Many of the textiles in this exhibition are presented with their ‘inside’ out. This is expressed using techniques that involve stitching onto the front of the piece but displaying the reverse or working on the back of the artwork but showing the ‘front’.
During their creation, Martin noted that the stitched marks she made by carefully working from the back, appeared natural and intuitive on the front, resulting in a more authentic piece. Acting as a metaphor for the way we live, the pieces reflect an outer self that we present to the world and an inner self, probably more interesting, full of thoughts and stories and dreams that are only occasionally shared. A process of creation that provided great peace during a period of isolation, loss, and worry, the repetitive gestures made while stitching, wrapping, caressing, folding, and holding had a calming effect, and acted as a reminder that things will be okay.
Homer Watson House & Gallery acknowledges that it is located on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (Neutral), Anishnaabeg,
and Haudenosaunee peoples; land promised to Six Nations, six miles on each side of the Grand River.
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The Loch Doon area was memorialized in celebrated Scottish poet, Robert Burns piece “Ye banks and braes O’ bonnie Doon”
Ye banks and braes o’ bonny Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae weary fu’ o’ care?
Thou’lt break my heart, thou warbling bird,
That wantons thro’ the flowering thorn:
Thou minds me o’ departed joys,
Departed, never to return.
Aft hae I rov’d by bonnie Doon,
To see the rose and woodbine twine;
And ilka bird sang o’ its love,
And fondly sae did I o’ mine.
Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose,
Fu’ sweet upon its thorny tree;
And my fause lover stole my rose,
But, ah! he left the thorn wi’ me.