Kerrisdale community art

In the spring of 2009, I was hired by the Kerrisdale Community Centre to work with residents to create two thousand and ten postcards.You can see all the postcards here. It was my first paid gig as a community artist. It was also my first paid gig after being a full-time mum for several years.
Many of those postcards were made by students at Kerrisdale Elementary School. 
This spring, exactly 10 years later, I'll be returning to Kerrisdale Elementary to do another community art project. This time, I'll be working with the grade 6/7 classes on a weaving project that brings attention to the problem of plastic pollution in the oceans. Thanks to Artstarts in Schools and the Vancouver Biennale Big Ideas in Schools for grants to support this project.

Weaving Cultural Identities

Last summer, my daughter and I had the opportunity to participate in a Vancouver Biennale project related to one of the artworks in their current exhibition. Paradise has Many Gates is a mosque made from chain link fencing. It is currently located at Vanier Park in Vancouver.

10 textile artists and 5 graphic designers were invited to create textiles in the form of prayer rugs. As part of the project, we had a series of field trips to the Al Salaam Mosque in Burnaby, to the Musqueam Cultural Pavilion, and to the archives of the Museum of Vancouver. The artists were paired with a designer to develop the concept for a rug. Our piece is called "Find What You Need". 

Weaving in progress:

There are many layers of meaning in our rug, including some hidden messages, like the peace sign drawn onto the warp threads under the circle.

The finished rug.  Viewers are invited to find their own meaning in the piece.

Weaving Our Way

The Weaving Our Way group meets at the Dunbar Community Centre twice a month. This fall many of the weavings that the group has created were exhibited, first at the Richmond City Hall Galleria, then at the UBC Nest, and finally at the Roundhouse community centre. Many of the group members donated a personal weaving that I assembled into a collaborative blanket.

You can see a video about the project here. Many thanks to the Vancouver Arts Colloquium Society for sponsoring this project.

Guatemala - Embroidery workshop with Casa Flor in Antigua

The perfect ending to the trip - an evening of crafts and cocktails courtesy of Casa Flor designs.

I came home with a bag full of their scrap fabrics that I later stitched together into a little jacket for myself.

Guatemala - backstrap weaving in San Antonio Palopo

The main reason for my trip to Guatemala in May was to learn about Mayan backstrap weaving techniques. (The trip was organized by Thread Caravan, and I can't say enough good things about them. If you are interested in learning about the Guatemalan Mayan culture and textiles, I would wholeheartly recommend a Thread Caravan trip. They also offer trips to Oaxaca, Mexico and Panama).  We spent two days weaving in San Antonio Palopo with Zenieda and her lovely family.

choosing yarn colours

preparing the warp

setting up the backstrap loom

my warp - lots going on here, I wanted to learn everything

me weaving

Zeneida admiring my (her) work)

Guatemala - natural dyeing in San Juan La Laguna

In May, I took a week off from my weaving classes, and snuck away for a quick trip to Guatemala. The trip was organized by Thread Caravan, and I can't say enough good things about them. If you are interested in learning about the Guatemalan Mayan culture and textiles, I would wholeheartly recommend a Thread Caravan trip. They also offer trips to Oaxaca, Mexico and Panama. It really was a wonderful get away - the places we stayed at in Antigua and at Lake Atitlan were both outstanding, but I wasn't just there for fun and relaxation, I wanted to learn about the Mayan textile traditions, and I got LOTS of that too. 

chilka dye pot

We spent a day with the Lema Association in San Juan La Laguna learning about dyieng with local plants. We used "chilka" to get yellow - those would be the leaves in the first photo; they smelled a lot like chamomile but they are from a large leafy shrub like plant). We used"achiote" also known as annatto for orange - this was a paste made from the seeds of a fruit; it is also used as a spice to flavour and colour food. The blue is not indigo, it is called "sacatinta" and is from the wood of a tree. It dyed the cotton yarn that they had a beautiful blue colour, but my scarf came out purple.

taking the yarn out of the dye pot

preparing the chilka leaves

achiote dye

sacatinta is supposed to be a blue dye. No idea why this scarf came out purple

2016 annual project

For the past few years, I've been working on a yearly project. In 2015 I made 52 small books - about one each week. In 2016 it was all about fabrics. Weaving, knitting, crochet, dyeing, printing, felting, stitching and embroidery all made an appearance during the year. 

I started the year thinking that I would make 52 art dolls, and I started work on the first one, but I was not feeling very inspired until I realized that I had chosen the wrong theme. I actually wanted to spend the year working with fabrics in different ways. When I made the decision to change my plans, the ideas just started to tumble out of my head. The first piece that I stitched includes the art doll that I had started - it's just flat rather than stuffed. The powder pink background fabric is some corduroy that I've had since the 1980s. Yes really - it was originally a skirt that I used to wear back in the day when pastels were all the rage. I cut it into a pair of baby pants that my kids wore when they were little. I hadn't anticipated how many memories would work their way into this project, but I love all the bits of nostalgia that got stitched into this project.

week 1-5

weeks 4-10

weeks 9-16

weeks 16-23

weeks 22-28

weeks 27-33

weeks 32-38

weeks 38-45

weeks 45-51

weeks 49-52

The whole year

Anvil Centre Residency Week 4

I didn't actually spend any time at the studio during this last week. I had several things that I needed to work on, but all my supplies are at home, and it made more sense to stay at home to work. I managed to finish the red/pink wrap which I'm going to call Maillardville since the inspiration for the shape came from my students at Place des Arts in Maillardville. I also got a good start on two other garments - a lightweight linen poncho and a white vest. Both these pieces need more work, but I'm happy with where they are going. I had been hoping to get more garments made this month since I have so many pieces of handwoven fabric, not to mention, hand dyed fabric as well as an assortment of scarves and things that I want to make into clothing. However, I realize that I can't rush the process, and I need to spend the time to let the ideas percolate. After some reflection, I've decided to devote my 2018 annual project to making garments. Rather than a weekly entry (as I've been doing for the past few years), my intention is to make one garment each month during 2018. If I make 12 pieces by the end of the year, I should have made a considerable dent in my "stash".

My very last task for my residency was a community engagement activity. I did a community weaving that was conveniently scheduled for the same day as the annual Santa Claus parade along Columbia Street. We had a really good turn out and many children contributed to the weaving. A few of them had learned about weaving at the exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology. I think they enjoyed having another opportunity to use their new skills.

Anvil Centre Residency Week 3

This residency is plodding along. I haven't been able to spend as much time in the studios as I had anticipated when I first considered this residency. At the time that I put in the proposal, I had no idea how much work I'd be doing just a year later. Last year my residency at Leigh Square was my major focus at the time and I was able to spend two full days on site working on my art. This year, the residency is just one of many things that I'm juggling. Although, I have studio space booked three days a week, I've only been managing to spend a few hours there on each of those days. 

This week I was able to spend some time working on an actual garment. I hand stitched the red/pink fabric into a wrap. The fabric is a 1/2 twill fabric that I wove with two heddles on my rigid heddle loom. I put the warp on the loom last year at Leigh Square and finished most of the weaving at home. I finished up the fringes during the first week of this residency.

We came up with this shape when I took this fabric to show my students at Place des Arts. It's a basic ruana shape, but with the back draped rather than cut. I decided to add a gusset at the back neckline to give a bit of ease. Since I didn't have any extra fabric, or access to a sewing machine, I decided to needle weave the gusset. I like that it is a seamless finish, but it sure took a long time, and I had to repeatedly remind myself of something that I often say to students who are impatient to finish things quickly: "This isn't a race". 

I've been doing a sketch each week at and around the Anvil Centre. I wasn't feeling very inspired the first week. The person I started sketching got up and walked away before I got very far along, so I ended up drawing the garbage cans. Last week I went over to the River Market to say hi to Susan from Cosy Yarns as well as Leslie and Alice who are involved with managing the Market. Leslie even ended up in my sketch for the week! This past week, I sketched the view from my studio window. 

I finally finished the crow tapestry. I was quite happy to get this one off the loom. I was determined to weave this piece intuitively without using a cartoon. It is okay, but I don't think that the SAORI idea of weaving without a plan is really well suited to pictoral tapestries. 

I was quite surprised to see some Salish looms in one of the offices at Anvil Centre and I barged right in and interrupted a meeting to find out about them. It turns out that the one on the left belongs to Debra Sparrow, and I think the other one is used in New West school programs. What a coincidence! Debra and I lead a weaving group that meets at the Dunbar Community Centre a couple of times each month.

Seeing these looms gave me an idea for the community engagement activity that I'll be doing as part of the residency. I'll be doing a collaborative community weaving: on December 2nd using my own Salish loom.

All the details are here: Community Weaving with Dawn Livera

I also came across a display of woven baskets from around the province that were being put out for a youth program. They belong to the New West museum. This is just a small sampling. I asked how the museum came to have so many First Nations baskets, and they said that they don't know the history of most of them, but some of them came from residents who purchased them from someone "who came knocking at their door". One of the weavers in the Dunbar group had recently brought in a piece that she had purchased that way. She said that people have got to know that "she buys things", so they show up at her door when they need some cash. The fellow from the museum was surprised to hear that the practice still continues today.

Anvil Centre Residency Week 2

I actually got a bit of weaving done this week. All my looms have warps on them right now - mainly leftover student warps from classes and workshops. I always "plan" to use warps like these to make samples mainly because I don't like wasting things - in this case it's more about the time invested in putting all those threads through those little holes than the thread. In reality they often sit around until I realize that I need to clear the looms off for my next set of classes.

I was amused that the first loom that I grabbed had the warp wrapped with some recycled paper from my time as the Literacy Outreach Coordinator in New West - in a previous life it was an agenda for one of our task group meetings.

I also did a bit of work on a tapestry that I've been working on for a while.

I finished the set of nine wish flags that I had been working on and I made another set of four. The hand stitching on these took much longer than I had expected (doesn't everything?) These are for a "house" themed show next month. I also wanted them to work for a couple of exhibitions that I have coming up next year. One is themed around recycled art and the other is about handstitched stories that were something else before becoming art. I think they tick all the boxes. I'm glad that they are done now, and that I can focus on some more weaving.

...and just like that, this residency is half over. My original proposal was to spend this time making some garments from my (previously) handwoven fabric and I haven't even started on that yet.