One Sentence Summary: My wire installation at Lake of the Woods Museum creates a floating cloudscape from Spirograph-inspired patterns in vibrant blues, pinks, and purples.
Date: September 2024
I’m thrilled to share that my new wire installation is currently on view at the Lake of the Woods Museum in Kenora, Ontario, running from September 28 through December 21, 2024. This exhibition represents an exciting continuation of my exploration into the intersection of mathematical patterns, textile structures, and sculptural form.
The Work
The centerpiece of this exhibition is a large-scale hanging installation composed of circular wire shapes inspired by mathematical roulette curves—the same geometric patterns found in those beloved Spirograph toys many of us played with as children. I’ve always been drawn to the gestural, playful quality of working with wire. There’s something magical about how it creates delicate lines in space, casts intricate shadows, and maintains an incredible sense of lightness despite being a physical material.
These spirographic patterns combine my longstanding fascination with drawing toys and the radial structures found in textile practices like crochet rings and tatting. By embedding mathematical patterning into what becomes a textile-like structure, I’ve created a dense collection of sewn lines that suspend from the gallery ceiling, arranged to evoke a floating cloud of colour.
The palette is deliberately vibrant—bright blues, pinks, and purples fill the space, creating a saturated atmosphere that suggests multiple readings: a distant galaxy, an abundant bouquet of flowers, or simply a surreal, colourful cloudscape hovering overhead. The work is designed to be experienced from multiple vantage points. Visitors can move around and beneath the installation, and are even invited to lie down underneath it. The wire structures shift subtly with air movement in the gallery, creating an ever-changing interplay of line, shadow, and light.
I built this piece with deliberate oppositions in mind—contrasting intricate detail and transparency with large solid spaces, the apparent lightness of the wire with the weight of the museum’s architecture, and organic, cloud-like forms with the geometric precision of the built environment.
Opening Weekend Programs
The opening weekend in late September was incredibly special. Beyond the opening reception and artist talk on September 27th, I had the opportunity to lead three hands-on workshops that allowed community members to explore some of the concepts behind the installation:
Radial Designs in Watercolour invited participants to experiment with circular, radiating patterns using watercolour techniques, exploring how repetitive marks can build complex compositions.
Soft Sculpture welcomed families with children ages 6 and up to work with tactile materials and think about how soft materials can create three-dimensional forms.
Chalk Mural was a FREE drop-in event where community members of all ages could collaborate on a large-scale temporary drawing, emphasizing the playful, gestural mark-making that informs my wire work.
These programs were a highlight of the installation process. There’s something deeply meaningful about not just installing work in a space, but spending time with the community, sharing processes, and inviting people to explore the ideas behind the work through their own hands.
Visit
If you’re in the Kenora area or planning a trip to Northwestern Ontario before December 21st, I’d love for you to experience this installation in person. The Lake of the Woods Museum has been a wonderful partner in bringing this project to life, and the space truly allows the work to breathe and transform throughout the day as light shifts and visitors move through the gallery.
There’s something special about work that invites you to slow down, look up, and maybe even lie down and look at the world from a different perspective. I hope this floating cloudscape offers that opportunity.
