classes.  For a long time I have wanted to take classes at Maiwa, but it has just not worked out for me to go to Vancouver in person.  I recently did their Indigo class online.  Wow, what a huge amount of information, it was absolutely fantastic.  I enjoyed it so much and learned such a huge amount, I have signed up for another class and I am looking forward to the time and space to work on it during the summer residency.

 Pandemic Lexicon. This is a piece that was in the Contextural online exhibition. .  It is about the new words we had to learn during the pandemic such as masking, social distancing etc.  The words were on one side of the squares, and on the other side were marks made by hand made brushes made from plants in the garden.  The garden was my absolutely safe and wonderful sanctuary.

My World is Falling Apart.  This was in the Contextural exhibition at C Space in Calgary.  It was made up of lots of little pieces scrounged from my basement.  The Japanese Boro technique I used is a traditional way of mending.  My world was in great need of repair on so many levels.

I took many classes during the pandemic; this piece was made from found pieces of beach plastic from Long Beach on the west coast of BC; my absolutely most favourite place in the world; although the mountains are a close second.  I thoroughly enjoyed this short series of classes on using found beach plastic for jewelry.  I think I will probably use this technique for pieces hanging from my textile work, as opposed to actual jewelry..

I also took a course on collecting found  materials as well as regular cane, and using them to make baskets.  I have long been playing around with this idea to incorporate into my work - so we shall see how that turns out.

I am really going to need some time, to consolidate all this learning and incorporate it into my work.  Hopefully it will lead to lots of new inspiration and new and exciting directions.  Maybe something good will come out of these past two years of learning and introspection.