blown away with beauty.

I love what I do as an artist and am very committed to my specific art practice so there are very few artists that make me think "I wish I did that" or that make me doubt my work as being not good enough. But occasionally there will be an artist that just so blows my socks off, inspires me but with an intimidating quality of a what the "f" their work is amazing quality and Toronto based artist Amanda McCavour is one of them. Funnily it took me awhile to know.


Amanda applied to Play and I immediately loved her images of hands playing the thread game Cat's Cradle and used her work as a promotional image for the show. When I opened her package and realized that the piece was literally JUST thread, no fiber, I was even more blown away from its beauty. It is so light and seemingly fragile but also quite strong and durable as a material. She uses the magic of Solvy.


But with my hectic schedule for the exhibit, my own work, being a mama, and going away on a residency I just now looked at her website. And oh my god I was blown, blown away.


As you may guess I most prefer her work of the domestic space including her installation of one of her past apartments living rooms and kitchens. The way her hand manipulates the machine is magic, it has an incredible drawn quality, and the mystery and beauty of her technique plays right into the ideas of memory and place no longer present in your life. I was even more drawn to these works as I myself am in the midst of starting a project that would involve large scale thread works of my own apartment. Therefore seeing her work was both intimidating and totally inspiring.


She says this about the above work:

I am interested in the vulnerability of thread in relation to the home as both things feel temporary and fragile. Making this piece required me to re-visit, remember and re-create a space that I called home but is no longer mine. This piece is a stand in, a synthetic, re-created version of home.

I have often thought of playing with Solvy but for conceptual purposes it just has never seemed to make sense. But with Amanda's work you see it being used in the most excellent and powerful way.


I do not want to talk too much about Amanda's work as I am interviewing her for my next installment of Future Heirlooms. So you all can look forward to learning more about her gorgeous work and her technique then.