wish you were here

Living in Banff is like living in a plastic snow globe that is perched on the windowsill of a trailer home just outside of Disney World.  Perfectly infiltrating glorious nature is a long road of souvenir stores and post card sentiments.  Inspired by such a relationship, I made this work as a message to my friends and family. 

wish you were here, hand embroidery on paper bag from a Banff souvenir shop, 2011

The Banff Indian Trading Post is the closest souvenir shop to my house.  Its also my favorite.  I donated this work to the Textile Museum of Canada Shadowbox 2011 Silent Auction   

wish you were here, 2011, detail

CV - Kate Jackson

EDUCATION AND RESIDENCIES


2006 -09 - Harbourfront Centre Craft Studio, Artist Residency, Textile Studio

2006 - Ontario College of Art and Design, Material Art and Design Program

1999 - Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Foundation Studies Program

1997 - George Brown College, Assaulted Women’s + Children’s Counselor + Advocate Program



AWARDS AND SCHOLARSHIPS

2008 - Helen Frances Gregor Scholarship, Ontario Crafts Council

         - OCC Scholarship, Ontario Crafts Council

2007 - Best of Show, Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition

         - Best Decorative Arts Award (tied with David Thai), TOAE

2006 - Fibre Award – Honorable Mention, David Kaye Gallery, TOAE

         - Friends of Fibre Award, Ontario College of Art and Design

         - Ellen Adams Scholarship, Ontario College of Art and Design

2004 - D. Kristjanson/Purchase Award, Ontario College of Art and Design



PREVIOUS EXHIBITIONS

2010 - Art of Craft, Museum of Vancouver, British Columbia

2009 - Unity & Diversity, Cheongju International Craft Biennale, South Korea

2008 - Fibreworks 08, Cambridge Galleries, Cambridge

         - Mores Revealed, Uncommon Objects, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto

         - Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Nathan Phillips Square

         - Update, York Quay Gallery, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
           (remounted at Gallery 990 OCC, Toronto ON)

         - Best of 2007, First Canadian Place Gallery, Toronto

2007 - Shadowbox Silent Auction, Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto

         - New Artists, The Guild Shop, Toronto

         - Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Nathan Phillips Square

         - Last Night I Dreamt I Was..., (collaboration with Suzanne Carlsen), Harbourfront Centre

         - Small Talk, OCAD and travelling

         - Five, Group Show, Durham Art Gallery, Town of Durham

         - Best of 2006, First Canadian Place Gallery, Toronto

2006 - Shadowbox Silent Auction, Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto

         - Toronto Alternative Art Fair International, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto

         - NEXT, Uncommon Objects, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto

         - Queen West Arts Crawl, Toronto

         - Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Nathan Phillips Square

         - Out of the Madness, Group Show, Gladstone Hotel, Toronto

         - Annual Student Exhibition, OCAD, Toronto

2004 - Social Somatic, Group Show, OCAD Gallery, Toronto

2003 - The Sew Sew Group Show, Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto



LECTURES and WORKSHOPS

2009 - Fragile Embroidery Workshop, CICB, Cheongju, South Korea

2009 - Visiting Artist Lecture Series, Ontario College of Art and Design

         - Artist Talk, Ontario Craft Council

2008 - Viva Voce, Harbourfront Centre



RELATED EXPERIENCE

2008 - Artist Educator, Luminato Festival

         - Textile Instructor, Harbourfront Centre Craft Studio

2007 - Teacher, Craft Education Workshops, Harbourfront Centre

2003 - Art Teacher, Toronto Parks and Recreation

early work - my soldiers

During my final year in the Material Art and Design program at OCAD (ontario college of art and design) I made a series of work titled: My Soldiers.  I was concerned with my actions as a consumer and how my lifestyle contributed to war-making and military actions around the world.  I was also influenced by Gulliver's Travels and the symbolism of size. 
The following quilts are approx. 8 feet long.  I used bleach to draw the main figure and machine embroidery to stitch the swirling soldiers into the quilts.

During my final show at school, along with the quilts, I showed 2 stuffed soldiers which were almost 7 feet tall.  They were meant to resemble both pillows and punching bags.  The drawings of the soldiers were done with machine embroidery.  (i do machine embroidery with a standard sewing machine and push the fabric by hand to guide the stitching where i want it to go.)

This is a detail of the hand and gun of the soldier on the left.

Immediately following school I was a participant at the 2006 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.  I made some smaller work to display along with my thesis work.  I had become so saddened by the reasoning behind my work that I began to dream of a world using soldiers and weaponry as tools of love.  I wanted soldiers to love and make love.  I wanted their guns to blow bubbles, grow flowers and give out love.  I became obsessed with the idea

For the following year I was very much in love with flourescents and bright colours.   I made this work  to show at Harbourfront Centre.  It was meant to be a smaller version of my 7 feet tall soldiers.  These guys are only about 12 inches tall.

I wanted to see how dedicated I could be to the repetition of machine embroidery.  The following work is 36" x 36" and is entirely machine embroidered.  I had been watching the Beatles Yellow Submarine and was enthralled with the use of flat colour filling in a black outline.  I wanted to try and use that in my work.

Eventually I grew completely disenchanted with my dream and began to realize that soldiers in war had a better chance of dying than filling the world with peace and love.  I went on to create my Eyelet Casualties Series.

Letters Series

More often than not my work focuses on the intimacy and emotions felt during both quiet moments and powerful events. This series titled: Letters, pays tribute to the romance and joy of the posted letter.  The drawing was executed using both hand and machine embroidery.  While I was making this work I drew my friends and studio mates.  This work means much more to me now that I live far away from most of the people I love.  It is always so exciting to receive a letter from them in the mail.  (hint hint to all my friends out there!) 

These "envelopes" are made with vintage hankies and linens. 

last night i dreamt i was...

A few years ago I had the great pleasure of collaborating on a show with Suzanne Carlsen   Suzanne is an amazing artist from Toronto and a super friend of mine.  Titled: Last night I dreamt I was…      the show focused on the icons and archetypes of our favourite fantasy occupations.  The show was installed in the vitrines along the studio corridor at Harbourfront Centre.  Viewers had to peek through the windows to see the work inside.  Here are a few of the occupations we dreamt about:

Last night I dreamt I was...

... a private detective 

... a circus performer

 ... an astronaut

... a ballerina

... a scuba diver

Eyelet Casualties Series

I am affected by images of dying soldiers and the violence of war.

Eyelet cloth, an inherently feminine cloth is used as both a canvas and a drawn line to convey images of war that are both sobering and whimsical.

Images of soldier life and death are on fabrics which evoke feelings of femininity, softness, safety, warmth, beauty, and domesticity - the embroidery and applique- execution is clean, tight and made with precision ensuring that feelings of love and devotion are inherent within each stitch.     
 
Materials: eyelet cloth, machine embroidery, hand embroidery
The actual size of the following work is 10"x10"

The following work is 5"x5" 

 

The following work is 20" x 20"

I continued with the same theme but made the work larger and appliqued antique lace which i hand dyed.

Title: Snow

Sixe of Work: 30"x30"

Title: Cogs

I also made some smaller work for the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition in 2008.

I won't treat my tears like tissue

Tears and snot are worthy of a handkerchief. Having spent a great deal of time crying recently and not having a hankie to catch the tears, I watched my emotions get taken out with the trash. Tears should be embraced, calmed, sweetened, and soothed. They should fall into something beautiful. 

I  made this work in 2008 while an Artist-in-Residence at Harbourfront Centre.

materials: tissue, thread, card stock, plastic.