Amanda is a graduate from York University with Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Arts. Her work can be seen in a lot of solo and group exhibitions in and around Toronto. In Jan-Feb 2012, she will be working for a month with La Maison des métiers d'art de Québec Residency in their textile studio.
We managed to get in touch with Amanda and get candid with her in an exclusive interview. She talks about her technique, how she started, her favorite creation and lot more. Catch it below:
Amanda, please introduce yourself to E-junkies.
Hi E-junkies! My name is Amanda McCavour and I am a Toronto-based artist. I primarily work with embroidery and do installation pieces with embroidered elements.
What influences the artist within you?
Books: I like instruction manuals and diagrams. Vintage postcards and ephemera too. I’ve recently picked up a Sears Catalogue from the 1970’s which was a pretty good find. There are lots of great pictures.
I like Google image searches too.
I have recently been thinking a lot about kids crafts and the activities I would do when I was young. Friendship bracelets, glitter and googly eyes. I have recently completed two really colorful installations based on spirograph drawings and scribbles. Also some folded paper tests have come out of thinking abut these things.
Scribble:
How did you start working with threads? Do you have any story to share?
I started working with thread after drawing thread and making prints that referenced fibers. So I was drawing images of fabric and making prints of images of rope. I started working with embroidery in a drawing class that I was taking at University where we were looking at different types of line. I thought that the lines that sewn thread makes would be an interesting thing to explore with drawing. So that’s how it all started!
Ice Box:
Amanda, enlighten us with your astounding artwork. Would you also like to elaborate the creative work process?
In my work, I use a sewing machine to create thread drawings and installations by sewing into a fabric that dissolves in water. This fabric makes it possible for me to build up the thread by sewing repeatedly into my drawn images so that when the fabric is dissolved, the image can hold together without a base. These thread images appear as though they would be easily unraveled and seemingly on the verge of falling apart, despite the works actual raveled strength.
My interest in thread began with an interest in drawn line. I think that embroidery is an interesting way to combine drawing and thread together. I am interested in making large scale installations with multiple embroidered elements.
Recently, I have found that doing tests has become something that has started to interest me more. When I first started sewing I did lots of experiments to see how much or little thread I could use. I have found that recently I’ve been returning to that kind of experimentation. Sometimes I think that the creative process is a bit like a circle, I return to ideas that I have touched on before, re-fashion them or look at them in a different way.
Leaves:
On an average, how many hours does it take you to complete one creation?
Each project I make is really different and so the time it takes to complete each project is very different as well. Generally with the larger room or installation pieces, the projects take months to make. Lots of my time is spent at a sewing machine with my foot on the petal. It takes a lot of time to accumulate the thread on the work so that the piece will hold together.
I know it's difficult to pick but we would love to know your favorite creation by you.
I think my perspective on this might change every week! This week my favorite pieces are my lined paper tests which are small studies that I did. This project started with a collaborative project that I did with a friend of mine where we were thinking about the kids crafts that we did when we were younger. This specific part of the collaboration was about lined paper folding, making cootie catchers and paper planes. I was trying to mimic pieces of lined paper, but just using thread for the blue and red lines and the outline of the page. Not all of the pieces did what I expected them too, some of them folded and crumpled after the base layer had been dissolved, but I liked these crumpled pieces almost as much as the final work for that show.
And which one has been the most challenging?
Definitely the room installations, only because of their scale and the time limits I had with both pieces (Stand-In for Home and Living Room). For Stand-In For Home, the wallpaper element was quite challenging because it was so big and so repetitive (and I really like repetitive tasks!) . I felt like I was getting nowhere most of the time. With the Living Room piece, there were just so many small things I wanted to add. Those ended up taking a lot of time as sometimes the first try doesn’t work!
Living Room:
Stand-In for Home:
Share the best compliment you've ever received for your work.
I’m not sure if this was a compliment but maybe just a really nice conversation about my work. These two young boys, probably 5 and 7 were talking to me about my first room piece, “Stand In for Home”. They were talking to me about what they would add to the work. They thought that a ketchup bottle on the table and maybe a dog or a pair of shoes would be a good addition to the work. I liked this reaction to the work, that they could imagine their own things in the space, that my space became a space they could see themselves in. I really liked that!
Do you have any dream project?
I have a couple of dream projects. If I had unlimited amounts of time and money, I would like to buy a house and create installations for each room. Creating big projects for specific spaces is my favorite thing to do. If only I had unlimited amounts of time and space!
What are the other things that interests you? What do you like to do in your free time?
I like to go out for breakfast, specifically at this place in my neighborhood that’s right across the street from me. There, I like to eat this one specific breakfast sandwich that has avocados in it and drink large amounts of coffee. I also like to go to antique stores, or junk stores. There is an antique market on Sundays in Toronto that I like to go to. Not always to buy things, but just to look at things. I also like to ride my bike and go for walks around my neighborhood!
Many other artists would look up to you for inspiration. What message do you have for them?
Keep making things, keep looking at different kinds of work, keep talking to people about their work and your own.
Amanda, we are grateful to you for sparing time to talk to us and sharing interesting stuff about you and your awesome Artwork. Thank you so much! E-junkie really hopes and wishes you good luck for your new house and installing your beautiful creations in it.
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