On this page there is information about the works and their makers who have not exhibited in the gallery before this exhibition. The other artists in Time who have previously exhibited at ‘from out of the blue studio gallery’ have their own updated artist pages which you can find under the artist tab on the menu.
Deb Donnelly. New Zealand
Resume
Deb Donnelly originally trained as a Textile Designer in 1980 at Wellington Polytechnic. Her career continued in cultural ethnographic art forms in a range of media. After 10 years as a designer then visual artist Donnelly retrained as a secondary and adult educator with a Masters in Teaching 2008 from Victoria University. Following 20 years as a tutor and visual artist at Whitireia Community Polytechnic, Donnelly has returned to her first love of textiles that honour past lives and reveal connections through sustainable materials and interdisciplinary arts.
Deb’s personal website link: https://debdonnellyecotextiles.wordpress.com/about/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/debdonnelly1/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/deb.donnelly.98/
Selected for Time was a work titled Wrinkles in Time. Here is the wall label description followed by the juror’s selection comments. Honouring our family members who passed away before they could reach their older years. Their precious years are preserved through wool and silk to symbolise the cultures in which they lived as ‘wrinkles of time’ that now eternally connect us as a family.
Dimensions: Nuno felt art textile 1260mm x 1050mm. Frame: 970mm x 67mm
Materials: Nuno (laminated)wool and silk slivers wet felted on dyed pre-felt merino wool base with shaped inlays. Undyed silk pad dry felted on top surface layer.
Juror’s comments: In the main image the work acts as a draping skin and reflects the stated idea well. There is a seductive silkiness in the surface treatment and it is nicely understated. It also gently represents the body as a marker of time. Using specific materials – wool and silk – to represent a ‘culture’ in this work is subtle and successful. Some ideas do not need to be shouted.
Wouna le Roux. New Zealand
Statement:
My work investigates the role of liminality in textiles art-making. Rituals, borders, boundaries, rites of
passage (the three-phase concepts of loss, change and ‘found’), with particular emphasis on the liminal
in-between phase where change or transformation takes place, are important themes in my research.
This in-between phase is characterised by uncertainty, unease, ambiguity, a sense of being betwixt and
between, neither here nor there.
Studying the work of other artists, and particularly textile artists, it became evident that symbols indicating
loss, detachment, transition, ambiguity are often found thematically in the work of boundary-crossing
artists. Whether it be migrants, or someone dealing with any other form of boundary-crossing or loss, this
‘waiting’ phase where change and transformation takes place, is often represented in their work. Similarly,
multiracial, and gender diverse individuals, are equally ‘cast aside’, marginalised, outsiders, often with a
sense of not-belonging. Artists in this category also often use these metaphors in their work.
As a migrant I have a keen appreciation for the liminal phase, of being in ‘limbo’, neither here nor there.
The sense of loss and outsidership is important. As this ‘state of being’ is characterised by ambiguity,
rituals (going back to the study of ancient cultures by the likes of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner),
uncertainty and loss, where the trickster plays an important role, my art practice explores these themes
metaphorically by using textiles as an art medium.
Textiles, specifically second hand or discarded clothes and found fabrics, are the media I predominantly
works with. By reusing and reworking the textiles into artworks, these items no longer possess their
previous character; they undergo a transformation to be ‘reborn’ and get a new lease of life.
The materials – buttons, zips, seams, hems, the weave, or knitting, yarn, thread, etc – are themselves
metaphors for, on the one hand; protection, and on the other hand; exposure. Between these two
extremes there is also the concept of change, transformation, alteration, modification, metamorphosis,
reconstruction, remoulding, mending – the in-between phase of the process of rituals – where concepts
like protection, masking, veiling, ‘invisibility’, shape-shifting, come into play.
As a tool to heal and repair, fabrics and textiles also hold significant symbolic meaning in ritual and
liminality, which are perceived as sacred. For the artist, these rituals include finding materials, the making
process of experimenting, do-undo-redo, the ritual process of exhibiting – a rite of passage in its own
right, the gallery space, and the curator and critics who can be seen as the sacred leaders to provide
guidance, and the interaction with other artists (communitas). During the making process, the rhythm
and repetitive hum of a sewing machine, the sound of thread being pulled through fabric, the clicking of
knitting needles, etc, are ritualistic by nature.
Materials: A 44 kg globe made from recycled textile and clothing, layered and stitched together.Painted, cut, burned, torn and unraveled. Metal rod, rope.
Dimensions: 700mm x 1.8m weighing 44 kg.
Resume:
Originally from South Africa, Wouna le Roux has made New Zealand her home since 2010. With an
education in Fine Art, Classical Music, Philosophy, and a PhD in Afrikaans Literature, her passion for
creative expression has been a constant throughout her life. As a migrant artist, the concepts within
liminality, of being neither here nor there, ‘betwixt and between’, is a constant theme in her work. Hailing
from a family of dressmakers, crocheters and knitters, the use of textiles is an comforting thread that binds
her past, present and future.
‘Borrowed Time’ portrays the eternal life-cycle – samsara – between life and death, death and rebirth. From the ashes, something new comes to life. The work speaks to the idea of time running out due to climate change and global warming. The use of recycled textiles embodies ideas of transformation and liminality – discarded and yet reborn, transformed from one thing to another in the art-making process. Its weight represents the amount of fabric sent to landfill by each New Zealander annually.
The Juror’s comments:
Textiles and fabric based art have always been at the forefront of political art so this artist needs to be commended. Visually, contrast has been explored by constructing a dull, muddy, dirty out layer with a vibrant inner. Perhaps this would have been more successful if the ‘rebirth’ was less chaotic/vibrant and had more structure? The explosion of colourful fabric detritus does suggest an optimism but in this exploration it still exists in its original discarded state. I would also question the use of paint to colour the exterior material – this in itself is a global hazard – and to consider how the surface effect might be created using different materials next time? The strongest element to me is where the bulbous shape opens out at the bottom in a tangle of falling, draped threads ready to be recycled into something new. And a spot of colour. The statistic mentioned is sobering.
Wouna’s personal website: https://wounaleroux.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wouna.leroux/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wiwi_makes_wiwi_creates/
Alysn Midgelow-Marsden. New Zealand.
Resume:
Alysn Midgelow-Marsden is a widely experienced freelance artist in fine art textiles, a published author of art and craft books, tutor and arts mentor and gallery director. Her skills have been proven in over 30 years of working in the creative industries. Her artistic profile extends internationally through her books, exhibitions, installations and film.
Alysn’s fine art textile work is shown and sold regularly at galleries, art festivals and shows including both solo and group exhibitions. Working to commissions for individual clients includes wedding and special occasion clothing, commemorative panels, corporate environments, books etc.
Alysn is a freelance tutor and speaker delivering workshops and presentations to professional artist groups, Universities and Colleges, embroiderers’ guilds, patchwork and quilters guilds, colleges, art centres and private groups.
Recent awards for selected exhibitions include: Estuary Art and Ecology Award (Aotearoa/New Zealand) for ‘Mitigation at the Margins’; Mandurah Wearable Art (Australia) for ‘What Lies Beneath’; ‘Wall Brooches II’ (Australia) for ‘Taniwha’; ‘Changing Threads’ (Aotearoa/New Zealand) for ‘The Space Between VII’.
FaceBook http://:@AlysnMidgelowMarsdenArtTextiles
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/alysnmmart/
Alysn’s work for the Time exhibition was called Inadvertent Disassembly. Here is the description on the wall label:
Working across textile and sculpture creates work which celebrates connections. Stainless steel, brass, copper, bronze cloths, iron wires and filing metal are used and the muted hues of oxidising patinas and heat treatments emerge as silent storytellers, whispering tales of transformation over time. Intertwining lines, structures and patterns create a mesmerising quality, embodying captured feelings. The work encapsulates both the physical and psychological and is an invitation to embrace your own personal dialogues.
Materials: Metal fabric, thread, wire, paint and patina.
Dimensions: 58 cm x 32 cm.
Juror’s comments:
While the title of this piece is somewhat at odds with what is being said in the statement, it is a very striking piece despite its small scale. The use of ‘hard’ and soft materials to create a sense of movement and surface interest has been very successful. The form itself is body-like, bone-like, artefact-like and enigmatic. Perhaps there is no need to try to unravel the structure itself to consider the way the outside ‘skin’ has been used to hold not only a range of interesting detail but also different narratives.
Alison Muir. Australia
Resume
Originally trained as a commercial Interior Designer, Muir started using textile as a communication tool in 1993, having developed a fused appliqué technique that produced images relevant to the messages she was endeavouring to broadcast. Over 80 works raising issues about fresh and salt water have been exhibited Internationally and Nationally. Muir complete a research Master of Design(Hons) 2010 at the College of Fine Arts, University of NSW, using textiles as a communication tool, entitled ‘Fathoming the depths’. Recent work has used natural dyes on natural fabrics and continue to impart messages about the environment and water, often political and always passionate.
Salt Water was selected for Time.
blue water vessel
In Sydney, Australia, time is measured by swimming, surfing and floating in salt water, living on an island surrounded by salt water and the island effect on the localized temperate climate of the city.
Dimensions: 15 cm height by 24 cm diameter
Materials: wool fleece, dyed and felted
Juror’s comments:
Salt Water is in engaging work, simple in form but more complex in meaning. The globe shape is indicative of a container, a bubble, a fish bowl, a buoy, a nest – all of which can be factored into the intention of the piece. The ring of ‘salt’ around the opening draws one into a darker (deeper) space. The colour field is rich and moody.
Website: https://muirandmuir.com.au/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/textile_expressions/
Barbara Rogers. Australia
Resume
Barbara Rogers trained as a dress designer at the National Art School in Sydney and has worked in the fashion and clothing industry, gaining experience with natural and synthetic fabrics while also designing and producing ranges of clothing. Barbara was introduced to shibori over 20 years ago by Inga Hunter in workshops that had a profound influence on the content and direction of her work. She has broadened her knowledge of shibori with research in Japan and the United States of America, with tutors such as Yoshiko Wada and AnaLisa Hedstrom, both well known authorities in the field of shibori. She has attended many textile symposiums and workshops both nationally and internationally.
Barbara Rogers was the inaugural winner of the Dame Mary Durack Contemporary Award in Leather in 1990. In 2005 she was invited to exhibit in ARTWEAR Fashion and Anti-fashion at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco and also the UNO Art Gallery in Nebraska.
Barbara and has exhibited in more than 10 solo, and over 50 group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally. Her work has been selected eight times for the World Shibori Symposia exhibitions in France, Japan, Chile and Mexico to name a few, and has been a finalist in the Wangaratta Contemporary Textile Award exhibition four times.
Her work is represented in Yoshiko Wada’s Memory on cloth – Shibori now (2002), the definitive publication on contemporary work internationally in shibori. Her work can also be seen in the Fibrearts Design Book 7 (2004) by Lark Books and Shibori Recreated, A Place for Shibori in the 21st Century (2012) by Karen Davis and Pepa Martin, and numerous exhibition catalogues, magazines and articles.
Website: https://barbararogers.com.au/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbararogerstextiles/ Facebook
Barbara’s work is called Traces Year 2011-2023
“There is making after making” Pieced work: joining fabric together. Cut and re-stitched, in Traces disruptive patterning is achieved by stitching, over-dyeing, re-dyeing and more stitching. In a process of adding and subtracting, masking and revealing, innovative shibori techniques are incorporated with other traditional resist-dye processes in unique artworks to create subtly varied patterns and rhythms that work in harmony with the cloth.
Materials: Silk satin, silk georgette, resist dyed, de-coloured, azoic dyes. Polyester thread.
Dimensions: 55 cm x 135 cm
The Juror’s comments: The subtle colour palette works well in this piece – also the layering of shape and line. While mostly an overall design, there are strong elements of contrast. The open stitched circles create movement to the surface. There is a stillness in this well considered subtle work .
Kate Sellar. New Zealand
Kate Sellar is an accomplished textile and fibre artist with a Master of Design from AUT, completed in 2020. Since graduating from Bradford University, England, in 1993, she has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. Recent highlights include her participation in the 2023 World of Threads Festival in Canada and International Fiber Arts XI in California, alongside winning the Supreme Award at the 2023 Changing Threads: Contemporary Textile Fibre Art Award in Nelson. Her practice explores innovative approaches to fibre art, blending experimental techniques and material exploration with a deep connection to the natural world.
Inspired by the textures, colours, and patterns of her environment, Kate’s work reflects on the ways nature informs human experience. She reimagines the potential of traditional textile tools and materials, combining time-honoured techniques with unexpected elements such as bio-materials and 3D printing. This approach bridges the old and the new, ensuring the relevance of traditional methods while opening pathways to redefine the boundaries of fibre art. Through her creations, Kate invites sensory engagement and emotional connection, offering a fresh perspective on the dynamic possibilities of textiles as both medium and message.
Time Markers was selected for this exhibition.
Drawing inspiration from the ever-changing landscape this artwork captures the essence of nature’s constant evolution through colour and texture. My work seeks to reflect the passage of time as evidenced in the subtle shifts in hues, intricate patterns of growth, decay and seasonal transformations, time markers that shape and influence each piece. The creation process itself is a reflection of time. Crafted on a domestic sewing machine, each work involves meticulous drawing with thread, a method that requires patience and dedication. This slow and deliberate process is a meditation on time, mirroring nature’s changes and serving as a chronicle of its temporal flow.
Description: Machine Stitching on canvas
Dimensions: 100cm x 50cm
Materials: Cotton canvas and machine threads.
Juror’s comments:
This is a beautiful complex piece with a great deal of attention paid to how colour, pattern, and composition can determine intent. The density of the machine stitching creates a feeling of weight and transformation. The use of an irregular substrate feels like a piece of excavated stone where time, climate and location can be geologically pinned. A very appealing, confident work.
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/katesellar7/
Meaghan Shelton. Australia.
Folly is Meaghan’s work in this collection. Here is the label statement: My work speaks to feminine archetypes, as referenced here by the pomegranate seeds, the fruit in ancient times was known as Eve’s Apple. A transcendent, modernist device, and also utilitarian in reticulation and pattern making, the grid provides a structure for provocation. Revisiting the grid was a way to re-enter my art practice, the momentum of which, was severely compromised due to multiple Covid lockdowns in Victoria, a state notorious globally for its strictest and longest lockdowns.
Materials: Oil, graphite, polyurethane on Belgian linen.
Dimensions: 60 cm x 60 cm
Juror’s notes: I have never considered the grid as ‘a structure for provocation’ but traditionally and in this context it gives a stability and a sense of of order. The symbolic use of the pomegranate seed, along with the sparseness of the overall composition, creates a dynamic work. Whether the seeds need to be encapsulated is a question to consider. Creating the solid form, and not overplaying it, has resulted in a highly successful and evocative work.
Meaghan’s personal website:https://www.meaghanshelton.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meaghan_shelton_artist/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meaghanlshelton/
Christy Strickler. UAE.
Resume
Christy is a self-taught mixed media artist. She works primarily with paint, ink, and thread.
Her work is a balance between the subconscious and the physical world. She still isn’t sure quite where she fits in, causing her to question how social and cultural norms have affected her life and the lives of the people she cares about. She uses her art as a vehicle to explore mental health within her role as wife, friend, and mother.
Christy has also worked in the craft and scrapbook industry. You can find her work related to memory keeping at MyScrapbookEvolution.com or view her full resume here.
SDA Member January 2024 – present .
Juried into the exhibition was Multitasking From a Woman’s Perspective.
Set against a cartoon-like backdrop, this scene depicts Western Culture’s obsession with productivity. She must use her time to do it all: work, better herself, socialise and be a caregiver. Stitching is used to pull the fabric around her forehead into furrows. Frayed Fabric represents her mental state. Multiple, disproportionate limbs represent how she must warp herself to fit into social norms.
Dimensions: 24 cm x 30 cm
Materials: cotton thread, fabric and acrylic paint on canvas
The Juror’s comments:
While the cartoon/comic book like format has been used often, this work represents only a fragment of a political narrative and we are left to imagine the rest. The idea is interesting and full of potential – especially the comic book layout style in relation to stitch. The main strength in this work is the split face – the vintage movie “Three Faces of Eve” springs to mind. More consideration of surface embellishment may have made the work more complex but the rawness of the stitching suits the psychological state of unravelling.
Christy’s personal website: https://cesartevolutionlab.com/about/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepaperscientist/