by Sally Hansen

Accomplished Pakenham painter Amélia Ah You has come a long way. Born to Chinese parents in the Portuguese controlled colony of Mozambique, she grew up with Chinese fairy tales and mythological stories, African drums, Indian chai and Portuguese cuisine. In school, she studied traditional Chinese calligraphy and painting, and learned about western religion and Portuguese explorers. By the time she got to Pakenham she spoke fluent English and Portuguese, as well as basic Cantonese, Spanish and French.

Today she lives with her husband, their dog, and a few farm animals on a beautiful, secluded hobby farm surrounded by a vast, geologically diverse landscape in Pakenham Township. The stern Canadian Shield guards their backs, a meandering stream leads into the distance, gently rolling fields, a marshy swamp and wooded areas bring wildlife to their front door.

Continue reading "Amélia Ah You - Uniquely You" »

Posted on May 9, 2009 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Cathy Law cannot get enough of her high fibre diet. When she isn’t sewing she is designing or drawing or teaching or photographing or collaborating or thinking up her next big fibre art project. Since her retirement from a rewarding and demanding career as a special education teacher in Kanata, she and her husband Terry have turned their new home near Perth into the perfect venue for her to pursue her creative passion.

As you enter the living room, two beautiful tapestries quietly announce her extraordinary mastery of fibre art. One depicts a traditional quilted medieval theme; the other is a striking tribute to her mother, who died of cancer on Cathy’s birthday thirteen years ago. The contemporary portrait is beautiful in more than appearance. The work was a collaboration with several of her fellow fibre artists, and represents many of the things that make her passionate about her flexible medium. “The possibilities are endless,” she assures me. “You can go anywhere from traditional quilting to experimenting with mixed media and painting on fabric. There are no limits to the ways you can play with texture and colour and form.”

Continue reading "Catharina Breedyk-Law - A High Fibre Diet" »

Posted on May 9, 2009 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

by Sally Hansen

Their medium is not the message. Jane and Bob Christie excel at creating flowing, fluid works of art from cold, lifeless metal wire. Jane designs and creates wonderful wire jewellery; Bob designs and creates whimsical wire sculptures. They share a studio in their rustic log cabin on the shore of the Ottawa River in MacLaren’s Landing not far from Fitzroy Harbour, and thoroughly enjoy working companionably but independently to their individual muses.

The Christies share many artistic and other interests, but they certainly aren’t cookie cut-outs of each other. Born in Montreal, Jane moved to Arnprior when she was four. She remembers spending many mesmerizing childhood hours accompanying her father, a professional forester, on nature walks. Her dad was an encyclopaedia of knowledge, teaching her how to identify plants and trees, and to discern the wonderful array of natural beauty that was concealed all around her. She spent countless hours exploring and collecting in her own backyard. Stones and insects were her favourites, and they feature prominently in her wirework jewellery today.

Continue reading "Jane and Bob - The Twisted Christies" »

Posted on May 9, 2009 3:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)