Lee Fisher-Goodchild

When I was a child, my maternal grandmother taught me to sew, embroider and crochet, all of which she used to create functional and beautiful items for her family. Meanwhile, my paternal grandmother, an artist herself, supported my drawing and painting; “you have a gift”, she encouraged. I continued to dabble in all of the above until quite literally, I stumbled across fibre art on a rural studio tour in the mid 1990s. Knowing I needed to try it, I found a course at St. Lawrence College taught by our own Hilary Scanlon and within a few sessions knew I’d found my thing which happily encompassed most of the skills and materials I’d been using for years.

20 some years later, I still find joy, solace and excitement in the textile arts. I create wall hangings and decorative objects using commercial fabrics as well as those I hand-dye and paint myself. I layer or piece them together and add more pigment, free-motion stitching, hand embroidery, beads and found objects. I’m drawn to my immediate environment, especially wild, natural landscapes like the Canadian Shield on which I live. I am also attracted to man-made spaces – colourful or quirky or atmospheric town-scapes. In my art, I seek to capture the beauty and the colours, textures, impressions and moods of those special places that move me.