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Professional Fibre Artists of Western Canada

 

 

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Sheila Niles


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RR# 1
Millarville, AB
Canada
T0L 1K0

wniles@platinum.ca

Artist Statement

I do not consider myself a professional artist and have never made my living with my art.  I'm at the top end of five children and have lived in Seattle, Lethbridge, Caracas, Houston, New York, Montreal, Toronto, and finally retiring to Millarville, Alberta. 

My art is a response to an irrepressible spirit that has always been a part of my life.  I have given up trying to explain it or condone it.  I do not set goals, move in logical sequences or, in fact, follow any rules at all.  I just do things and trust my instincts.  I am not a graduate of any art school and my training has been in the school of trial and error and the school of hard knocks.  I demand the freedom to give birth in my own way to the creative stirrings that have always plagued my existence.  I guess my 'raison d'etre' is simply self-indulgent good fun and spiritual joy.  I am eternally thankful for a long-suffering and supportive patron, my husband.

 

Absence of Color
55” X 28”
- Not for Sale

We come into this world with a clean slate. When we leave, the slate is wiped clean. The ‘gift’ in hand is life!

Materials – unbleached cottons, natural silk, flour bag, laces, antique braids. Techniques – collage, machine and hand stitching, transfer printing.

 


click details to enlarge

My Mother Always Wanted to go to Japan
73” X 69” - Not for sale - Memorial Piece

My Mother gave me the gift of life and the spirit of art that breathed through my life.  I wanted to give her the gift of my art but she wasn’t there to receive it. This piece is about women of her generation who were expected to fulfill well-defined roles of answering to the needs of family and the dictates of society.  Their hopes and desires were not taken seriously and their lives were often very unfulfilling.  I am eternally grateful to have escaped the ‘shoulds’ and ‘oughts’ that they were subject to.

The two X stitched pieces on the inside of the front were done by my mother, 60 years ago and used on the altar of St. Mary’s Church, Lethbridge, AB for most of those years. This piece won the Judge’s Choice (C.J.Pettigrew) at the CQH National in Fredericton 2003.

Materials – hand dyed and commercial fabrics – new and antique, a piece of Shibori fabric from Kasuri Dyeworks, linens, silk, polyesters, cottons, rayons. Techniques – piecing, couching, pointillist techniques using cut-up bits of fabric, paper piecing, X stitch and appliqué.

 

Arty Nine Patch
118”
x 52” - Not for sale

 This was created in response to the challenge: ‘Can a nine patch be art?’  My nine patches are held together with sisal rope weighted with rocks.

Materials – all kinds of fabrics, sisal rope, rocks. Techniques – layering, machine stitching and quilting.

 

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