Jane Kenyon and McKenna Prather

Jane Kenyon and McKenna Prather, two artists working in different ways with fibre/mixed media, will be exploring the ways in which materiality and technique can be used to express ideas about the body, nature, the environment, and emotion.

We are slowly emerging from one of the most difficult periods in our history. The emotional and physical toll on us as individuals and communities has been extensive, and healing will be long and hard. Our internal and external landscapes have changed dramatically and many of us continue to feel fear and anxiety around what life will feel like in the future. Creative pursuits, small or large, can be valuable activities in developing confidence, mindfulness, and connection. Stitching groups such as quilting bees and “Stitch ‘n Bitch” tend to be small and friendly – a good place to gently re-emerge into the world. Please drop-in for hand-stitching and conversation any time between 10am-6pm, Thursday-Saturday. New or beginning stitchers, artists, crafters, children - everyone welcome; needles, thread, and recycled fabric will be supplied as needed.

At the end of the month, the pieces created at Sparrow Artspace will be displayed together as an installation.

Jane Kenyon

Jane Kenyon’s artwork is composed of many layers of paint, torn fragments of previous work, and stitch. We live in a time of impermanence – of ideas, objects, families, technology, careers. As I explore the anxiety of these rapid changes, we being to enjoy the transience of any individual artwork: yielding to the freedom of the transformations taking place on the surface, possibly in the artist as well. Recent work with recycled domestic textiles feels like a further exploration of the permanence/impermanence of materials, perhaps an attempt to salvage their usefulness.

Skin Series 3 2020

acrylic & stitching on recycled t-shirts

20"x16"

Skin Series 14 2022

acrylic and stitching on recycled t-shirts and other garment fragments

31"x28"

Skin Series 5 2021

acrylic & stitching on recycled t-shirts

24"x40"

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McKenna Prather

McKenna Prather is exploring materiality by representing the relationship between textiles and organic shapes in nature. Drawing inspiration from Western Canada landscape, particularly in the Rocky Mountains, McKenna is using acrylic paint on canvas, recycled cloth sculpture, paper, wool and embroidery to recreate plants and wildlife. McKenna’s work will focus on the similarities in texture, shape and pattern between man-made textile and organic plants and animals.

McKenna Prather makes paintings using acrylic paint on stretched canvas, completing each piece with hand-stitched embroidered details. The paintings created at Sparrow Artspace are abstract, where non-representational mark-making meets realistically-rendered plants and wildlife in a collaged fashion. Each painting begins with layers of colourful, organically-shaped marks that intertwine with each other, referencing plantlife. McKenna then chooses specific areas of the painting to add realistically-painted elements that represent textures and animals from varying ecosystems in Alberta. This includes imagery from Alberta Grasslands, Parklands, Rocky Mountains and the Boreal Forest. Once painted, McKenna stitches embroidery floss or wool into sections of each painting to add texture. McKenna's mark-making with acrylic and embroidery is a marriage of controlled and chaotic elements, showcasing a contrast in styles where familiar imagery and non-representational marks come together to depict nature in Alberta.