Michelle Sirois Silver
TEXTILE ART and THE HAND HOOKED SURFACE
"Working with my hands is bred in the bone. Using textiles in my art making and their tactile qualities has a grounding effect for me. They bring me back to that place of possibility.”
I was born on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec and spent my formative years on Vancouver Island. I grew up in a home where my parents did everything themselves and by their example, I learned that I could use my hands to make things too. As a child I ran wild exploring creek beds, spending endless hours riding my bike along narrow back roads, and passing long summer days swimming in the Straight of Georgia. It was a time of infinite possibility and when I close the door to my studio and begin to work I get that same feeling.
My designs imply the subject instead of stating it directly. I am drawn to work that acknowledges the ordinary. I care deeply about climate change. I use a deliberate slow approach to making. The layered works are process based and the surfaces are imbued with hand hooking, screen printing, and stitch. Each hand hooked loop is a brush stroke. Each deconstructed screen print takes me into the unknown and every stitch attempts to unify the overall image. Soft sculptures are an exploration of colour, materials, and concept.
An important part of my practice embraces the past. Working with textiles connects me to the past in a way that is hard to put into words. It doesn’t constrict or inhibit my work in anyway. What it does is simply acknowledge that I am part of a continuum. I am able to do what I do because of a legacy created by thousands who came before me.
Working with my hands is a fundamental way of being.