CANMORE – Thousands of woven fabric strips of different materials and colours make up 27 faces of women from different cultures.
The art piece stopped Canmore local Carla Cumming Sojonky in her tracks, taking her breath away and nearly bringing her to tears, knowing instantly she wanted to buy the art and display it in a public space.
The multicultural celebration made by Calgary’s Sharon Johnston are part of her piece entitled Of a Common Thread, which is meant to honour the women who helped build Canada.
“I think it’s a great honour to be able to make it possible to give what I consider to be the masterpiece of her artistic career has permanent home in a public space,” said Sojonky.
Being a board member to the Friends of the Canmore Library (FCLS), Sojonky felt it would be fitting to permanently display four foot by six foot fabric art in the Town’s library. The piece was unveiled of Friday (July 12) and was also in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of FCLS.
“I said to the gallery owner that this has to go into a public collection. It just can’t be bought by a private person and sit in someone's house for forever,” said Sojonky.
Johnston used a technique called rug hooking which demands hours on hours of weaving small strips of fabric through a fabric backing, slowly bringing the faces to life. In addition, Johnston hand cut and sourced each strip of recycled fabric.
“I don’t use any patterns, I only use my own drawings,” said Johnston.
“I like the idea of that going in a public place, because I think it’s important to honour these women.”
Johnston learn to rug hook through library books, making a full circle moment to have her art displayed in one.
“It’s come full circle in her career that she learned how to do this thanks to a library … that just seemed to wrap everything up with a nice red bow,” said Sojonky.
Sojonky said everyone can feel a relation by recognizing similar faces of a mother, grandmother or great grandmother.
“I think we can all see somebody there,” said Sojonky. “And again, that makes it a work for the people. It’s a work that belongs in a public space.”
Johnston originally made the piece to be part of a travelling exhibit for Canada’s 150th anniversary with Chinook Guild of Fibre Arts that would tell the story of how women aided in building the country.
“In the centre of the piece, you’ll see that there is several Indigenous women’s heads,” said Johnston. “The reason I included these women was because they were indispensable to the people that were settling in this country because they had skills in survival, and they knew the country.”
Sojonky encourages people to get in close and admire the craftsmanship as it took Johnston around a year to complete.
“The nuancing of the colour and the shading in some of the clothes and the headdresses is unbelievable,” she said. “There is one done in yellow, and I have no idea how many of yellow are in it, because they just blend together so perfectly.”
