In my last two blog entries, I talked about how I began making art about my family’s farm. Today, I’m going to talk more about the work I have created and how the project evolved after moving back to Canada from doing my masters in England. Towards the end of my studies in England, I worked through ideas that I had by trying things out. I took the images and maps that I had collected during … Read entire article »

My art is a recording of memories of the farm and of the changing land with textiles, photography, screen-printing, and rug hooking. The aspects that I am recording are multidimensional: buildings, foods, plants, livestock, and the people that knew this place so well. The research that I have done has involved gathering maps, recipes, and stories from family members. After making the colour palette entitled, north of the trans Canada, I wanted to show the horizon … Read entire article »

It was in the 1950s that the mining of aggregate rock began on the Gorge road, in Stilesville, just a kilometer away from the farm. Over the years the gravel pit grew larger, as the need for more asphalt grew. Gradually the five farms in the surrounding area would be sold and the gravel pits would flourish. The Gorge road was diverted in the mid seventies to accommodate for the dump trucks getting up and … Read entire article »

Many agricultural products were cultivated on the farm. Maple syrup production began with Joshua (who I mentioned last week) in the late 1800’s and continued in the same sugar woods until 2009. My cousin continues to sell maple products, although the syrup now comes from trees that my uncle taps on his property in Albert County, New Brunswick. Cattle, pigs, chickens, and garden vegetables were grown and sold locally over the years. I remember my grandmother growing and … Read entire article »

A young man who came from Ireland petitioned for a piece of land in 1847 when he arrived in New Brunswick. After he had worked the 150 acre parcel of land for 10 years it was granted to him by Her Royal Majesty the Queen Victoria in the year 1858. This man was David McPheters, he would work the land and he and his descendants would thrive on it for the next 150 years. David McPheters … Read entire article »

I should begin by introducing myself, my name is Joanna Close and I am an artist and teacher living in Halifax, Nova Scotia. I grew up in Moncton, New Brunswick and spent many happy weekends in the country on the farm in Stilesville, New Brunswick, where my mother grew up. I studied textiles at NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia and completed my Bachelor of Fine Arts with a major in Textiles in 2004. I then moved to the United … Read entire article »