HEIDI HUNTER, "Dyed and Gone to Mexico — a Creative Journey," May 24 - June 9, 2007, Gallery Lacosse, Winnipeg

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"Fiesta"

Heidi Hunter, "Fiesta," primitive hand appliqué, artist's hand -dyed and commercial fabrics, acrylic paint, quilted with Perle cotton, 37" x 38.5".

HEIDI HUNTER, Dyed and Gone to Mexico — a Creative Journey

Gallery Lacosse, Winnipeg

May 24 - June 9, 2007

By Lorne Roberts

Heidi Hunter, an established fibre artist who works out of her studio in rural Manitoba, has little patience for the distinctions some might try to draw between art and craft. “I spend absolutely no time concerning myself with the definition or differences between art and craft,” she says. “I pride myself in both my craftsmanship and my artistry, and it all comes from that same place.” Decades into a successful career as one of Manitoba’s premiere textile and quilt artists, Hunter has now added drawing, painting, printmaking and collage to her repertoire, courtesy of two recent artistic journeys in Mexico. Studying there under a painter and printmaker, along with the stimulation of immersing herself in a different culture, has given Hunter’s latest work an added richness and depth. “I had absolutely no background in drawing, but I was excited by the creative process of art, journalling my Mexican experiences through drawn images,” she says. “Since then, I carry my sketchbook everywhere I go.” This new freedom shows up in the spontaneous, joyful forms of her latest work, which blurs the boundaries between quilting, painting, drawing, and printmaking, often blending several or all of these media into single works. The resulting exhibition marks an exciting creative breakthrough for an artist whose work already existed, free of categories, in a space of its own.

Represented by: Gallery Lacosse, Winnipeg; Fishfly Gallery, Winnipeg Beach, MB.