Category Archives: illustration

Feb 19 2019
Leave a comment
climate change, fibre art, illustration, Tecumseh's bones, textile art, Uncategorized

The Bones Illustrated 1

Stricken City
Stricken City by Laura Wythe

T

On New Year’s Eve, a deluge dropped into the subway line at Union Station, rupturing it along the waterfront. The electric power surged and the deaths were swift. Party goers floated to the surface. Lake Ontario had breached the base of Toronto and muscled its way into the underground maze of concourses that linked high rising towers in the business district. Engineers tried to pump the water out but the lake shoreline, formerly at 76.5 metres above sea level, rose by 15 metres and currently lapped along the length Queen Street West. The city’s core stability was lost. Towers rocked like old frigates abandoned at sea. They crumbled. The city was disrupted beyond repair; the true exodus of power began. Bay Street would rebuild in Winnipeg, of all places, leaving the lower concourses to run like sewers.

The Bones, Lovers, Chapter 2
by Laura Wythe


Advertisement
Tagged , , ,
Feb 19 2019
2 Comments
climate change, fibre art, illustration, Tecumseh's bones, textile art, Uncategorized

The Bones Illustrated

For the next while, I am posting the illustrations for my climate change novel, The Bones. The book is launched and the illustrations have been exhibited. Getting the right format for an illustrated version is my next challenge. In the meantime, enjoy the short excerpts along with the illustrations.

Tagged , , ,
Apr 06 2018
2 Comments
climate change, fibre art, galleries, illustration, Tecumseh's bones, textile art, Uncategorized

Text to Textiles

poster_text to textiles.rev6

I thought I’d be writing a lot more about the process for making this collection of illustrations/fibre artworks. It’s not that I haven’t been documenting the progress. But for now, I’m pleased to have the work hanging all together, and I look forward very much to hearing feedback. The next few months will be a time of closure and reflection on a project that’s taken up a lot of space for the last 3 years. 

Here’s the blurb about the exhibit. The best is last: the artwork is posted below the blurb.

Text to Textile is a exhibition of fibre art illustrations based on the novel, The Bones, by Laura Wythe.

Text to Textile runs from April 3rd to April 28th  in the Sifton Room at the Masonville Branch Library, 30 North Centre Road, London ON, Canada.

The show opens on Saturday April 7th from 1-4 PM with readings from the novel by author and artist Laura Wythe.

Each image in Text to Textile is translated from the text onto silk, table linens or canvas, and carries an aspect of a character in the novel.

The artist infuses various embroidery traditions with a new point of view, highlighting the fragility of cloth and life, borrowing from news stories of local and global flooding to show the precarious hold we have on the land.

The illustrations are mounted as a conservationist might; fragments are carefully stitched onto linen stretched onto acid-free boards. Each illustration is accompanied by a text from the story. The process of creating the illustrations is also highlighted.

Laura is a teacher, artist, writer and long-time environmental activist. Three times her plays about community and the environment were chosen for the Grand Theatre’s Playwright’s Cabaret. She has studied Fashion Design at Ryerson and has a BA in Fine Arts from the University of Guelph. She is a member of the Canadian Embroiderers Guild, and lives and works in London Ontario.

Stricken City by Laura Wythe
Tecumseh Fell Here by Laura Wythe
Safety Net: the Annex Trial by Laura Wythe
Witness to Purity by Laura Wythe
Rebecca, the Last Galloway by Laura Wythe
Caskets on the Loose by Laura Wythe
Sprinkler System by Laura Wythe
Rain Whisperer by Laura Wythe
Indian Territory, 1774 by Laura Wythe
Woven into the Fabric of Chatham County by Laura Wythe
Death of Simple Pi by Laura Wythe
Drawn into Catherine’s Orbit by Laura Wythe
Crossing the Great Lake by Laura Wythe
Thomas Waits Where Highway 3 Has Fallen off the Map by Laura Wythe
A Great Void by Laura Wythe
Dominion of Catherine by Laura Wythe

Tagged , , ,
Feb 27 2018
4 Comments
drawing, illustration, Uncategorized

Two Inch Square Book

IMGP0519

Still Life, Pen and ink, 2″ x 2″ Laura Wythe

It was a gift from another student in a drawing class. A tiny hand made book with blank pages of handmade paper, and the cover a Guatemalan weave. What a joy! I knew I’d fill this book from the first page to the last, and I did.

For years, I took the bus. That’s a study in waiting, taking busses in my city. The two inch square book was a perfect fit for any sized purse or pocket. I carried a Staedtler pigment liner, 0.3 which never bled on the rough porous paper, or ran out. While waiting for the bus, a friend, at the doctor’s, or on a lunch break, I’d sketch.

IMGP0534

Waiting at the Market, Pen and ink, 2″ x 2″ Laura Wythe

It took a year to fill the book. I found that the ink bled through the pages, so I used every second page as an opportunity to the connect the dots and get abstract.

And the scenes or objects I sketched quickly took on a stylized look, inspired by wood block prints.

IMGP0525

Deck chairs on Bruce Street, Pen and ink on handmade paper, 2″ x 2″ Laura Wythe

IMGP0520

Sketch diary made in Guatemala, 2 inches square, 2011-2012, Laura Wythe

Tagged , , , ,
Nov 02 2017
3 Comments
galleries, illustration, People and Places, Publishers and Books, Uncategorized

Indie Publishing

IMGP0424

A long time ago, in the town I grew up in, I had my first Indie publishing moment in Mr. Smith’s Canadian Lit class. I wrote the story, drew the pictures, hand printed the words, and bound the pages with red electrical tape. Pretty cool. An excellent teacher, Mr. Smith went through the pages with pencil and pointed out my not-too-numerous spelling and grammar mistakes. He whispered to me (I was a class-slacker) that I should get this book published. I thought it was.

Little did I know at the time “nurd” would be become a part of our vocabulary, and have a different spelling!

Now with online printing platforms, I can go beyond a short children’s story and print out a whole novel, and many copies! In my case, I used CreateSpace, and being a pencil and paper girl, I had a hard time until I just followed the instructions. Oh yes, and I enlisted a friend’s help!

Talking out design problems and getting the book just right was a great experience, and now it’s done. I have a BIG book.

Mind you, I also booked a venue to hold an art show in 2018 — can’t resist illustrating a novel. Deciding how to include illustrations is still to be decided. I’d like it to have some of the charm of an “old-school” book, maybe with colour plates pasted onto blank pages opposite the text, or scattered through more randomly. It won’t be hand printed, but the illustrations will be hand-made.

I’m proud to announce the release of The Bones, and will be among the small presses and indie authors at London Ontario’s Wordsfest — Southwesto Book Expo — held November 4 and 5th at Museum London. A cool start for a book.

Meet local author_landscape

 

SaveSaveSaveSave

Tagged , , , , ,
Newer posts →
%d bloggers like this: