July 4 – August 25, 2019 | Thursday, July 4, 6:00 PM

Patterns of Growth / Woven Woods

Toni Losey & Lorraine Roy

Artist Biography

Toni Losey – Artist Biography

Toni Losey, is a Ceramic Artist working in the city of Dartmouth, NS. She received her BFA from NSCAD in 2018. While there she drew upon her 15 years of experience as a studio potter to develop an exciting body of sculptural work. She had the opportunity to show this work at SOFA Chicago, NCECA, and in several private and public gallery spaces. She has been published in Ceramics Monthly and has taught workshops and classes at NSCAD, NSCCD and several other community studios.

Nature has always been a part of her work.  Losey grew up on the Canadian Prairies and drew inspiration from the big skies and wide open spaces.  Now living in Nova Scotia,  Losey’s new surroundings have opened up new ideas and are a definite influence on her new sculptural work. 

Losey has always been aware of the relationship of the clay forms she creates to the environments they exist in.  Losey finds that in her functional work she considers the homes it will inhabit and the hands that will hold it.  It is this same intimate relationship, between the vessel and its user, that has inspired many of her considerations in her sculptural work.

Lorraine Roy – Artist Biography

“Like many women of my generation, I was introduced to the fabric arts at the earliest opportunity, at my mother’s knee with a needle and thread. This was the start of a creative journey that led to a full time career in art textiles. I have been working as a professional artist in this medium for thirty years.

For my formal education, I earned a BSc in Agriculture, Majoring in Ornamental Horticulture, and have been studying developments in tree research since graduating in 1978. In my work I draw upon my background in science to create images in fabric which evoke the strong connection I feel with the natural world.

Using raw edge appliqué and machine embroidery, I have created a visual vocabulary that interprets and illustrates biological organisms and systems. The techniques I use mirror processes that bring order to diverse and humble materials. My intention is to arouse an emotional connection by shining a warm light on critical unseen forces. Most of my wall pieces are inspired by the biology, mythology and symbolism of trees, classic emblems of the communion of earth and spirit.“

Exhibition Statement

These two interlinked exhibitions explore the relationship of organic forms. Toni Losey, with her experimental and innovative wheel-turned shapes, creates anamorphic structures layered with thick skins of glaze. The sculptures in Patterns of Growth look soft to the touch but are in fact encrusted with hard texture and nodules. They seem to jump to life reaching their multiple ambiguous appendages outwards and upwards into the air around them.

Lorraine Roy renders ecosystems from fabric and thread in Woven Woods, each circular quilt is an enclosed story of an interconnected forest. Guided by her horticultural background Roy uses textiles to illustrate her research into the “exquisitely balanced symbiotic relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and tree roots”. Writing beautifully about the subject of her work she says “in the top six inches of the forest floor lies a vast and flourishing communication system as old as photosynthesis itself.”

There is a lightness to the works from both Roy and Losey that plays off one another through their organic shapes, colors and textures. Each artist, working in entirely different media, evokes an intelligent natural world with which we are in an ever evolving relationship.

Acknowledgments

Published ©2021 by the Centre for Craft Nova Scotia All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All photography courtesy of the artist unless otherwise stated.