Our Danish Press Release

We have a press release for our Canadian press contacts, but the Danish one has a fun title and lists the exact dates and addresses of our exhibition tour.  Enjoy!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – SEVEN CANADIAN ARTIST TO EXHIBIT IN DENMARK – OPENING RECEPTION (ARTISTS IN ATTENDANCE) THURSDAY, AUGUST 5th, 6pm to 8 pm

Dreams, threads and colours from Canada (Fiber, fantasier og farver fra Canada)

Seven Canadian artists will be showing in Sjælland and Fyn in August and September.

Seven Canadian female artists, whose choice of materials range from wool and words to copper and colours, and who have joined forces in a group called SEVEN, will be exhibiting in Denmark in August. Their first stop is Basal Elin Galleri in Copenhagen on 5-8 August followed by a one day show at the Basal Elin Studio in Hørsholm on 14 August. The group will then move on to show at Værkstedsgalleriet in Kerteminde 12 September to 12 October.

The group is based in Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada. The rugged maritime, forest and rural settings of this province exert a strong influence on their work, as do thoughts and ideas about sustainability, womanliness, human relations and life in general. Their art is sensual, funny and reflective; touchable, colourful and caring.

The members of the group are Pam Frail, Marilyn Rand, Marie Jardine, Pia Skaarer-Nielsen, Kelly Marie Redcliffe, Deborah Nicholson and Angela Melanson and their ages range from 36 to 56. While all independent and experienced artists in their own right, with numerous shows and commissions under their belts, they have come together as a group for mutual support and inspiration. Respect for the quality and scope of each others work and the potential for exploring new avenues bind them together.

August 5-8, 2010
Basal Elin Galleri
Opening/Fernisering: Thursday, August 5^th 18:00 to 20:00

(Artists in Attendance)
Trepkasgade 5,
2100 Copenhagen Ø
Denmark

August 14, 2010
Basal Elin Studio
Hours: 11:00 to 16:00

(Artists in Attendance)
Hørsholm, Denmark
September 12 - October 12, 2010
VærkstedsGalleriet (Dansk Husflid)
Opening/Fernisering: September 12^th, 13:00 to 14:00

(Artist in Attendance)
Gedskovvej 3,
5300 Kerteminde, Denmark

This is SEVEN's first European tour.

Read more about the group, their work and their tour in Denmark at http://www.sevenartisans.blogspot.com/.

We're on our Way!

Well, we haven't exactly packed yet, but..... we have started talking about the crate which our works will travel in when we do head out into the world on July 29 at 22.10 in the evening. Awwwww, don't know which leg to stand on thinking about it.
Time to breathe in and out and then do a revision of the priorities on the list which seems to keep growing and growing.   This is all good though, since as the list grows  the section of already done items and priorities have been scratched out. I like to scratch out things on the list with a bold red pen, then I feel like I have really accomplished something, since the list...... at times can be very red. Especially when.... you put even the minutest little items down on the list, not just the overall goals. Ah, the carrots we hang in front of our own noses.

Freia wishing I was done weaving so ...... she and I could go out again, although, as you can see from her paws we had been to the woods once that day  already. Dogs live with lots of hope and love in their lives, every day!







Other than focusing on the list I am heavily engaged in finishing my last tapestry for the exhibit  at Basal Elin Kunst in København and later at VærkstedsGalleriet in Kerteminde.
Tapestry weaving takes lots of time, as I might have mentioned before, but..... I love doing it, I love seeing how the piece progresses, how the type of yarn and colour I choose in the end has an effect on my initial thought and idea. The texture of yarns and colours continue to amaze me and every day I spent in front of the tapestry is a pleasure, often a pleasure which is tempered  by sore muscles when I get too carried away and don't remember to get off the bench to do some stretching and getting the blood circulation going again.
As a matter of fact, I find that I can enter into this very interesting space, where all that matters is .... the movement of the hands as they feed the yarn butterflies through the shed which I open with one foot or the other on this particular upright loom.

 Taking a break in the sheep pen an early spring day just a few months ago with my special good friend Sam.

Now although my eyes feast on the work and progress in front of me my brain wants its own input and starts saying:  feed me too, feed me too please! I accomplish this by listening to audio tapes or cds which I get at our local library. Thank goodness for the library. Sometimes I come home with grand literature, sometimes I am not sure what it is and other times it is just total entertainment and lots of laughs are intermingled in the weaving.
So when people ask me if I read a lot, well, I do have to say no, but..... I sure listen well!
And as for now, right this moment, I can feel the thoughts starting to also circulate around where I would like to take the group when we do arrive in Copenhagen.
The Round Tower, with the most magnificent view of the city, the main pedestrian walkway in the centre of Copenhagen, oh, Tivoli Gardens, yes, we must go to Tivoli Gardens, and I have heard there are special fireworks on August 15th. When I was a kid in the last century there was fireworks twice a week, but that has been changed now and there are lazer light shows going on instead twice a week, but..... I want to see the real fireworks and so I guess we have to make it there on August 15th, a fine finale for the group trip since many of our participants are heading home to our beautiful Canada the next day. 
Off to the looms, Pia             

International Transplant

Hi, I am Pia, the transplanted Dane in the group who has had the immense fortune of landing in this beautiful spot on earth, Nova Scotia, Canada. I am a textile artist, a weaver of shawls and scarves, and a tapestry weaver from the inner core of my being.

Barn wall, inspiration for Tapestry #1
I have lived here since July 1989 and have enjoyed each day, every day, all day. Watched my kids grow up and fly away from our comfy nest on strong Canadian wings with a feather or two of their Danish genes shining through.
So many opportunities have shown themselves and one of the biggest ones I would say is when life took a turn of its own and I suddenly found myself with this group of fun, interesting and inspiring women. We are all full of passion about what we do. I think we dream it at night, and float away on thoughts about projects in the middle of the day. Our creativity is pervasive in our every breath and........ it is lovely, exhausting and very inspiring.
I grew up in Copenhagen, Østerbro to be more precise, and it is lovely that our first exhibit in Denmark will take place in Trepkasgade at Galleri Basal Elin, just a few blocks away from where some of my siblings still live and bring up their families. Big City surroundings, lots of buses, cars, bicycles, and bicycle paths, trains galore to get from A to B or just strong legs, used to getting from here to there at a brisk walk.

Living here in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia is something I would never trade - I cannot easily see myself anywhere else now. It has to be added though that when Seven decided to travel with me to Denmark and we were given the opportunity to exhibit our artwork, not only in one or two places, but a third place turned up - well, then I did get rather and extra excited about the whole plan.
National pride is something funny, you never know when it will turn up and how it will express itself. As it is for me right now, I have so may interesting places I would like to take my group to when we arrive in Copenhagen - Cannot wait to take them all to the top of Rundetaarn, so they can look at the city roofs, new and old, a place which I usually go to when I do go back for visits. Art museums - Statens Museum for Kunst, where I remember doing an essay about a most humongous painting when I was 17 and getting a good grade for it. I spent hours in front of that painting - do not know if it is still there, but ...... I know the museum was renovated some years ago and so there will be so much more and other pieces of art for us to look at and to get inspired by.
My approach to "Exchange" is to study and get inspired by the surfaces, textures and colours on buildings surrounding me where I live, and when I go to Copenhagen I will study the surfaces surrounding me where I grew up - back then I may not exactly have noticed them.

This is a steaming pot of newly dyed yarn for the first project which is off the loom already.

Piece #1 came of last Sunday, it still needs to be finished up for hanging, but it is off the loom and the warp has been re-tied and tightened so when the yarn has been dyed I can sit down and start to weave this next expression of joy which is galloping around in my brain.
Today I will start organizing wool and yarn for the next tapestry piece which I will bring to Denmark. 
 
Until next time I have an overflow of words spilling out of my fingers,
Pia