leah marcoux's portfolio
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Leah MarcouxTextile Artist
Leah Marcoux was born in the small town of Binbrook, Ontario at a time when the major-ity of the landscape consisted mainly of fields and farms. For some one young this sort of environment can be isolating and during this time she focussed on hobbies to keep busy. One thing that has always stuck with her is hand sewing and her work with textiles.
Eventually she found herself at Sheridan College in the Craft and Design program for Textiles, studying the art and process of manipulating fabric and colour. Here she was introduced to how to properly use natural dyes. Having a green thumb this immediately sparked her interest. She continued to study natural dyes and experiment with colour in her work. Through the years, Leah’s hand sewing and embroidery techniques have be-come more important to the process of her creations. Her attention to detail has become more evident in every piece.
Leah decided that to reach her full potential, she would continue experimenting with these techniques and work not only with colour, but also form. In order to fully appreci-ate her materials, she resorts to working by hand and growing with each piece through the process. This has helped Leah fulfil her relationship she has with her work.
Bio
All my pieces are based around a narrative and therefore have their own personal character and charm to them. The narratives I choose to focus on are based around my life experiences, which keeps my work personal. I have dabbled in functional pieces as a small business but would like to commit my time to working as an artist and making work for display in galleries.
As an artist with an anxiety disorder, I find it very important to raise issues around mental health. I typically make all my work by hand and use this as a sort of therapeutic pro-cess.
In college, I was inspired by my surroundings and built my knowledge about the materials I work with. With practise I have been able to strength my techniques and am very con-fident I will be able to improve my work further as I grow in my career. I bring out myself in my work and I will continue to do so in hopes that by exposing a bit of myself, I will grow a connection with my audience.
Statement
Curriculum VitaeSkills
Screen printing
Mixing dyes
Felt making/needle felting
Sewing/embroidery
EducationUndergraduate of Sheridan college 2011 - 2014
Practiced as a textile artist
Studied at becoming more sculptural in my work
Attended work shops on different textile techniques
Work ExperienceClay and Paper Theatre 2013
Worked with theatre on Night of Dread project
Helped design/create giant chicken costume for one of the participants
Worked on making it structural and also light weight
OtherCommission Sales
Created series of bags and purses from up-cycled material to make extra money
Prints and embroiders wall hangings upon request
Sewn plush toys upon request in the past
Exhibitions
Sheridan Gallery 2011- 2014
Creo - Crafts and Design graduation show, Make Works Toronto, Ontario May 2014
Coping With Anxiety
This collection of work was created in April of 2014. As an artist with an anxiety disorder, I find it very important to raise issues around mental health. I typically make all my work by hand and use this as a sort of therapeutic process. When I was working on these pieces, I focussed mainly on the concept of the healing process of my anxiety disorder.
FaceNeedle felted fleece w. 16 cm, h. 22 cm
Patchwork HeartNaturally Dyed Fabric, hand sewn, embroidered
w. 16 cm, h. 16 cm
BottleNuno felt, embroidery threadw. 8 cm, h 24 cm
Alice in Wonderland Pillows
This collection of pillows was inspired by the famous novel Alice in Wonderland. The mushrooms are illustration drawn by yours truly with quotes from the novel repeated inside them.
Wonder PillowBlack pigment on canvas, embroidered
w. 15 cm, h. 15 cm.
More Than Nothing PillowBlack pigment print on linen, embroideredw. 15 cm, h. 15 cm
Yesterday PillowBlack pigment, naturally dyed linen, embroidered
w. 15 cm, h 15 cm.
Wrapped Tools
This collection was based around a contain and conceal project for my final year of col-lege. Theidea was to take these hard, heavy object and give the illusion of them beingsoft
and light.
Wrapped ToolsMallet, crowbar, hammer, acrylic yarn,
embroidered, burlapw. 30 cm, h. 30 cm
Wrapped MalletMallet, acrylic yarn, embroideredw. 8.5 cm, h. 22 cm
