Judith E Martin - Softer and Dreamier
In this solo exhibition, Canadian artist Judith E Martin explores the cosmic circles above us and the dream world within us. Informed by poetry, memoir, fine art, and what happens in bed, Martin has created large hand-stitched quilts for 40 years, writing about her process in her blog, Judy’s Journal.
Judith E Martin creates large, poetic, hand-stitched quilts that combine circular drawings with the tradition of North American bed quilts. In her work, she makes visible the profound feelings that rise up within her while stitching. The artist lives and works on an island in Canada and stitches with a hoop while seated near a large East facing window where her view takes in both sky and water.
Materials take the lead for this artist. Many of the fabrics she chooses are old, soft, damask table linens, full of time and ritual. She also uses colourful silks and block printed cottons from India, organza or wool that she dyes herself, or references her Finnish roots with a Marimekko print. She uses both sides of her quilts, with a different title for each side. This body of work is about the process of making it, and the stars and the clouds that she represents in the finished pieces are Judy’s attempt to share her interior world.
