Art of the Spirit

Contemporary Canadian Fabric Art

Helen Bradfield, Joan Pringle, Judy Ridout

• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Year: 1992
• ISBN:
  9781459720473
• Topic: Art
• Subtopic: Religious Art

Rich colours and arresting designs capture the mood of celebration and joy that characterizes this photographic record of contemporary religious works of art. Chosen for their excellence in design and stitchery, these works represent the achievements of artists who have created art, in fabric, for places of worship. This book celebrates this important artistic expression, a significant part of our heritage. Pieces are selected from communities across Canada: from a small parish on a Micmac reserve in Nova Scotia to a large urban synagogue in Vancouver; from the igloo-shaped cathedral in Iqaluit to a suburban church nestled beside a wildlife march in southwestern Ontario.

MARIE AIKEN-BARNES Aurora, Ontario

This Is My Father’s World (1968)

Multi fabric collage, appliqué,
with embroidery
1020 × 120 cm
Collection: Trinity United Church,
Gravenhurst, Ontario

Drawn from the images of the surrounding countryside, the vibrant tapestry This Is My Father’s World stretches thirty-four feet across the balcony of Trinity United Church in Gravenhurst, Ontario. Pine trees, flowers, lichen, soil and water blend and flow with the motion of the wind. The design is an abstraction of plant forms and rocks – “some readily identified and some quite imaginary,” says the artist. The whole panorama teems with the growth of nature, and the themes, taken from nature close at hand, are fresh, vivid and delightful.

The variety and texture of the fabrics contributed by members of the church present a depth of meaning. The very size of the work is awesome. Particularly arresting is the warmth of colour, which is intensified by virtue of the contrast with the simplicity of the church interior and its subdued stained glass. No white or grey, black or gold, yellow or orange are used in the tapestry.

This tapestry was designed and supervised by the internationally recognized craft teacher and artist Marie Aiken-Barnes. The whole undertaking of layout, stitching, appliquéing and embroidering was done by a group within the United Church community.

An enthusiastic promoter of contemporary art in textile, Marie Aiken-Barnes is especially interested in lichen dyes, a subject on which she has lectured widely throughout this country, including the Canadian Arctic and Australia, and which was the basis of her presentation to the World Craft Conference in Dublin, Ireland, in 1970.

MARJORIE WATHEN AITKEN Fredericton, New Brunswick

The Mary Banner (1990)

Felt, on wool worsted
204 × 100 cm
On loan to
Saint Thomas University Chapel, Fredericton, New Brunswick
Photograph by the artist

A meditative and reflective exploration of feminine characteristics, The Mary Banner combines the world of myth with a contemporary Christian contemplation of Mary. The interpretation that follows is taken from the artist’s own description.

The Mary of this banner is a young pregnant woman. Waiting, expectant, she holds the ball of the world in her hand, a world of brown, black, yellow and white peoples. She is standing inside a room by the edge of the sea, where life began and from which emerged Aphrodite, the ancient goddess of love and beauty. Mary is looking out through a window upon the world, a world that is a garden, a city and a seaside playground.

In the playground stands a dual tree, the tree of knowledge, around which twists the serpent tempter and the serpent healer, and the tree of life whose fruit gives “everlasting life” and “whose leaves are for the healing of the nations.” On its branch sits a cockerel, a reminder of Peter’s denial and of our own.

Just as a child by the seashore picks up a shell and listens to the sound, so the shell at Mary’s feet represents curiosity, inquiry and interior listening. In her humility Mary chose to listen to the word of God. A child’s shovel and pail of sand suggest our playing with moments of time, while the frail boats indicate our sailing forth on a spiritual adventure.

The Christian fish circle the seas and the tree roots, and a crescent moon in the waves at Mary’s feet represents tides, time and the reference in Revelation to “a woman clothed in the sun for her mantle, and the moon at her feet.”

The distant city can be interpreted as the Rome of “non nobis sed urbi et orbi” (not for ourselves but for our city and the world), a place of political and social action.

The swing is an image of where we are, or where we hope to be. Coming from a world outside the definition of this banner, the swing is motionless until moved by the spirit of the child within, who will grasp and articulate a new vision. Then, growing creatively together, we can say with Mary, “My soul doth magnify the Lord and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.”

CAROLYN BEARD Wilberforce, Ontario

Lazarus (1982)

Fabric collage, machine stitchery
210 × 90 cm
Collection: St. James’ Anglican Church,
Dundas, Ontario

Carolyn Beard, self-taught in the art of needlework, has produced a modest body of work but one that reflects a remarkable and varied style and always a powerful emotional content.

Lazarus, a fabric collage, brings into focus the church in the inner city. Simple, stark and powerful, it bespeaks today’s world within the context of the Bible. The tattered and torn clothing of the resurrected Lazarus becomes the piteous cry of the disadvantaged, homeless and isolated in a world teeming with riches. While emitting a piercing cry, the collage nonetheless reflects an attitude of faith and gratitude. The limited colour range, the sensitivity of the embroidery, and the placement of the figure in the lower section of the hanging all combine to make a simple, strong and highly dramatic statement. It is hard to imagine this banner hanging in a church even fifty short years ago.

JANE DAMS Georgetown, Ontario

Cloak for a Recording Angel (1984)

Silk dupioni ground, sponged with dye
and metallic powders, screen printed
with sublimation dyes, and
embellished with hand and machine
embroidery, appliquéd fabrics and gold
leathers, gold couching
and beadwork
Semicircular cloak, 316.8 cm from neck
to end of train
Collection: The artist
Photograph by P. Dams,
Georgetown, Ontario

The original concept for this magnificent work was to design a vestment that could be worn to celebrate all of the important occasions in a person’s life. From top to bottom, the embroidery depicts, symbolically and pictorially, the stages of birth, marriage, death and the resurrection of the soul.

Sky, water and the earth are suggested by the colours that pour down over the cloak. Water is symbolized by mermaids and fertility by pomegranates, while angels represent divine activity in the world of men and women. The phoenix and butterfly stand for resurrection, while peacocks suggest immortality, all built around the tree of life. One can spend hours looking for the endless array of images that fill this glorious composition in a variety of matchless artistic skills.

The artist states:

I like to paint using fabric and thread and find the very nature of the materials stimulating. Designing and drawing are perhaps the most exciting stage for me, especially in the use of colour, form, and texture. Most of the themes chosen are based on figures, natural forms, and subjects derived from literature. The use of a sewing machine, when used as a drawing tool, and various dyeing techniques in conjunction with hand stitching plays a prominent part in my work, allowing me to create my own fabrics. There are no set boundaries in embroidery, the possibilities extend even into the third dimension.

JOY BELL Burlington, Ontario

Parable of the Sower (1978)

Fabric with appliqué and
hand stitchery
Set of 6 banners,
each 355 × 120 cm
Collection: The Baptist Convention of
Ontario and Quebec, Toronto, Ontario

The six panels which comprise the Parable of the Sower graphically portray the vast landscape of that biblical land, while at the same time visually enacting the familiar verses:

A sower went out to sow; And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away. Other seeds fell upon thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. (Matt. 13:3-8)

A powerful stage is created beneath an omnipresent sky that changes dramatically. The story unfolds in simple pictures set against a backdrop of extraordinary reality captured with amazing dexterity in the m...