Current Work - Travelling Throughout Nova Scotia From 2021 - Present
A Collaboration Featuring:
HÉLÈNE BLANCHET KRISTI FARRIER ALISON DEAN COWITZ
There is a story to every place, and every place can tell many stories. Places are infused with meaning, be it through personal memories, defining events, or the landscape itself. For this exhibition three artists explore their connections to three provinces they have in common: Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. Each artist considers the fundamental meaning of “place” and expresses her unique vision of that place at a particular moment in time — one that is personal and reflects her understanding of that location. These textile works represent how a sense of place is impacted by personal histories and personal ways of seeing. Viewers are invited to examine their own sense of place and perhaps look with renewed understanding at places held dear.
ALISON DEAN COWITZ
Artist Statement
I am fascinated by textures, be they man-made or organic. I imprint hard textures onto soft fabrics using a variety of techniques and colour to capture these surfaces in-situ. When not on location, I imagine the textures and colours of a place while dyeing fabrics, and further explore my connection to these places through journals, sketches, and collages of photographs of my surface-dyed fabrics. I tell my stories through colours, marks, mood and, in this way, capture the essence of a place. For this exhibit, the places I explore are personal, and sources of artistic growth and discovery. Alberta is where I was born — it is my home. Saskatchewan is where I find inspiration growth, self-healing and spirituality. Nova Scotia is the land of my family roots — my heritage.
WHO IS ONE STRAY PIN?
Alberta based textile artist Alison Dean Cowitz has been a creator and maker her entire life. She learned to knit, crochet and hand embroider at her mother and grandmother’s side and other arts and crafts in her youth. This led her to study Visual Communications at the Alberta College of Art and Design, Calgary AB. Following a 20+ year career in graphic design, she turned to quilting, and eventually designing and sewing her own patterns. Her award-winning quilts are exhibited throughout Western Canada with the Fiber Art Network and commissioned work resides in private collections in Alberta, British Columbia, and the UK. Alison, in collaboration with two other textile artists, recently launched a new body of work titled Place in Perspective that is currently touring in Nova Scotia.
Alison teaches a variety of workshops that include fabric dyeing and printing techniques to art quilt design techniques. She loves helping students who want to get into art quilting develop their own artistic style.
Love Alison’s work? You can commission Alison to create your ideal art piece on fabric.
Check out her shop, she is now making hand-dyed yardage to purchase.
Alison loves to teach. She offers many art quilt design techniques, fabric surface design and dyeing techniques as well as free-motion art quilting classes. All can be tailored to suit beginners to advanced interests, both in person and virtually.
