NWT Arts

Fort Smith artist Ria Coleman introduced me to felting, a technique that presses and mats together natural fibres such as sheep or alpaca wool to create paintings and three-dimensional objects like hats and slippers. As the author of four nonfiction books, writing has long been a way for me to tell stories. I instantly fell in love with felting as another way to share stories about the North. 

My felted paintings convey the beautiful colours and contrasts of the North, and the open spaces that allow us to breathe, reflect and connect. Pinks and purples fill the sky upon the return of the sun in January. Northerners come together for backyard barbecues around a fire pit in summer. Gradients of green, yellow, orange and reddish grass carpet Herschel Island in September. Ice roads link communities to one another in winter.

I can't really see details the way most people do because I have a severe visual impairment. I see the world largely in terms of shapes, colours and contrast. My felted paintings give people an opportunity to see Northern landscapes through my eyes.

I've taken workshops at the Northern Life Museum in Fort Smith, Olds College’s Fibre Week and Fredericton's EdVentures program. My partner and I have the territory’s only alpaca farm. I create felted paintings and felted soaps (think: loofah marries a bar of soap) from merino roving. I use alpaca fibres to create felted dryer balls.