Exhibitions

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Fiona was my first adventure in creating sculptural portraits. This piece pays homage to my favorite Canadian instructor, Fiona Duthie, who happens to wear her hair in a top knot and has a tendency to misplace her glasses. The earring is a nod to Hungarian instructor Judit Pocs, who makes exquisite jewelry. This piece was also shown in the Dervilia booth for the Art Now Regina Show. Art Now is an annual early October show alternating between Saskatoon and Regina.

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Last Day in Paris is an ode to Adele Tosh (Owner of Dervilia Art and Design) and Jaqueline Miller (Canadian artist) and their 2025 spring trip to Paris. With this piece, I tried to create a 1950s-style black and white photo merged with a modern-day selfie. It’s my first piece testing out a perspective background, and I also used multiple layers of paper collage. There really was a bird that dive-bombed Jaqueline’s hair. The black corner tabs were often used in vintage photo albums.

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Life Interrupted consists of four panels: Flow, Reflection, Restoration, and Abundance, each highlighting a unique aspect of trees:
• Flow shows tree knots as symbols of resilience and adaptation.
•Reflection uses tree rings and grain to depict age and climate history, symbolizing the passage of time.
• Restoration focuses on roots and transplanting, representing renewal and healing.
• Abundance takes a near-microscopic view of fungi, lichen, and mushrooms on bark, symbolizing growth and regeneration.

Each one of these panels also carries a therapeutic meaning for me, reflecting my husband’s journey with AML, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, a very aggressive form of cancer. The series collectively chronicles the path from initial diagnosis and treatment – chemotherapy and full-body radiation – through stem cell transplant and the complications of graft-versus-host disease.

The Girl with an Earring, is inspired by Parisian designer Paul Poirot’s 1913 cocoon style opera coat and feelings of isolation. This work embraces colour and texture that is balanced with equal parts of thoughtful and playful energy. The lone girl with a songbird placed on her head is illustrated in her own cocoon coat. There is subtlety of humour with the placement of the second songbird. Worn with the large collar flipped up, the wearer is sending a special message to COVID.

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For the Threads of Life show, my goal was to present new works that would stand apart from my previous wearable pieces. I sought to push myself technically and conceptually by exploring more complex, three-dimensional forms, working primarily in whites and natural tones. Rather than relying on colour, I focused on the subtle gradients of shadows to create visual interest, in the hope that this restrained palette would provide a counterpoint to my usual preference for intricate detail, allowing the works to feel both minimal and richly textured. Every piece was designed to stand alone while fitting seamlessly into a unified set of four panels.

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This coat was designed for Jaqueline Miller, a friend and fabulous Canadian painter. I used images from one of her paintings to create the three silk collage areas. The collage work is located on the bottom left side and back of the coat, the underside of one sleeve from elbow to wrist, and on top of the other arm, covering the full sleeve. The year the coat was made, Jaqueline was celebrating a significant birthday. To honor that birthday, I embedded a surface design between the wool and silk layers that matched her age. The three buttons used on her coat came from her mother’s great button stash. The background to the silk coat label was created using one of her paintings.

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I took classes in this program for many years, well surpassing the required course credits for graduation. It wasn’t necessarily a good fit for me, as the main streams were drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography. Most of the offered classes ran for a half term, but occasionally, a few weekend courses were available. What sparked my interest was weekend classes on Glass Fusion and Introduction to Fibre Art. Once I discovered felting, I became fascinated by the idea of creating felt garments. At that point, making felt clothing was my biggest passion, but since USCAD didn’t offer instruction, I had to teach myself with books and YouTube tutorials. That’s why I incorporated an educational aspect into my show: I displayed a wall of felt samples to highlight design choices involved in garment construction. To help explain resists and shrinkage in garment making, I used chalk paint outlines on the wall. I also added a small frame describing shrinkage rates, along with a bag containing the silks and fibres used in making the coat.

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