WhiteFeather
Published Saturday June 13th, 2009
Fredericton artist admires the sassiness and independence of Pippi Longstocking. 'She doesn't let anyone get away with anything.'
q Age?
a 36
q Provenance?
a I'm originally from Saint John but have been mainly based in Fredericton for the past 20-odd years. I've travelled most of North America and have lived in Alberta, British Columbia and Maui, Hawaii, plus a few years on the road. I have a very large extended family in Carleton County, which keeps bringing me back to New Brunswick, though, no matter where I roam.
q Why art?
a I was always encouraged to make things with my hands, learning needlecrafts from my godmother at the age of five, native crafts during my elementary school years in Alberta and watercolour painting from my wildly creative mother during my teens. My stepmother is also incredibly creative and always valued crafts and art making. These things made a lasting impression. I was making my own Christmas presents for my family by the time I was seven, stitching together toys and trinkets. I floundered for a couple of years after leaving high school, but eventually discovered the craft college. Once I attended the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, which was then called the Craft School, I knew I was on the right life path. It's been a love affair with art-making ever since.
q Why the name WhiteFeather?
a I was given the name in a powerful dream, a kind of rite of passage, when I was 21.
q What was your breakthrough moment?
a I constantly experience breakthrough moments - I live for them! I often wake up from very vivid dreams in a frenzy because of the new ideas that have formed there. That was how I first began working with hair in my artwork. The first inspiration for a new piece is a breakthrough, followed by lots of self-doubt in the refining and making process, followed by another breakthrough when I complete a piece and a voice in my head finally says, 'Yes!'
q What would you be if you weren't an artist?
a Writing is my first love.
q Your current obsession?
a Getting enough funding to attend the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where I was accepted last year, to do my masters in fibre and material studies.
q What are you working on next?
a Cleaning up the chaos in my studio after my last project. I make a mess while I'm working!
q What place on earth inspires you?
a I have a vision of hang-gliding over Angel Falls in Venezuela. I love heights, waterfalls and rainbows. I also sometimes like to do daring and risky things, or at least imagine doing them.
q What place in New Brunswick inspires you?
a I find most of New Brunswick breathtaking. I love the coastline and I like to collect waterfall locations and new hiking trails. I'm particularly drawn to the hills of Welsford. Sometimes I imagine heading into them with a backpack and disappearing for a very long time. I collect a lot of bones and bits of things during my explorations.
q Secret indulgence?
a I don't keep secrets at all. Sometimes that gets me into trouble.
q Your favourite hero of fiction?
a Pippi Longstocking. She represents everything wonderful that a girl can be: clever and sassy, independent and original, playful and forthright. She doesn't let anyone get away with anything, and she wears striped socks!
q What is your greatest extravagance?
a MAC Russian Red lipstick.
q What is your greatest fear?
a I pretend to be fearless. Sometimes I even believe it.
q Greatest joy?
a All time and stress and petty concerns disappear while I'm working in my studio. The only other time I experience that is when I'm relatively alone in the wilderness somewhere, sucking up all of the natural beauty I can stand. These two things keep me alive.
q Your favourite painting on Earth?
a I have, hanging in my living room, the sweetest and most quirky portrait of my son and me, by my dear friend Andrea Crabbe, a painter now living in Halifax. She captured his mischievous smile just perfectly. I adore it.
q What are you reading?
a I'm currently totally engrossed in Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford.
q What's on your iPod?
a I just added the new Shins album, as well an album by Daniel Ledwell, who I just saw perform with Jenn Grant at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre in Fredericton - beautiful!
q What talent would you like to have?
a Thicker skin when I need it. I'm too emotionally sensitive sometimes, I think.
q Your most treasured possession?
a A small fossilized skull that my mother unearthed in the badlands of South Dakota during one of our extended road trips. I have no idea what the creature once was, but its molars are there and the entire thing is petrified. It's about the size of a house cat's head. I grew up playing with it and imagining myself an archaeologist one day. I think it's why I collect bones and remains of animals and use them in my art now.
q What is your motto?
a "Boot the grime of this world in the crotch, dear!-" The Smiths
q How would you like to die?
a My father operates a lush, gorgeous 88-acre ranch on Maui, which has a series of descending waterfall pools that culminate in one final waterfall that drops 200 feet into the ocean. I've often stood on the edge of that cliff, beside the waterfall, imagining what it would be like to leap off, arms extended out at my sides like open wings. I might like to go that way, if ever I was brave enough to do it. Eeeeek!
q What is the greatest public misconception about art?
a Probably one of the biggest misconceptions that irks me has to do with originality. Sometimes I hear the assertion that in art, there are no more original ideas, that everything is derivative or appropriated. This might very well be true and in fact, some artists exploit that notion, which I admire. However, there is the question of authenticity. I think that when an anyone creates or dreams something up, and that thing comes from their own core, based on their own lived experiences and interests, then what they produce is authentic. It doesn't matter if someone else did a similar thing before. To me, authenticity makes for original art. Sometimes when I look in art magazines and see work that bears any sort of resemblance to mine, either in concept or materials, I have these insecure moments where I feel like I've been beaten to the punch, and I get overwhelmed. But where would thinking like that get anyone? Channeling the zeitgeist is sometimes what artists do best.
q What is your favourite art museum and why?
a Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, just outside of Copenhagen. I had the opportunity to visit while studying in Denmark a few years ago, and I never wanted to leave. It's a huge art museum, full of sculpture by Giacometti and Calder, wall works by Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and Annie Albers to name a few, plus loads of contemporary works: I experienced a tour by Janet Cardiff, which was wonderful. I was there from the time it opened in the early morning until they kicked me out at the end of the day. I think I might have even cried while I was there taking it all in.
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