Johnnene Maddison

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Artist's Statement

At times, the making of art can be an enormous amount of work and frustration but thankfully, it is also an enormous amount of fun. What makes it fun for me is my love of colour and texture, lights and darks. Painting in watercolors is an excuse to paint colours and shadows and sunlight. In the past few years I have been working (or playing) diligently to transfer this love to works in fabric. At first glance, fabric seems to be a completely different medium from paint. However, they are both capable of containing brilliant colours, soft hues, and deep rich values. Fabrics have the added bonus of texture.
The difference for me is that while watercolors are clear and transparent, fabric is opaque and dense. The challenge is to make the fabric pieces glow from deep within as the watercolours glow from their surface. To achieve this, I prefer to dye my own fabrics using Procion MX dyes. I let the dyes cure for over a week to get the deepest, richest colour possible.
I am interested in women's issues. In the past I have completed bodies of work based on wearing burkas, the media's portrayal of women and women who worked during WWII. My exhibition "Over Here: women, work and WWII" is currently traveling Ontario. It will be at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa from May 10, 2007 to January 8, 2008.
The icon or house shape allows me to bring together fabrics and stitching and communicate ideas about the relationship between people and textiles. The viewer may relate to this shape as a bungalow, an icon or a stage. To me it represents an opening through which I may explore life's mysteries. Textiles are associated with intimate aspects of our living and our innate sense of who we are. They contain humanity. For this reason I use mostly used fabrics that have "lived" with people for many years.

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