EARLY WORK
SUCCESS FOR EVERY STUDENT
This was a breakthrough quilt for me in a number of ways. I discovered an embroidery technique called "couching" which gave me control over making a fine line, so that I could reproduce hand-writing. "Success for Every Student" was the motto of the London Board of Education. 150 students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 at Fairmont Public School wrote the motto without assistance. This was organized by a friend of mine, Celia Evans, who was teaching at the school. Everyone is represented in this quilt: the struggling and accomplished, the flamboyant and the introverted, the indifferent and the well adjusted, as well as the youngest at the beginning of the education journey, making
a crude outline of her hand.
The piece was a bitter condemnation of the "Whole Language" approach to teaching literacy (note the atrocious spelling) and born out of my angst as I watched my daughter grappling with the collective mind-set of an institution perfectly encapsulated in its farcical motto. The piece became a Trojan Horse of sorts when the Board acquired it through contributions from 10 London businesses and industries to present to the retiring Director of Eduction Jack Little who had coined the motto. At the dedication ceremony I said something to the effect of: "How you react to this quilt will have a lot to do with your personal experience of school." Talk about diplomatic...
The quilt was also a turning point in terms of having my work recognized in the good company of fine artists at the 44th Annual Western Ontario Exhibition at the London Regional Art & Historical Museums in 1991 where it won a Jurors' Award.
It hung in the atrium at the Education Centre for many years. I asked to borrow the quilt for an exhibition in 2003 and when I went to the Ed Centre to pick it up, it was eventually found in a cupboard and handed to me in a garbage bag. It had been taken down when the Thames Valley District School Board was formed.
SUCCESS FOR EVERY STUDENT
This was a breakthrough quilt for me in a number of ways. I discovered an embroidery technique called "couching" which gave me control over making a fine line, so that I could reproduce hand-writing. "Success for Every Student" was the motto of the London Board of Education. 150 students from Kindergarten to Grade 8 at Fairmont Public School wrote the motto without assistance. This was organized by a friend of mine, Celia Evans, who was teaching at the school. Everyone is represented in this quilt: the struggling and accomplished, the flamboyant and the introverted, the indifferent and the well adjusted, as well as the youngest at the beginning of the education journey, making
a crude outline of her hand.
The piece was a bitter condemnation of the "Whole Language" approach to teaching literacy (note the atrocious spelling) and born out of my angst as I watched my daughter grappling with the collective mind-set of an institution perfectly encapsulated in its farcical motto. The piece became a Trojan Horse of sorts when the Board acquired it through contributions from 10 London businesses and industries to present to the retiring Director of Eduction Jack Little who had coined the motto. At the dedication ceremony I said something to the effect of: "How you react to this quilt will have a lot to do with your personal experience of school." Talk about diplomatic...
The quilt was also a turning point in terms of having my work recognized in the good company of fine artists at the 44th Annual Western Ontario Exhibition at the London Regional Art & Historical Museums in 1991 where it won a Jurors' Award.
It hung in the atrium at the Education Centre for many years. I asked to borrow the quilt for an exhibition in 2003 and when I went to the Ed Centre to pick it up, it was eventually found in a cupboard and handed to me in a garbage bag. It had been taken down when the Thames Valley District School Board was formed.