Tufting in Our Time

Simone Saunders,
“Eve”, hand-tufted textile,
2020. Courtesy the artist.

When I worked at the University Library and the Nickle would have gallery walks and talks, 

I always made sure I could get over there.  Afterall, it was just lunch hour and often the talks were British Museum talk quality.

On seeing a talk on tufting today, I made sure to get there virtually.

The artist graduated from the UofA in acting, and then went to the Obsidian Theatre Company in central Canada for 10 years, acting, directing and doing stage design.  Now she has graduated from ACAD and her work was shown in their Student Exhibition.

Here is her website:  www.simoneelizbeth.ca

She uses tufting tools and her punch gun.  Her wooden frame is 70" x 70", so some of her work is about 65" x 65" if you want to get an idea of the size of her tufting.  Often tufting is done for rugs, but her work is to be hung on the walls

The hour of listening to her describe her art reminded me again of how much I like to go to the Nickle.  I think I will go to watch some of the previous talks from there which are now up on youtube.  

I have been missing that part of my life -- I was reminded by one of the people in the question and answer period that art is not an object, but an experience.

Arta