For fabric artist Heather Corbitt, her art work began by doing practical work.
“I started sewing as a kid for practical reasons and making bridesmaids dresses and kids clothes and that kind of stuff,” she told the PNR.
Her mother was also very artistic. Corbitt remembered back to a time she came home from school, when her mother and neighbour had decided they wanted to paint the rumpus room floor, and painted it a bright pink. They also took sponges and put sponge marks all over the floor.
“She always came up with these ideas…” Corbitt said, adding when she would need a dress to wear as a child, her mother would go to Sidney Dry Goods to get whatever fabric they had to make her the dress.
When Corbitt later retired from practical work she began doing her fabric artwork, and said she has learned lots through the community and various artists on the peninsula.
“I think that the most well received is my wearable art,” she said.
Corbitt paints silk and uses bits of dupioni silk to get texture in her pictures and on her wearables.
She will lay out the picture and will either sketch it on a black background, or if it’s just fabric, she will do it on yardage, taking the little pieces to form different areas, shades and shadows with all the bits of fabric.
“Then I cover it with a water soluble stabilizer and then I sew.”
When she’s finished sewing she will throw the piece into the washer then the dryer.
Corbitt is one of the nine artists that has their work displayed at Tulista Gallery’s A Tapestry of Island Arts Show on until June 12 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The show features artists’ works of photography, painting, pottery, wood work and more.
