The sixth and final artist in The Rurban Fringe’s limited online art series is Lorraine Roy, a textile artist living and working in Dundas, Ontario, Canada. 

Through her beautifully crafted and unique art, Lorraine demonstrates  – through fabric – that contemporary rurban art is not an art of cultivated isolation – rather, it is approachable and creates valuable opportunities to ask questions and make connections with our environment … the very place we live in.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your work.  How would you define your art?  What are the influences on your work?

I was born in the French village of Pain-Court, in Southwestern Ontario, and was raised on a cash crop farm.  This might account for how much I am drawn to rural landscapes and natural subjects … in fact, I liked it so much, I went for a BSc in Agriculture with a Major in Ornamental Horticulture!

In the meantime, my mother taught me to sew at the age of six … and I took to it like a duck to water. 

Then, after many years of sewing, I branched out to embroidery and eventually stopped regular sewing altogether in favour of making fabric wall hangings. 

Although I don’t have a formal education in art, I took many workshops over the years with qualified textile artists and fine artists as teachers. 

Whenever I need a new skill, I take a class. 

Over my 20 years of professional art experience, my technique has evolved quite a bit and it keeps changing with my subject matter.

After graduating, I was employed in various Garden Centres and with landscaping firms, but in my spare time I was always working on art.   

Eventually, the art took over. 

My biggest launch was a solo touring exhibition of rare and endangered Carolinian trees for which I received a generous grant from the Ontario Arts Council.  After that, I never looked back.

Now, most of my pieces are inspired by native trees and the Niagara Escarpment area where I live.  My style is a blend of realism and abstraction.

How do you promote yourself and your work?  What is the local response to your art?

I show my work in six commercial galleries in Ontario, and try to show out West as often as possible.  I participate in two major yearly art shows:  the Toronto Outdoor Show and the Artist Project, both in Toronto.  I offer workshops two-to-three times a year.  I try to create one major solo show every two-to-three years for public galleries.  Sometimes, I enter juried shows, and am included in a few group shows each year. 

My husband (a professional photographer) and I share a large separate studio on our property, where we invite visitors during the yearly Dundas Studio Tour, and we are also open to the public on the odd weekend. 

I donate work to local charity auctions and appreciate how many of them now offer artists up to 50% of the final selling price.

Also, I do commissions … I’m happy to work with clients on particular spaces and projects.

I very rarely buy advertising, preferring to seek out any free publicity that is available – it always seems to work better.

To overcome shyness, I took public speaking courses and it helped a lot!  Now, I get asked to do presentations and talks to quilters, art guilds, and nature groups.  This is a source of income and exposure.

I have a very good website, and a web-guy to match.  He set it up and does all my changes.  It’s nearly impossible to succeed any more without the web.

Still, people must SEE the actual work and even meet the artist before they buy the work. 

Only rarely will a buyer choose art from the internet without having seen it in person first.  My theory is … viewers like to see our work three separate times in order to start thinking about buying.  A radio interview, a TV spot, a newspaper article – all these things help make it happen.

The response to my work here in Dundas has been great!  People appreciate local subject matter that is dear to their hearts. 

Still, I can’t depend on local traffic to make a living.  For that, I must include galleries and shows in outlying towns and Toronto.  But although Dundas is a small village, there are many artists and artisans in this area, so I never feel a lack of stimulating feedback whenever it’s needed.  Now that I am established, this isn’t as necessary as it was in the past, but I very much appreciate the companionship.

Over time, I’ve attracted clients from all kinds of places … mainly Canada and the US.  I haven’t noticed any particular demographic, but all seem to enjoy texture and colour, and appreciate this unusual medium.  The subject matter is universal.

I spend about 30-50% of my time working on the business side of things.  I don’t really like it, but if I don’t do it, my work will never get out there – even now after 20 years. 

You can never coast! 

I figure I would rather be at the desk working on my own business, rather than someone else’s!

Is there a plight of rural artists?  Do you see any perceived challenges or opportunities as opposed to working in an urban area or as an urban artist?

Rural artists don’t always get the kind of support that a strong community of artists and art lovers can offer.  Artists need to rub elbows with each other to encourage growth and risk-taking.  Family and friends are not always the best critics, even if their hearts are in the right place.

Access to – and knowledge about – good gallery representation is another factor. 

Rural artists can rarely rely entirely on their community for financial gain so they must reach out to the big city.  This is a challenge for beginners.  It helps to go into big cities and take workshops on selling, marketing, presentation, grant applications, creating exhibition proposals, and building your portfolio … or hire someone to present the information locally.

When you’re in it for the long haul, you know it in your bones and nothing will stop you anyway … it just might take longer. 

Persistence is the most important quality an artist can have, after raw talent.

Do you have any suggestions as to how rural and rurban communities can support a thriving arts and cultural scene?

Art education – from childhood on up – builds active viewers and participants for the future.  And lots of hands-on activities for the young, and visits to the major galleries … that’s what they are there for!

I would also like to see more artist-run initiatives.  Many times, artists know best how to show and organize their own projects.  I don’t want to undermine the good work that business and government bodies do but – even with the best of intentions – they can trample passion and energy, and organizers who really don’t know much about art can end up with mediocrity … blind adherence to rules and by-laws is a sure killer.

 And of course, public bodies have to encourage spending on the arts. 

Artists would not be financially challenged if each adult in Canada bought only one piece of real, local, handmade art or craft. 

I don’t think that’s a lot to ask … they would soon learn that the arts and artists give it all back, and more … now THAT would be a worthwhile grassroots movement!

***

To find out more about Lorraine – and to view samples of her work – visit her website at lroytextileart.com.

Related Posts:

• Exploring Rural Development: Using the Arts as an Economic Driver
• Exploring Rurban Art – John Andrews
• Exploring Rurban Art – Hope Kroll
• Exploring Rurban Art – Steve Mack
• Exploring Rurban Art – Natasha Newton

John Andrews – the fifth artist in The Rurban Fringe’s limited online series – is proud to explore, sustain, and raise the profile of creative rural art by understanding ‘community’ as a place from which one can create (and find!) meaning and culture.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your work.

I’m a graphic designer who’s been working in the book and newspaper industries for the past 15 years.  Most of my life and career has been based in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, until my wife and I moved to a small community two years ago.

How would you define your art?  What are the influences on your work?

I’m still a youngster in the art world so I don’t think I can clearly define my direction as an artist … meandering, I suppose.

I started doing photography about ten years ago.  I loved the darkroom process but was never a fan of the chemicals.  During that time, I also started experimenting with other forms of printmaking.  I was always drawn to the stark images created by woodcut artists so I eventually tried my hand at that.  Many stabbed fingers later, I moved on to linoleum – a medium that’s a little kinder to a knife-wielding newbie.  

I continue to make linocuts, I dabble in painting, and do a monthly editorial cartoon for NLPress.ca.

Living in a rural area, how do you promote yourself and your work?  What is the local response to your art?

I dipped my toe in the big digital pond of online art sales a few years ago when I started my Etsy shop, Linopalooza.  It was an exciting process and was my first real art sales effort.  It was thrilling to see the page views climb and have inquiries coming in from art enthusiasts, but even better when pieces started selling to people from across North America.

Once I saw that online art sales were a real possibility, I explored other online options to point people to my shop. 

I started my blog, Doodlepalooza, nearly a year ago.  Though I originally expected it to be strictly a marketing tool, I soon realized that I loved posting and sharing my art experiences (successful and otherwise).

I started taking part in online art initiatives such as Karin Jurik’s ‘Different Strokes From Different Folks.’  The art challenges and the community spirit surrounding them were fantastic. 

It began to be a little less about page views and a lot more about interacting with like-minded folks.

In the real world, I’ve been submitting pieces to the Newfoundland and Labrador Provincial Art Competition for nearly a decade.  Making it into the final exhibit is a real privilege considering the number of talented people that take part.

Is there a plight of rural artists?  Do you see any perceived challenges or opportunities as opposed to working in an urban area or as an urban artist?

I don’t believe there’s been a better time to be a rural artist. 

Using the internet, a rural artist can create an online portfolio, blog, take part in art challenges, see what other artists are doing, reach out to galleries, etc.

Before the internet, rural artists probably had to do a lot of legwork to nearby cities to make the same connections that are possible today from home.

A gallery owner contacted me out of the blue a few months ago after she came across my blog and thought my work would be a good fit for one of her upcoming shows.  As a result, I’ll be taking part in a group show at Argyle Fine Arts in Halifax, which I’m pretty excited about.

The only major artistic challenge from my rural environment at the moment is that I’ve recently become a gardening addict.  It’s a problem, for sure.  We’ve barely harvested this season’s crop and I’m already daydreaming about what I’m going to grow next year.  It’s deeply cut into my time for art during our short growing season.

But that’s okay!  I’m happy that my life has been filling up with a wide variety of activities.  I spent way too much of the last decade in front of a computer screen. 

Do you have any suggestions as to how rural and rurban communities can support a thriving local arts & cultural scene?

Some friends of mine in this community have suggested we start an art group. 

Although we haven’t tried that out yet, perhaps that would be a good first step … I suspect our community has a lot of creative people.

***

To find out more about John and to view samples of his work, visit his Doodlepalooza blog at http://doodlepalooza.blogspot.com.

Related Posts:

• Exploring Rural Development: Using the Arts as an Economic Driver
• Exploring Rurban Art – Lorraine Roy
• Exploring Rurban Art – Hope Kroll
• Exploring Rurban Art – Steve Mack
• Exploring Rurban Art – Natasha Newton

Like the meticulous nature of her art … rural life exists in the details.

This month, The Rurban Fringe is pleased to introduce Hope Kroll, the fourth artist in our limited online series, as she shares her thoughts on her aesthetic and raises questions as to the existence – or non-existence – of art space within a rural/rurban setting.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your work.

I began drawing very early and, by the age of seven, was enrolled in my first art school. 

I completed my undergraduate work at the University of Illinois – where I received my Bachelor of Fine Arts – and then studied at the San Francisco Art Institute where I completed my Master of Fine Arts degree. 

Ten years ago, I moved from San Francisco to Paso Robles, a small town on California’s central coast.

My first studies were in oil painting … it was later on in college that I discovered printmaking, which is what really allowed me to break out and do something different.  I would draw a variety of self-portraits and then rip them up to create the image that would later be put onto the page.  I was also doing lithography and papermaking, but the main thing that excited me was my collages.  I then started to make scrapbooks with my torn-up images. 

That carried over into working with books … which I would cut up and piece back together in a variety of ways, usually with drawing or writing on them. 

I found that I kept turning back to the scrapbooks I was making for inspiration. 

Eventually, I started dissecting the books I was using and began doing collage full-time.  I’ve been working in this manner for over 10 years. 

I find the act of cutting and separating the image from its original context to be very satisfying.  It satisfies as much as any brush stroke or line.  Line used to be important to me.  It was in the line that I could lose myself … now I lose myself in the cutting.

How would you define your art?  What are the influences on your work?

While I would best describe my work as psychological narrative collage, I get put into the surrealism box quite a bit. 

I tend to be attracted to all things medical, freaks of nature, physical deformities, and the natural world.  I am particularly interested in using visceral terms to express psychological and emotional states. 

I like to display the disconnectedness between mind and body and how psychological problems can be manifested physically. 

Another theme I use is to incorporate flesh with machinery to create a kind of ‘Rube Goldberg’ of the human psyche.  I also enjoy cutting out machine parts, which I find to be particularly challenging.  That, along with veins and arteries are probably the most difficult to cut. 

A number of my pieces simply reflect my own fears, and I will often put children in the most horrific settings in order to juxtapose innocence with evil. 

Birds play an especially important role in my work, often acting as spiritual messengers.  At times, I cut out images for the pure joy of it.

I’ve meditated on the second part of this question for a long time … I would have to say that while living in a rural setting has its own set of challenges, I do not particularly think it has affected my work … I would be cutting out the same images regardless of where I lived. 

In fact, I work in a windowless room and find it considerably easier to concentrate in a quiet environment with few distractions.

Living in a rurban area, how do you promote yourself and your work?  What is the local response to your art?

I have promoted myself largely through my website – HopeKroll.com.  People from all over the world have seen my work as a result of this site.  I’m also represented by the Triangle Gallery in San Francisco and will be included in a book coming out next May entitled Masters: Collage, by Lark Books. 

I was also recently contacted through my website and asked to participate in a perpetual calendar and day journal project, which will feature a different artist for every day of the year. 

My work has been picked up by countless blogs as well as a variety of different sites on the web, including DiscoveredArtists.com and many international sites such as Artists.de (Germany), wotartist.com, SaachiGallery.com (UK) and even a Polish website called QuaggaArt.com!

The local response to my work has been quite good. 

I have had a few shows at the local art center in the adjacent town of San Luis Obispo.  I have also shown at Silverstone’s tasting room and have a show scheduled later this year in a local restaurant, Big Sky Cafe.  I also have many followers in the area, which helps. 

While venues such as tasting rooms and restaurants would obviously not be my first choice, these are amoung the only available options locally for me to show my work.

Is there a plight of rural artists?  Do you see any perceived challenges or opportunities as opposed to working as an urban artist?

There are a host of challenges to being a rural artist.  There are no museums, barely any galleries, and few – if any – other serious artists to speak with about the work in person.

There also isn’t any way to network here as people do in the city. 

This is perhaps a bit more difficult for me since I also do not drive; in that respect, I am isolated … even amoung the isolated.

There are also a very limited number of places locally in which I can find the books and photographs I use as my main source materials … although I have occasionally been successful finding my materials through online auction sites such as eBay. 

Also, I am rather fortunate in that my husband has a good sense of my aesthetic; he travels fairly extensively and is a great help in supplying me with a fairly steady flow of new materials. 

Of course, we are always rooting around book stores and antique shops and still make the occasional book run to San Francisco.  Occasionally, some of my fans will send me books and other items I can use in my artwork.

Do you have any suggestions as to how rural and rurban communities can support a thriving local arts & cultural scene?

My best suggestion is to set up a website and get exposure online.  This was one the best things I have done to promote my career. 

Of course, being represented by a gallery has also been a great help in bringing the actual work to the public and, perhaps more importantly, to collectors.  This is particularly important for me as my work is mostly three-dimensional, making it somewhat more difficult to see on the computer. 

As for the arts and culture scene, it is very limited here and I am unaware of any local clubs.

***

To find out more about Hope and view samples of her work, visit her website HopeKroll.com.

Related Posts:

• Exploring Rurban Art – Natasha Newton
• Exploring Rurban Art – Mandy Budan
• Exploring Rural Development: Using the Arts as an Economic Driver
• Exploring Rurban Art – Lorraine Roy
• Exploring Rurban Art – John Andrews