Meet the nominees: Alberta Craft Early Achievement Award 2018
The Alberta Craft Early Achievement Award celebrates an emerging craftsperson or student, in recognition of their achievement to date and their potential.
Since her introduction to glass in 2008, she has been constantly, and greedily, trying to accumulate new experiences that renew her complex relationship with the material. An instinctual maker, her contemplative process-based work is an attempt to understand and to make physical her memories and dreamscapes.
She has most recently been working as an assistant and Artist in Residence at glass shops in Iceland, Norway and Canada while focusing on her experimental studio practice.
◾️Caroline Forde is a textile and surface pattern designer with an affinity for sustainability and small- scale production.
After graduating from Sheridan College (2015) she traveled west to Calgary to complete her BFA in Fiber at the Alberta College of Art and Design (2017).
Juggling a studio practice of instructing, designing and printing, Caroline maintains her position in the industry as an emerging designer and dyer throughout the fine craft and film industry.
In her work she purposefully references Canadian climate, topography, local flora, fauna and the idea of the mystic north. As a conscious designer she is invested in creating sustainable and ethically produced textiles. Her goal is to dye and print textiles in a way that uses less water, is non-toxic and bioedegradable and create colour pallets from humble plants and natural resources. Through her work, Caroline exhibits an ambition to increase sustainable literacy and practices in the fashion and textile industry.
When she isn’t creating custom costumes for film you can find her the Slate Studio building working away on her new line of hand printed textiles.
◾️Pamma FitzGerald’s first fine arts degree from the Alberta College of Art and Design was in Drawing (2009), but her second was in Ceramics (ACAD, 2017). She has merged her drawing skills into mixed media, and specifically ceramics. In her words “I aim to continue merging collage and clay, words and images, and exploring creative collaborations.” She is fascinated by the combination of weight, shape and capacity that ceramics have to carry imagery, and recognizes enormous potential for re-thinking ceramics artistic expression.
She has been recognized with the ACAD Board of Governor’s Graduating Student Award for Artistic Achievement in Ceramics (2017); an Alberta Foundation for the Arts Cultural Relations Project Grant; and the Illingworth Kerr Travel Study Scholarship, among others. Her works have been displayed at the Alberta Craft Council Gallery; the Art Vault, Calgary; at 2017 Dish, an International Juried Exhibit at Medalta Pottery, Medicine Hat. She has had pieces purchased for numerous collections, including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts; Encana collection; the Canadian Embassy in Washington, DC; and private collections in England, Canada, France and the United States.
◾️The late Ginette Lund was born in Gerardville, Quebec in 1949. When she was just 6 months old, her family (and 6 siblings) migrated to Marie-Reine, AB where they spent their childhood into early adulthood. Ginette used to sing on the radio frequently in Peace River, AB, was a GoGo Dancer, and was known as the troublemaker. Ginette enjoyed crocheting and knitting for her family, painting and crafting. Ginette had three grown children, four grandchildren and had been living in Grande Prairie AB for the past 20 years. Lund spent the past year launching her art career. Lund and her daughter, Kasie Campbell, received a grant from the Edmonton Arts Council to create a series of collaborative works through traditionally feminine craft. Their work Matrilineal Threads, was exhibited in the Works Art and Design Festival this summer. In 2019-2021, a portion of their work will travel through the TREX programs with the Art Gallery of Alberta and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts in a travelling Exhibition titled Real Women.
◾️Mynthia McDaniel is a Ceramic artist based in Calgary. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in both printmaking and ceramics and has exhibited locally and internationally. Her main passion after pottery is travel, and whenever possible she will find a way to combine the two. She has completed artist residencies in Shigaraki (Japan), Dubi (Czech Republic), and most recently at Medalta in Medicine Hat.
◾️Allison Tunis has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Alberta, and a graduate diploma in Art Therapy from the Vancouver Art Therapy Institute. She works mainly in cross-stitch embroidery, but also explores mixed media involving acrylic painting and photo transfers. She has also self-published a body positive colouring book entitled Body Love: A Fat Activism Colouring Book.
Tunis’ works aim to develop a discourse around cultural conditioning and societal implications of restrictive standards of beauty, as well as the discrimination and violence experienced by people living in marginalized bodies, with a particular focus on the experience of fat people.
Allison is currently working on a large commission series for an upcoming women’s hub in Calgary, along with a number of other projects that have yet to be announced. As well, Tunis runs the Queer Youth Art Club, funded by a Community Arts Grant from the Edmonton Arts Council, out of the Alberta Sex Positive Education & Community Centre, where she facilitates twice-monthly workshops for LGBTQIA2S+ youth and allies to create art in a safe and inclusive space and connect with their peers.
This year's Alberta Craft Awards Ceremony will take place on October 20, 2018 in Calgary, Alberta. Event details