Martha!

Four days with Martha Cole.  How lucky am I?  I never really knew Martha Cole.  I knew her work, and I met her last summer when I spoke to the Regina quilt guild.  We got to visit one day in a sunporch in Regina and what a gracious person she is.  I had heard about her project of panels being installed in Weyburn a couple summers ago, but the timing of my visits never worked out. Eventually, a rumor was going around that she was retiring from teaching.

Well.  There goes my chance of ever taking a class with her!

Then a miracle happened.

Her panel exhibition was here in Saskatoon at the Craft Council Gallery.  SHE was here in Saskatoon. I found an ad on FB that Martha Cole was running the panel workshop HERE, only blocks away from my house.  It was 4 days long, and TWENTY FIVE DOLLARS.  (Insert shocked face with jaw dropped.)  I can afford that!  In the blink of an eye I called up the organizer and BOOM.  I was registered.  It isn't often that I get the opportunity to be a workshop participant.  This was fantastic!

Here I am now, back home.  I just finished the 4 days with her.  The project is called, 'All Beings Confluence'.  I'll put the link at the end of the post.  There are now hundreds of painted & embellished ten foot long sheer panels created as a result of workshops running since 2010.  Each panel is to depict a living being on this planet, and as they hang together, they stand for how all beings coexist.  There are cells, beasts, plants, virtually any living thing.  When you take the workshop, you get to dream it up.  Here's what I dreamed up...

And so I spent my days painting and printing and scraping and burning - things I have not done before.  It was so creative, and super exciting to work on such a LARGE scale. I planned for a deer with those gorgeous antlers, and sunshine firing though aspen in early fall.  I layered two panels, painting a total of fifty square feet.  I tell you, at the end, I felt like I was on one of those cooking shows.  Before I know it, someone announced that I had 20 minutes left.  !  lol  Donning my apron, I added my hand cut painted leaves as fast as I could with a stiff brush and a medium that worked like glue.  I did it.  I finished. I love it. I'm exhausted.

Our group's panels have joined the existing 'beings' in the Unitarian Church of Saskatoon.  Martha hung them all.

Though the SK Craft Council show has ended, this church will have the panels up until April 22.  Another group of beings are off to an exhibit in Gabriola.  Isn't that an incredible project?  It started with a little idea inspired by a song and it has grown and grown and grown.

Thank you so much Martha Cole.  Thank you for sharing our stories as well.  It was an incredible experience!  To learn more, click to link ALL BEINGS CONFLUENCE.

me & Martha