Goward House

The Laundry Room Artists

Elizabeth Carefoot

 Email: elizabeth@elizabethcarefoot.com

Website: www.elizabethcarefoot.com

After graduating from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Education degree in Fine Arts, I took post-graduate etching and painting courses at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design. I then took training as a cine-animator with John Dunn of Disney Studios.

I was fully employed at Simon Fraser University for 35 years, first as a Cine-Animator, then as a Graphic Designer and illustrator, and am now retired.

I work in a variety of media.  Although I am primarily a fiber artist working with soft sculpture, stitchery, and knitting, I also create acrylic paintings, small box constructions, collages and coloured pencil drawings.

Internationally, my work can be found in collections in Brussels (Belgium), New York (USA), Bangor (Wales), Sapporo (Japan), and Bogota (Colombia).

The Surrey Art Gallery has three of my prize-winning soft sculptures in their Permanent Collection.

I am the 2014 recipient of the Surrey Civic Treasure Award.

Artist Statement

Many or most of my works in this show deal with common-place challenges in doing laundry, such as stains, pocket contents, ironing boards, and the like, but done in a light-hearted way. Stains are considered shameful and problematic, and it has traditionally been “women’s work” to redeem or rehabilitate the stained item.  My artistic process in redeeming a ruined item is to enhance it by stitching and decorating. I have no expectations as to the result. I just respond to the dynamic of the relationships of the elements and have faith that my experiences will show the way.

Laura Feeleus

Email:  lauramfeeleus@gmail.com
Website:  www.laurafeeleus.ca

I graduated with a Diploma in Fine Art from the  Vancouver Island School of Art (Victoria, BC, Canada)  in 2010.   I have exhibited my painting and fibre work in Canada and the US for the last 25 years.  My life before art took over was based in library science (BLS, University of Alberta) and business (CMA/CPA  Alberta).

I am one of the founding members of arc.hive artist-run centre in Victoria, BC (arc.hive | artist-run centre), and regularly participate with the Vancouver Island Surface Design Association and with Gage Gallery (www.gagegallery.ca) in Victoria.

Artist Statement

What drew me to this theme were the memories of my mother washing at an old-fashioned wash tub with a scrub board and then our first washing machine, over which we both laboured for 1 day a week.  I am intrigued by the various washing compounds and agents that have been sold to women over the last century as magical solutions.  I will use stitching, photography, and printmaking to reflect on these products and other aspects of women and housework.

Lesley Turner

 Email: ravenmade@gmail.com

Website: Lesleyturnerart.com

I have a BA(Hons) 1st class in Embroidered Textiles, Middlesex University, London, UK, and hold City and Guilds of London Institute certificates in embroidery and design, a University of Calgary Certificate in Visual Design, and am a Master Knitter of Canada. I have exhibited across Canada, the UK, Germany, and South Korea. Using familiar domestic textiles in my work raises awareness of social issues and supports my goal to bring about changes in attitudes and tolerance of differences.

Artist Statement

With this body of work, I have used predominantly men’s business shirts to rethink the everyday tasks of laundering, ironing, buttoning, and folding while examining expectations of domestic perfection. It is an autobiographical account of the years I spent inside the home supporting my husband’s career outside the home. It was a relationship of interdependence and an unending routine of performing our tasks. We worked as a team. He got paid while my domestic efforts were unaccounted for.

Link to artist bios