I am part of a Rural Manitoba Women’s Art Collective called Drawn Together. In 2021, we decided to create an exhibit inspired by reading works written by Manitoba female authors. This exhibit, entitled Stimulus/Response, was premiered in March 2023 with each of the ten Drawn Together members creating a unique body of work in their particular genre. My book was Miriam Toews’ All My Puny Sorrows, and was selected due to the many parallels that ran through the book and my life. Although there were many issues covered, the most important theme to me was the importance of family relationships. I decided to create two large fibre art works, Blood Lines and WomanKind, each embracing one side of my family.

Blood Lines is a visual representation of shifting values over generations.

WomanKind is more subjective than Blood Lines, tracking the family’s matriarchs and progressing from my great-grandmother through to my own grand-daughters.

Stimulus/Response is showing at the Mennonite Heritage Gallery in Winnipeg, MB from November 10 - December 9, 2023.