Warm Wishes

I hope you had a warm and wonderful Christmas!  I'm starting off  2014 in a productive mode with new work included in Hard Twist 8: This is Personal, an annual juried show at the Gladstone Hotel.

Come on down to the opening on January 23, 2014.

Happy New Year!

Valerie Knapp© Bosc Pear Season's Greetings

Coming Soon—Open House at 304

Excitement is building as we prepare for our annual Open House at 304. Vivian East, a special guest is  joining in, a longtime friend, showing new printmaking and drawing. Award winning jeweller Vivienne Jones and ceramist extraordinaire Carolynn Bloomer will be here too. Its a wonderful show, we hope you can drop by!

Impeccable Embroidery

It is lovely to get a mention recently in Toronto Life — City Home 2013 by Colette van den Thillart in The Experts pages… "Valerie Knapp for impeccable embroidery." Thank you Colette!  I met Colette back in the spring and we shared ideas, and our passion for textiles.

Embroidery, Dream #4 in a vintage Birks-Ryrie ring box is item #3: Valerie Knapp for impeccable embroidery. Page 15.

Cover: Toronto Life—City Home 2013

Dresses, Pins and Dotted Swiss

For 'throwback' Thursday…

Childhood inspired these dresses, made so crisp, done up in vintage dotted swiss, a pinned layer floated above the relief print on paper. I'd like to revisit these pinned borders.

Memory Dress and Pins. Valerie Knapp© 

Tiny Apron Dress and Pins. Valerie Knapp©

Vintage Dress and Pins. Valerie Knapp

dot·ted swiss (dtd)

n.

A sheer, crisp cotton fabric, sometimes a lawn or batiste, embellished with woven, flocked, or embroidered evenly spaced dots used for blouses, dresses, baby clothes, and was once very popular for curtains.

One source said is was first made on hand looms in Switzerland, as early at 1750. Typical production began in the 1880's

Book of Sewing

Book of Sewing (detail) Valerie Knapp©

Book of Sewing. Valerie Knapp©

Book of Sewing (detail) Valerie Knapp©

Book of Sewing (detail) Valerie Knapp©

Book of Sewing (detail) Valerie Knapp©

Book of Sewing (detail) Valerie Knapp

Book of Sewing (detail) Valerie Knapp©

Book of Sewing (detail) Valerie Knapp©

Spring garden

Lonicera 'Dropmore Scarlet'  (Honeysuckle) 

Aquilegia vulgaris (Columbine)

Syringa x prestoniae (Late blooming Preston Lilac)

Syringa x prestoniae and Cornus alternafolia (Preston Lilac and Pagoda Dogwood)

Swarm: A Collaboration with Bees

Melanie 2008 Valerie Knapp©  Embroidery, ink, vintage map, papers.  A gift for my friend.

My long-time friend Melanie Chikofsky, Managing Director and Instructor at the Al Green Sculpture Studio School  recently worked with Penelope Stewart, assisting her with mold-making to realize her sculptural project Daphne, 'a new sensory architecture' created for the exhibit Swarm: A Collaboration with Bees at Ganna Walska Lotusland, Santa Barbara, CA.  'Stewart has transformed a room at the gallery lining it entirely with beeswax tiles from floor to ceiling'.  Quotes are from exhibit description.  Check out the links for more photos and info.

Succulents cast in beeswax for Daphne,  2013.  Penelope Stewart

Two Fruits

Since it's inception in 1995 I've participated in the Shadow Box Show at the Textile Museum of Canada, creating a small work for these exceptional exhibitions. The much anticipated fund-raiser coordinated tirelessly by David Kaye doesn't exist anymore however it was a catalyst for remarkable memory making artworks and friendships and spawned many similar events.  

Online microsites Shadow Box show 2009, also see Shadow Box Show 2008, etc.

One of these shadowbox pieces—Two Fruits, 2009, inspired by Karl Blossfeldt's photos of magnified seeds, l. Silene conica and r. Laserpitium siler was drawn and stitched on Arches paper.  Stimulated by gardening, plant research and experimentation, I'm motivated by related botanical interests including the Parkdale Hort Society where I've been a longtime member.    

Two Fruits, 2009. Valerie Knapp©  Embroidery, drawing, paper, threads, letters.  Shadowbox Show Exhibit 2009, Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto. 

View in the studio—Silene conica and Laserpitium siler and other stuff on my work table....

Work table, drawings, relief carving on softoleum, tools, test prints, pet rock, etc.. VKnapp©

Silene conica in ben musurato, part of Angelic Trio 2011. An embroidered relief print on linen, mounted in relief on vintage sheet music on a wood box frame.

  ben misurato, 2011. Valerie Knapp©  Embroidery, relief print, DMC thread, linen, vintage sheet 
  music, various paper, pins, acrylic, wood box. Also see Angelic Trio.  

Angelic Trio, 2011. Valerie Knapp©   Exhibit—Angels & Argonauts, Lafreniere & Pai, Ottawa 2011.

Multiplicity revisited, won't disappoint...

Since I'm relatively new to this blog thing I thought I'd ramble around in my archives and show a selection of work from a past exhibit.  In 2009 Vivienne Jones and I envisioned and created the group exhibition 'Multiplicity: Five artists propelled by process, form and the nuances of repetition' at the OCC Gallery in conjunction with Janna Hiemstra. Artists included—Allan Bell, Carolynn Bloomer, Vivienne Jones, Valerie Knapp and Karli Sears. 

Piano Cabinet #1,  2009  Allan Bell©

Piano Cabinet #1,  2009  Allan Bell©

Trunk Diptych, 2009. Embroidery, perforation, thread, paper.  39w x 31h cm Valerie Knapp©

'...the work of five artists thematically linked by independent meditations on repetition and process....eliciting this nuanced rationale by delving into recurrence and variation, and through conversations in form, function, scale and colour.....the juxtaposition of similarity and difference emphasizes the unique gesture each work brings on its own terms, as well as in conjunction with the complex whole.'

                 excerpt of statement by Valerie Knapp and Vivienne Jones, 2009.

Couched Diptych,  2009. Embroidery, drawing, thread, paper.  39w x 31h cm Valerie Knapp©

Contracting Time Diptych, 2009. Embroidery, drawing, perforation, thread, vellum, paper. 39w x 31h cm Valerie Knapp©

Good Point Diptych, 2009. Embroidery, needles, thread, paper.  39w x 31h cm Valerie Knapp©

each stitch a step 

moving 

repeated across varied surfaces 

forming a path 

or patterning

, 

a sketch

. 

drawing with stitch 

with needles 

and pins 

and tiny curls of paper 

couched down with fragile threads

. 

all the while

in 

 a calm

sifting and wandering

, 

rifling around 

the corners 

and 

the 

hollows 

of 

time

.

VK

Her Diptych, 2009. Embroidery, relief print, drawing, thread, vellum, paper.  39w x 31h cm Valerie Knapp©

His Diptych, 2009. Embroidery, relief print, drawing, thread, vellum, birch bark, paper.  39w x 31h cm Valerie Knapp©

Chest #1, 2009.  Sycamore, aluminum, acrylic. Allan Bell©

Chest #1, (drawer detail) 2009.  Allan Bell©

Chest #2, 2009.  Fir, mahogany, aluminum laminate. 89w x 34h x 22d cm. Allan Bell©

Chest #2, (detail) 2009.  Fir, mahogany, aluminum laminate. Allan Bell©

Piano Cabinet #1, (detail) 2009 Allan Bell©

Pitcher Corset, 2009 Porcelain. Carolynn Bloomer©

Resin and Silver Pin,  2009. Vivienne Jones©

Clockwise from top left:  Fruit Triptych (detail), Valerie Knapp;  Membrane (detail), Carolynn Bloomer;  Saffron Aurora, (detail) Karli Sears;   Chest #2, (detail) Allan Bell;  Ad-junct, Vivienne Jones.