Public Art Projects

Hanwell Park Academy

The final Suspended in Time: Woven Pages and Wooden Letters has been installed at the Hanwell Park Academy in the NB Seminar Room on the second floor by the library.  For Suspended in Time: Woven Pages and Wooden Letter, the two woven “pages” were woven simultaneously with black lines that represent paper in scribblers and from looseleaf. This bringstogether the concept of weaving letters into words and concepts into knowledge. Vintage wooden alphabet blocks are added by inserting coloured pencils cut in various lengths into to slits that were woven in the “pages.” These blocks spell “Hanwell Park Academy” on the left and “Make Your Mark” on the right as a welcome to students.

The weaving process represents how ideas, concepts and knowledge are woven together. In this piece, two tapestry pieces were woven with white with black lines added. These lines anticipate the words, phrases, and sentences that could be created from the letters on the blocks of wood. The vintage letter wood blocks represent integrating the old ways of learning with the new.

During the weaving process, slits were woven into each “lined page” to allow the pencils to be inserted easily into the woven pieces and then through layers of foam core board. A hole was drilled in the back of the wooden letter blocks. Coloured pencils were cut in various lengths and then glued into the hole in the back of each block. After the glue was dry, the blocks with the pencils were then inserted into the woven pieces. The woven pieces and the pencils were secured to the foam core board.

Arc en Ciel Project – Primary Colours Weave the Future

Primary Colours Weave the Future” consists of 5 handwoven tapestries in primary colours, (dark blue, royal blue, yellow, light red and dark red). These colours are also found in a rainbow, so there is a direct connection to the school (Arc-en-ciel).  The design incorporates historical colours of the Union Jack flag (dark blue, red and white), the Canadian flag (red and white), the NB flag (yellow, red, blue and white), the Acadian flag (red, white and royal blue with a yellow star), and even the Quebec flag (royal blue and white) since many military families in Oromocto are from Quebec.  In addition, an Indigenous medicine wheel contains red, yellow, white and black so my design incorporates most of these colours as well.  

The warp yarn is a #6 cotton seine twine and the weft yarn is 100% 2-ply wool from Briggs and Little (dark red, light red and royal blue). I hand-dyed the 2-ply yellow yarn and I used a navy 2-ply yarn that was in my yarn stock.  During the weaving process, I added a wool rainbow yarn into the tapestry to add colour and depth to each piece. In some pieces, the stripe of rainbow yarn goes across the full width of the hanging while in other pieces, the rainbow yarn goes partway across the hanging, starting from the left or the right to give it more texture and appeal.  

The hangings start with the navy tapestry on the left, then the royal blue, the yellow in the middle, light red on the middle right and dark red on the far right. 

King Square Temporary Art Installation

In 2023, I was invited to create a rope installation in King Square during the Third Shift Festival. This project included a very successful community engagement component where visitors were able to weave the rope around the trees with me. After the installation, visitors were invited to come into the area and have their pictures taken under the blue tarp (it was raining during the installation and during the festival).