Artist: Judith Tinkl, Sunderland, Ontario, Canada
Interviews 17: Judith Tinkl exhibited three pieces in the 2009 World of Threads Festival exhibition Threads That Bind. She was also a juror for the 2009 Common Thread International Juried Exhibition.
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Interviews published by Gareth Bate & Dawne Rudman.
Biography
Judith Tinkl has been a fibre artist for over forty years. She was a freelance teacher and exhibit organizer for many years and was involved as a volunteer with many organizations. She has been actively exhibiting her work since1982. She became a faculty member at the Ontario College of Art as it was then in 1990 and was subsequently an Assistant Dean for eight years, and then an Associate Professor retiring in 2009. That year her work was shown in Unity and Diversity at the Cheongju International Craft Biennale in Korea and at the World of Threads Festival in Oakville where she was a juror. She had a one man show, Piece by Piece at the Visual Arts Centre in Bowmanville in 2010.
She had a solo show, Pattern & Beyond at the Lindsay Gallery in February of 2011 and another at the Georgian College in Barrie in October 2011. As well as exhibiting and teaching she has been active in many crafts organizations, in particular as president of both the Ontario Crafts Council and Surfacing the now defunct textile organization. She is currently chair of the Uxbridge Studio Tour and involved with the Textile Museum of Canada. Website
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Artist Judith Tinkl in her studio. |
Tell us about your work?
I work in several ways, exploration of tiling patterns, collaged buttons and findings, and quasi landscape compositions. My original training in Drawing and Painting at OCA (as it was then) in Toronto, meant that my ideas of composition were formed in those media, therefore, I have always explored my textile work in various ways. Piecing was appealing, as it made possible many ways of exploring colour interactions – a major interest. However, working with bias cut fabric strips, allowed the exploration of something similar to a drawn line. Texture and surface variation came from the explorations of many found objects which are applied to the surface, such as buttons, findings etc. I am currently working with the faded denims of discarded jeans, which have an immense array of value and saturation variations, which when combined with non-periodic tilings makes for very complex and exciting compositional possibilities.
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Detail: Piece by Piece, 2010 |
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Piece by Piece, 2010 – an installation of three different triangular shapes created for the loft space at the Visual Arts Centre in Bowmanville Ontario. The masonite shapes, painted in 49 colours are a riff on pentagonal non-periodic tilings discovered by Roger Penrose. His original diamond shapes have been divided into triangles to allow for more colour variation. The installation was 42 feet long and between 3 and 6 feet wide. |
From where do you get your inspiration?
Nature and structure. Currently the discoveries of non-periodic tiling structures by Roger Penrose fascinate me and have inspired recent work. I made a tiling installation for my show last year at the Visual Arts Centre in Bowmanville, in their loft space, using a set of triangles derived from a variation of Penrose tilings. The way natural forms are structured is fascinating, even the most disorganized looking forms, when analyzed, obey a set of structural rules from the cracking of mud as it dries, to the patterns on sand, or in waves, of the growth of plants and trees.
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Thanks to Mr Ammann 2009 – Quilt – 71" wide x 84" high, Cottons and poly-cottons, machine pieced, hand quilted. Exhibited in the Threads That Bind show at The Gallery at Sheridan Institute, 2009 World of Threads Festival. (Background: Plastic Self-Portrait Installation by Gareth Bate) Photo: Gareth Bate |
Why did you choose to go into fibre art?
I did not choose – it chose me after a training in drawing and painting.
Which is your favourite fibre medium?
I use found fabrics – sometimes dye techniques, but never weaving.
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Thanks to Mr Ammann 2009 – Quilt – 71" wide x 84" high, Cottons and poly-cottons, machine pieced, hand quilted. Exhibited in the Threads That Bind show at The Gallery at Sheridan Institute, 2009 World of Threads Festival. Photo: Gareth Bate |
What other mediums do you work in, and how does this inform your fibre work?
I draw, and have recently explored tiling installations using Masonite piecings. As someone whose basic training was in Drawing & Painting I do not really feel that the process of creation, other than the technical construction is any different regardless of which medium is used. The process of design, composition, conveying of ideas and establishing meaning is common to any artistic endeavour. The important thing is that the creative process be respected and followed allowing for original work to evolve rather than the reproduction of preformed ideas.
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Mother Nature 2009 – Quilt – 50" wide x 55" high, Cottons and poly-cottons, machine pieced, hand quilted with beads. Exhibited in the Threads That Bind show at The Gallery at Sheridan Institute, 2009 World of Threads Festival. Photo: Gareth Bate |
What specific historic artists have influenced your work?
Early quilt making patterns and Islamic tiling patterns have been a big influence. I was originally very excited by quilts from the Amish culture. The very simple patterns and the intense surface textures combined with a very rich colour palette made these works very inspiring. The emergence of the quilt work from the African American culture was also very exciting. This led me to look at African pattern especially Kuba cloths or velours (of course twentieth century contemporary art also owes a big debt to African culture). It is interesting to see how the African American quilt aesthetic has influenced such quilt artists as Michael James and Nancy Crow. Anyone who has any interest in pattern must also be hugely excited by the use of tiling and symmetry in the Islamic culture. The variety and complexity of these pattern explorations is mind boggling. So far, I have been skirting around the edges of that world and have explored a few of the pattern structures.
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Tangled Web, 1988, quilt, 56" x 72", machine pieced and quilted cottons and polyester, Shown at Quilt Evolutions, Museum for Textiles, January 1990 This work explores the possibilities of linear course using bias cut fabric. The bias cut lines bend and curve in a very free manner. Shown at Quilt Evolutions, Museum for Textiles, January 1990 Collection of Eugene and Cathleen Beck, Toronto |
What specific contemporary artists have influenced your work?
Afro-American quiltmakers, Richard Anuskiewicz, Arthur Hoerner, Albers, Bridgit Riley and the mid 20th century abstract art movement, Monet and the pointillists.
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Summer Morning, 1988, 72" x 96", machine pieced and quilted cottons and polyester, Quilt Evolutions, Museum for Textiles, January 1990 |
Please explain in what way the artists you mention, have influenced your work?
African-American quiltmakers work from a very non-European direction. They are not into strict repeats and straight edges. There is a theory that their visual approach is similar to the variations on a theme ideas from the same part of the world that so influenced the evolution of Jazz music. I was fortunate enough to meet some of the Gees Bend artists when they visited Toronto during the show of their work at the David Mirvish Bookstore several years ago. Watching them work and talking to them was very instructive.
Richard Anuskiewicz explored the visual mixing of colour in his work as did Arthur Hoerner. I have learned a lot from looking at the work of both these artists. Anyone who has taught colour, as I have, must have found the ideas and examples of Josef Albers very useful. The OCAD library had the original package of examples of colour interactions which became an old friend over many years. Brigit Riley's ideas about composition are very appropriate for quilt makers. I remember hearing once that she said she wanted her work to move off the wall and occupy the space between the viewer and the wall – which I thought was a great idea.
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Wink – 2004 56"x 44"- textile hanging/quilt, machine pieced, hand quilted. The design derives from only two shapes, one equilateral triangle and a square with the same dimensions, divided into two or four smaller triangles. The geometric patterns generated using these shapes are infinitely variable. Colour, both hue and light/dark contrasts can cause particular shapes or groups of shapes to dominate or recede. The free form edge follows the shape of the geometric structure. Photo: Nicholas Tinkl |
What other fibre artists are you interested in?
Sonia Delaunay started a respect for textiles with her ground breaking work in the early 20th century. The fact that textile work was below the radar in soviet countries in the mid 20th century allowed an amazing explorations and ground breaking work such as that of Magdalena Abakanowicz and Jagoda Buic which influenced western textile artists. Jack Lenore Larsen brought many traditional textile techniques from around the world into commercial contemporary textile production and from there into the art textile communities.
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FROSTY EDGES, 2001, quilt, 79"x82", machine pieced, hand quilted. Pattern and geometric variations fascinate me. This is one of the reasons that I became a quilt maker. Islamic pattern structures are a big interest and major source of inspiration. Frosty Edges is a traditional quilt constructed in the usual manner. The design derives from only two shapes, one equilateral triangle and a square with the same dimensions, divided into two or four smaller triangles. The geometric patterns generated using these shapes are infinitely variable. Colour, both hue and light/dark contrasts can cause particular shapes or groups of shapes to dominate or recede. The free form edge follows the shape of the geometric structure. This very simple structure makes it possible to compose quite freely yet maintain an underlying geometry. The subject of the quilt is atmospheric, the quality, crispness and clarity of a frosty day in winter, abstracted yet still a representation of a natural event. |
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Rags - Variations on a theme, 1989 Modular wall work, 36 strips designed to hang in a random arrangement, any number of strips hang in two directions. This work began a series of explorations of random and variable works based on modular units. |
What role do you think fibre art plays in contemporary art?
It is increasingly pervading the mainstream – however it still commands less respect and influence than more traditional media. Many contemporary artists use textiles or textile techniques starting with Lichtenstein and including Judy Chicago, Christo & Jeanne-Claude and in Canada, Joyce Wieland. There is still, I think, a downgrading of textile work by textile based artists in some circles, perhaps due to the fact that there has been less academic attention paid to it in terms of critical writing and publishing.
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Cockroach and Scorpion, 2011, 40" x 40", pieced recycled blue jeans |
Tell us about your studio and how you work:
Over thirty years ago my mother died – when her house was sold we built an extension to our house which became my workshop, so I always think of it in a way as my mother's house too. Over the years it has been my refuge and my comfort, as well as a lovely space to work in. When I recently retired after almost 20 years at OCAD (U as it is now), it was waiting to take a larger role in my life.
There is a large wall, 8 feet by 20 feet, covered with flannelette which serves as an easel on which to compose my pieced work, and a large worktable on which to do everything else. This time last year I was working frantically on a new kind of work – Masonite tiles (2500 tiles in 49 colours) which I was painting laboriously for an installation at my show in April 2010 at the Visual Arts Centre in Bowmanville, Ontario.
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Celestial Bodies - 2009 48" wide, 51" high, fabric, buttons. Shown in Aird Gallery, Toronto summer 2009. |
Subsequently I became fascinated with a big box of old jeans left over from my sons' youth. Taking them apart revealed wonderful variations and transitions of indigo blue and fascinating texture where the stitching had been. My most recent work – the Cockroach and the Scorpion came from that exploration. Since I work in the quilt tradition, which is all about re-use and conserving old textiles and squeezing the last bit of use out of materials – I often follow the materials and see where they take me and how they converge with my own aesthetic interests. Inheriting large button collections from my dressmaker relatives-in-law, similarly started the Celestial Bodies series.
My workshop is at the core of my life – I am always thankful that it is there and waiting.
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Cyclops – 2005 – 84"x 65" – textile hanging/quilt, machine pieced, hand quilted. The design derives from only two shapes, one equilateral triangle and a square with the same dimensions, divided into two or four smaller triangles. The geometric patterns generated using these shapes are infinitely variable. Colour, both hue and light/dark contrasts can cause particular shapes or groups of shapes to dominate or recede. The free form edge follows the shape of the geometric structure. Photo: Judith Tinkl. |
Where do you imagine your work in five years?
By then I will be 73 – at this point I just hope I will still be able to work! – but seriously, I hope I will be exploring many ideas involved with mathematics and geometric principles and seeing how these ideas can be transposed into my work.
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Bending Red, 1995, 44" x 55", textile hanging, machine-pieced and hand quilted cottons and poly-cottons. This work is a colour study in fabric exploring the possibility of altering the perception of one red by manipulating the adjacent colours. Photo: Judith Tinkl. |
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Hot Days in April, 1990, 240 x 240 cm. machine pieced, hand quilted with surface embellishment. Banff, a Stitch in Time, September 91 Ontario Crafts 91, Premier's Award, To Japan for New Wave Quilt Show, 91/92. |