Women and Art

Happy Belated International Women’s Day! There are many women who inspire my art and craft practice. These women include family who introduced me to needlecraft at a young age, friends who challenge me with a new technique, or creators who inspire me from afar. I hope you have such creative influences around you.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, I’ve selected some resources to inspire your creativity, meet new female artists, and celebrate iconic women.

Beadwork: First Peoples’ beading history and techniques by Christi Belcourt 

Christi Belcourt is an iconic Métis visual artist and author celebrated for her paintings. In this book, she shares her knowledge and love of traditional beading. She introduces different types and styles of beading as they relate to cultural identity through use, region, and practice. The book includes history and techniques, a section on materials, stitches, and templates. Truly a treasure!

Quilt out loud: Activism, language & the art of quilting by Thomas Knauer  

Where quilting meeting “craftivism,” this book shows how quilting can be a platform for social movement. Featured artists meticulously stitch words, data, symbols and more to make a statement. To inspire your own work, the book contains letter templates, tips, and resources like morse code or the alphabet in binary code.    

Feminist cross-stitch: 40 bold & fierce patterns by Stephanie Rohr 

Who doesn’t love a well-worded cross-stitch? This book features 40 patterns so you can make a cute affirmation or a sassy statement. There is a wonderfully detailed Rosie the Riveter pattern, but I particularly enjoy the to-do list that includes “practice self-care” and “speak out.”

Crochet iconic women: Amigurumi patterns for 15 women who changed the world by Carla Mitrani

From Greta Thunberg to Jane Austin to Serena Williams, this book is packed with pattern after pattern so you can crochet a tiny, adorable doll of your favourite iconic woman. I can’t decide where to start – do I make Marie Curie with her miniscule Erlenmeyer flask, or a teeny tiny Jane Goodall with a teeny tiny chimpanzee?   

Empowered embroidery by Amy L. Frazer  

This beautiful book is packed with inspiration and instruction. Each thoroughly detailed pattern starts from a sketch and colour guide, then moves through the process with close-up images to specify stitches and techniques. You can follow along, choose some of the variations provided, or use their instruction to make your own pattern. By the end, you’ll be ready to create an incredibly detailed thread painting of Ruth Bader Ginsberg or Michelle Obama.   

A big important art book (now with women): Profiles of unstoppable female artists–and projects to help you become one by Danielle Krysa

Painters, fibre artists, or mixed media creators – there is a delightful range of art in this book! It’s divided into chapters based on expansive topics or categories, like “look to the past” and “tell a visual story.” Each chapter starts with a project relating to the topic, then features page after page of amazing work created by female artists.

Want more creative fun? Check out our Info Guide on Hobbies and Crafts. 

– Meg

Painting and Sketching Outside

Summer is here and it’s time to get outside with your art supplies! As soon as the weather warms, I take my sketchbook everywhere. A few pencils and a small watercolour set go a long way, whether you want to capture the beauty of the prairies or illustrate your own imagination.

Taking your creativity outdoors sounds great, but not sure where to start? Here are a few resources to prepare and inspire.

Books to Borrow 

Sketch Your World: Essential techniques for drawing on location by James Hobbs

Sketching is so much more than pencil and paper, and this book gets it! It starts with instructions to make your own sketchbook and goes from there. Each chapter focuses on location, guiding you to artistically explore parks, observe people, and appreciate architecture.    

Beautiful Landscape Painting Outdoors: Mastering plein air by Michael Chesley Johnson 

Plein air is the art world’s term for painting outdoors and this book is a great walkthrough for any artist. There are so many examples in works in oil, watercolour, pastel, acrylic, and gouache. I loved the section introducing various artists and listing what they pack to paint outdoors, including specific colour choices.

Nature Painting in Watercolor: Learn to paint florals, ferns, trees, and more in colorful, contemporary watercolor by Kristine A. Lombardi

A vibrant, whimsical romp in watercolour! While not necessarily intended for outdoor painting, you could definitely head outside to paint these simple, expressive plants and animals. The illustrations walk you through each layer to create single ferns, flowers, and mushrooms that can be combined for a more complex finished piece.

The Spirit of the Brush: Chinese brush painting techniques, simplicity, spirit, and personal journey by Sungsook Hong Setton

If you have the space to set up and take your time, this is the book. It’s like a breath of fresh air. Starting with how to hold the brush, this book shows you how to capture the spirit and vitality of nature with a variety of brush strokes.

Children’s Books 

The Chalk Art Handbook: How to create masterpieces on driveways and sidewalks and in playgrounds by David Zinn 

Chalk art is fun for all ages! This book will inspire anyone and challenge even advanced chalk artists. Learn techniques to improve your chalk art, ways to incorporate the environment, and even how to create illusions that seem to spring from the sidewalk.

Never Get Bored Draw and Paint by James Maclaine 

This artistic activity book is full of ideas! Learn to draw skulls and unicorns, then try making finger print monsters or painting with bubbles. I particularly like the “Create Your Own Weather” activity, complete with thunderbolt snakes.

Digital Library Resources 

Movies and television on hoopla 

Hoopla offers a range of movies and television on painting. Explore various techniques and types of paint in the 24 episode “How to Paint” series, paint exciting designs with make-up and body paint in “Fun With Face Painting”, or enjoy a blast from the past with “Bob Ross – The Joy of Painting”. Watch at home or download an episode to take it outside.

eMagazines on OverDrive, with the Libby app 

Discover both current and historic artists in “PleinAir Magazine” on OverDrive, with the Libby app. This magazine features stunning, full-page images paired with interviews and articles. If you enjoy landscape and still life work, this is a great magazine to borrow.

Want more creative fun? Check out our Info Guide on Hobbies and Crafts. 

~ Meg

“Secret” Things the Library Can Do for You (Part 3)

Need a place to chill out (literally) as you run hither and yon this summer? I suggest you take a relaxing break at the nearest WPL branch. I’ll bet you drive or bus past one regularly. Why not drop in and get caught up with the daily paper or magazines? Or enjoy our air conditioning and free WiFi? And drink some water – you know you don’t drink enough water.

Here are some other things you might not know we offer, as part three of our “’Secret’ things the library can do for you” series.

Obviously discussing the library

 

Free movie screenings

That’s right – free movies, just bring your own snack. Every month the Millennium Library hosts super popular movies that were adapted from books for both adults and kids. Coming soon, Lion, based on A Long Way Home by Saroo Brierley, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, based on the series by Jeff Kinney.

Some branches also hold NFB Film clubs for both adults and kids. This summer three branches will be hosting special kids’ screenings of NFB short films on Indigenous Legends.

 

Art and sculpture

The art of Jennifer Sanderson is coming to the Millennium Library in July

The Millennium Library has so much art inside and out that it’s featured in the Winnipeg Arts Council walking tours. It also hosts rotating exhibits in its Blankstein Gallery, a feature that is so popular, it has been adapted into art walls for smaller branches, some of which have already begun showing exhibits by local groups and schools.

 

Let us look it up!

Ask us! Look how friendly we are.

Do you know what people did before Google? They called the library. Many people still do! We love it when you ask us to research things. We can find addresses and phone numbers, old newspaper articles, building codes, car prices… I once helped a gentleman find the right size hole to only allow the birds we wanted into the bird house he was building.

 

We ♥ WPG

 

A West End literary walk

We love to highlight the history and beauty of our city with talks and walking tours and special collections online and in print (side point: have you seen the new Local History Room??). We’ll help you explore your city, neighbourhood, and even house. Yes, house. You can search for your address in our Henderson Directories going back to 1880 to see who used to live there!

Book bike en route

Book bike set up

And now that we have our book bike, we can bring the library with us wherever we go. Look for us the next time you’re at a festival, or, for that matter, the Goodwill Social Club (Wednesday, August 16).

 

Our love in action:

WPL at Pride 2017

 

Happy summer!

 

Erica

 

 

 

“Seize the Night” at Nuit Blanche

Nuit Blanche owl logo

Calling all night owls!

Nuit Blanche is a free all-night exploration and celebration of contemporary art. In Winnipeg, the event has been held annually since 2010 as part of Culture Days, and attracts thousands of people to St. Boniface, Downtown and the Exchange District.

Nuit Blanche takes place this Saturday, October 1, from dusk to dawn and the Winnipeg Public Library is excited to be taking part! Visit two of our  libraries under the stars for an evening that harkens back to childhood crafts, library visits, and the joys of being read-aloud to.

Millennium Library Park
7-11 pm

Lighten up your Nuit Blanche with story time for adults, a lantern creation station, and a library lounge.

• Library lounge and creation station open all evening
• Story time for adults at 8:30 & 10 pm
• Watch for our roving Book Bike with Writers-in-Residence Christine Fellows and John K. Samson. They’ll be “pedaling” some of their favourite books!

St. Boniface Library
(in the lobby and on Provencher Blvd.)
7-11 pm

Rendez-vous à la Bibliothèque de Saint-Boniface pour une soirée qui vous ramènera à la magie de votre enfance, la création artisanale, les visites à la bibliothèque et la joie d’écouter des histoires.

• Creation station open all evening
• Métis stories told in English and French, throughout the evening

Want to know what else is happening during the long night? Pick up a copy of the program at any library, or visit the Nuit Blanche website for an online listing of the dozens of other events and art installations taking place.

Wondering how to get around? The Winnipeg Trolley Company will be available to all art lovers from 6pm to 2am. The familiar big orange trolley and a new additional shuttle will stop at 8 different locations in the three zones (Downtown, Exchange District and St. Boniface).

Not a night owl? Culture Days isn’t just a Saturday night thing; it starts today (Friday, September 30) and goes on through Sunday, October 2. You’ll find something fascinating to check out!

Danielle

Colour Your World

Color is my day-long obsession, joy and torment. – Claude Monet

In November, when the weather is getting colder, daylight is in short supply, and the world looks rather dreary, I find myself longing for colour. When I was a child I gloried in my colouring books and crayons, and my most prized possession (other than the contents of my bookcase) was my box of crayons, the one with 64 colours that came complete with a sharpener. Just opening the box and getting a whiff of that wonderful waxy fragrance was enough to make me happy. As I got older, I graduated to markers and posters, then later in life I re-acquainted myself with the joys of crayons, through colouring with children. I love the current trend of colouring books for adults – I can finally stop pretending that my stash of paper, crayons, markers, and pencil crayons are for the kids who come to visit.

Reading picture books is one quick and easy way to brighten the dullness that this time of year sometimes brings. There’s no shortage of beautifully illustrated children’s books in the library, so everyone can find a favourite. Two of my current top picks for livening up a grey day are Michael Hall and Todd Parr. Michael Hall’s use of shapes and colour to tell a story is intriguing, and the bold lines and even bolder colours in Todd Parr’s books never fail to bring a smile to my face.

                   

Looking at what artists and their imaginations have created is another wonderful way to bring colour into your life. Even though many of Lawren Harris’ works are of the far north, the colours he chose brings light, if not heat, to a frosty landscape. Don’t want to look at more winter? If warmer climates are more to your taste the incredibly vivid shades of Georgia O’Keeffe‘s desert paintings are a wonderful choice. For a change of scene, try  Henri Matisse‘s works, which burst with colour, joy and exuberance.

          

There’s virtually no limit to the colours, materials and techniques you can use to create your own work of art. Whether it’s Bob Ross’s happy little trees in oils, a portrait in watercolour, using a computer to create digital art, or just plain old crayons on paper, if you can come up with it, there’s a book or dvd out there that will help you create it.

Sometimes the use of colour can cause controversy. Check out Voice of Fire, the hotly debated purchase by the National Gallery of Canada. There are only 2 colours on the canvas, but the ongoing discussion ignited by this piece has been far from monochrome. Is it a brilliant piece of abstract art? Or an overpriced meaningless image ? You be the judge.

Pigments, dyes and paints have a fascinating saga of their own. Victoria Finlay has written two captivating books on the subject: Color: A Natural History of the Palette and The brilliant history of colour in art. Both of these books discuss the fascinating history behind various colors, the paints preferred by certain artists, and which artist reportedly ate his paint. There’s also the sometimes surprising materials that paints and dyes are made from, like the stinky shellfish used to make purple in Roman times and cochineal beetles, which make a unique shade of red.

             

There are many ways to appreciate colour and the joy it can bring to your life. So don’t wait any longer – open up that crayon box, take a deep sniff, and let your true colours come shining through today!

Lori

Underdog City

“This may surprise you but Winnipeg is not so bad.”
-Glen Murray, 2007

Is it possible that this isolated burg populated by mosquitos and bargain hunters now boasts a Michael Kors store, a (dormant) NHL team and will soon have an Ikea? To many citizens this is a turning point for this city’s fragile identity.  The once thriving economy of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century produced the architecture of the Exchange district and magnificent Banker’s Row on Main Street, now a Heritage site. “All roads lead to Winnipeg” trumpeted the Chicago Herald in 1911. Later events such as the opening of the Panama Canal, WW1, and the “dirty thirties” ended the boom and Winnipeg lost the title of “Chicago of the North”, and arguably its sense of self.

If not the economic centre it once was, Winnipeg can surely claim the title “Cultural Capital of Canada”. It has been argued that harsh winters sparked an intense creative fight against boredom.  According to economist Richard Florida,  a strong creative class composed of knowledge workers, intellectuals, and artists stimulates economic growth. Winnipeg is blessed with more that its share of this demographic as evidenced by its thriving artistic community of theatre, dance, music, and fine arts. Can they be credited with this return to prosperity?

   Winnipeg has the oldest civic art gallery in Canada. The WAG began in 1912 in the Industrial Bureau on Main and Water. Now in an iconic modernist building, the gallery’s exhibit “Winnipeg Now” showcases 13 significant contemporary artists. The show at the neighbouring  Plug In gallery, “My Winnipeg: Winter Kept us Warm”, features artists whose interpretations of a complicated city full of myth and ambiguity help to explain our ambivalence.  

    These mixed feelings were dissected in the critically acclaimed film “My Winnipeg”  by hometown boy Guy Maddin.   His “love-hate letter” to his city is a docu-fantasy about the inability to escape. Winnipeg, the narrator points out, has the largest number of sleepwalkers per capita.

Subconscious City, dedicated to “those who choose to remain”, examines the hidden underpinnings – vacant lots, forgotten communities, hidden gems and Winnipeg’s power to shape our identity.

Winnipeg Love Hate juxtaposes photographs of the city’s best buildings with some of the more forlorn, tragic, and repulsive images of our city. The foreword “To explore Winnipeg can be depressing, but it can also give one the sense that they have been let in on a mysterious and beautiful secret.” When you are asking yourself why you live here, log onto Bryan Scott’s blog for some photographs that will remind you.

   For a field guide to help you explore more galleries, public art, and artists read My Winnipeg; a guide of the artistic scene.  And take advantage of First Fridays in the Exchange when galleries hold open houses to bring together artists, artist run centres, galleries, businesses and the public for a greater understanding, appreciation and promotion of the arts in Winnipeg.

 Jane

Things you can’t do with an e-reader…

Last year, Bloomberg Business Week printed a story about a man who began having rather apocalyptic nightmares after his son was born. He envisioned the bookshelves in his compact Japanese home falling on his new baby, burying the child in books. So he did what any prudent parent would do: he bought a scanner and converted his 850 books into PDF files.

 Now, you may be gripped by New Year’s resolution-induced clean-ups, or perhaps you are still enamoured with your new e-reader. But if you find yourself with extra books on your hands—the old-fashioned kind, with pages and covers—there are a few ideas for what to do with them.

The Repurposed Library: 33 Craft Projects That Give Old Books New Life by Lisa Occhipinti offers an array of  projects for old books. These accessible crafts range from shelves constructed from books to wall decorations made by folding book pages. Some highlight books as a form, and others capitalize on the monochromatic appeal of the printed book page. Perhaps the most ironic inclusion is a Kindle book holder, described on Amazon as being for “those who want to replicate the sensation of holding a “real” book.”

Playing with Books: The Art of Upcycling, Deconstructing, and Reimagining the Book by Jason Thompson edges from craft into art with a similar approach to the same medium. The gallery section of the book highlights some beautiful works, including that featured on the book’s cover: a dress made of telephone book pages.

One artist frequently highlighted in exhibits or publications dealing in book art is UK artist Su Blackwell, whose detailed artworks are fascinating in their meticulous detail. Her gallery shows intricately-cut book pages assembled as sculptures. Perhaps the most clever ones use books as both subject and medium, such as those featuring scenes from Wuthering Heights or Alice in Wonderland.

 Another artist highly accomplished in the realm of paper art is based in Scotland, but remains anonymous. In spring 2011, a librarian discovered a small, detailed paper sculpture of a bird’s nest and eggs. It was accompanied by a note, saying”This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas…” By November, a total of ten such sculptures had turned up at libraries and museums in Scotland. The final note said that the sculptures were thank yous for the kind of “special places” where they had been left.

If perhaps you are not ready to part with your books in such a permanent way, two older books highlight some storage choices. Living with Books by Alan Powers has a range of appealing ideas, including the highly impractical (and dangerous) stacking of books along the edge of a staircase. It also includes a whimsical “coffee table book table”, comprised of glass sandwiched between–yes, coffee table books. While more traditional in its approach, House Beautiful: Decorating with Books by Marie Proeller Hueston does feature a dramatic, three-foot pile perilously wedged across the full expanse of a mantelpiece.

Books Make a Home: Elegant Ideas for Storing and Displaying Books by Damian Thompson can provide some further storage ideas. Whatever style of home you prefer, books can add something to your interior, whether they are the honey-coloured leather covers lining your Italian villa, or the identically slipcovered tomes in a modernist condo. (Does anyone except designers actually do this?) In a great variation of the recliner with pockets for the remotes, this book features the Biliochaise, where you can surround yourself with five linear metres of your favourite reading material.  

In the end, there is a solution for the Japanese man who consolidated his collection but might miss the ambience his books provided. A designer has come up with wallpaper printed to look like an array of bookshelves. But given the design’s sagging shelves, homeowners may never be free of their nightmares about collapse!