News - Susan Tilsley Manley (Durham, NS)

YES.
Yes is a wonderful word.
Yes means that I'll be working my butt off all fall and winter.
Yes means that I can create full time without the guilt and pressure of contributing to the family's finances.
Yes means I'd better get the studio cleaned out and ready.
Yes means my idea has artistic merit.
Yes means support from the artistic community, who probably don't know me and aren't my family.
Yes means I need to finish my other projects this month.
Yes means I can turn down silly jobs (like designing a game board to pitch at Comic-Con) if I choose.
Yes is a game changer.
YES.


Susan has been awarded a Creation Grant by Arts Nova Scotia. Here are some excerpts from her proposal.

My project is about the accelerated corrosion of rural life in Nova Scotia. It doesn't take generations to see drastic changes to our way of life or environment anymore. I propose a series of art quilts depicting parts of our culture that we have recently lost or are on the brink of losing, printed on fabric with RUST. I developed a technique of dyeing fabric using hand cut stencils and iron filings to reproduce photographs.  The images have a patina that speaks of days past, reminiscent of sepia photographs. I will use a juxtaposition of present day images presented in a time based medium to point out how quickly they could become history. Pre-nostalgic images of precious resources, which, once lost, will be so much more difficult and costly to replace than to have maintained in the first place.

I will create this series between September 2013 and April 2014.  I will dye, print and pattern the fabrics from September through November. December through February will be for the assembly of the quilt tops. March and April will be spent quilting and applying surface treatments.  I have been booked for a show in the spring at the Antigonish Town and County Library, and it is my goal to include this work as this series will compliment,inform and advance my previous work with rust and memory.