Fibre artist Gail Erickson combines her daydreaming with reality. Colours, textures and stitches swirl through her mind as she pieces together another carefully sewn jacket. Erickson uses recycled fine woolens to create a collage, which looked at from a distance can be the beautiful red of an arbutus on a shoreline or a flower set among bright swatches of colour. She pieces together garments that are elegant, wearable and one-of-a-kind.
Erickson is one of 15 women fibre artists who are banding together for a 10 year retrospective show and sale at the Coast Collective gallery in Colwood. The women are members of Fibres & Beyond, a textile co-operative formed to support and challenge these artists working with surface design, fibre, fabric and mixed media. It’s all about cloth in one form or another. The tactile and the fragile are all represented by one or more of the women. Each year they gather their latest creations and band together for the annual Consider the Lilies shows amongst the lilies in Metchosin’s Old St. Mary’s Church churchyard.
The artists involved in the retrospective are Linda Danielson, Gail Erickson, Joy Garnett, Irm Houle, Phyllis Lysionek, Judy Seeley, Elizabeth Tanner, Joan Taylor, Jessie Taylor-Dodd, Isabel Tipton, Mary Wolfe with Ria Bos, Patrician Carley, Gloria S. Daly and Alison Kobylnyk. The women are all from throughout the Victoria area.
Some of the work is decorative, some is functional but each piece is a unique. The artists applique, stitich, sew, embroider, weave, dye, piece and manipulate fibre into wall hangings, garments, dolls and soft sculptures. The pieces are bright and colourful and showcase the intricate work fashioned by those creative hands.
ReConsider the Lilies opens on Sept. 20 and runs to Sept. 30 at the Coast Collective at 3321 Heatherbell Road in Colwood.
An artists’ reception is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 22 from 2 to 4 p.m. Hours are Wednesday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.