Lily S. May–Life with Art
I've submitted four wool felt appliqués to an open call group show at Gerrard Art Space in Toronto. The show runs from February 22 to March 12 with a reception this coming Saturday, Feb. 25, from 3 - 6 pm. The appliqués are ones I made in 2020. Here's one of them: Through the Window,… Continue reading Textile Show
I'm very glad to have recently seen the hand tufted wall hangings of Simone Elizabeth Saunders. They are on display at the Textile Museum of Canada through January. Here's several of her powerful and beautiful works from the exhibit. It Matters, 2020, © Simone Elizabeth Saunders Excellence, 2021, © Simone Elizabeth Saunders Cosmic Creation, 2021,… Continue reading Simone Elizabeth Saunders
With the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, I've been thinking often about the dreadfulness of war. Here's two linocuts on war and peace I made years ago and first posted in 2014 and 2016. In 2003, when the US-led invasion of Iraq began, I made the War linocut. I printed one of the images on… Continue reading War & Peace (Not the Book)
This is the most recent wallhanging I've made. After all the deliberating that went into making the Autumn appliqué, I designed this one quickly. I still had periods of unsewing and resewing, but not as many as with the previous appliqué. I enjoyed working with the bright colours as the nights lengthened. The bird shape… Continue reading Doorway
I have finally finished the appliqué I've been working on that I struggled with. I made it with merino wool felt, cotton fabric and cotton threads. After sewing, unsewing and resewing the work, here it is. I'm happy to have seen it through to completion. I was inspired to sew the appliqué by the very… Continue reading Finally!
I finished this wool felt wall hanging this week. I worked on it slowly over a month and a half or two months and it was a struggle at times. I sewed and resewed after ripping out stitches that I felt could be improved. I went through many emotions while working that are sometimes part… Continue reading The Meeting
Here is another wool felt appliqué I made several years ago. 'Now we are in need of stories" is from a poem I had written that's in an earlier post. I added the words to this piece even though the image is not apparently connected to that poem. Creative licence and the unconscious!
I began working on this wool felt appliqué in the spring and finally finished it (for now anyway) during this past month. At first, when I assembled the shapes, the piece looked like a scene of innocence. That didn't feel right to me because this time has not been innocent what with the arrival of… Continue reading Springtime During the Pandemic
I made this felt appliqué over the past few weeks. I had started work on a linocut but developed a great deal of pain from the repetitive strain of carving the block. I then decided to put the linoleum aside, but wanted to continue doing some creative work. So I started designing an image for… Continue reading Speaking of Birds
I often cry while listening to the news during the pandemic. The news, not new, of horrible murder and racism in the United States, not unique to that place, of old people dying in squalid long-term non-care homes in my province, of the poor, the discarded dying more often than the comfortable. So far, I… Continue reading For the Nighthawks
Arts of May 