About All Beings Conflence

All Beings Confluence is a community-based, interactive project that was directly inspired by Carolyn McDade, a composer, social activist and environmentalist whose music has sustained and nourished many over the decades.

All Beings Confluence is an ever-expanding installation crated by many individuals. It consists of a series of long, narrow sheer panels, each representing a single living Being — perhaps a ladybug, a bird, a tree, or a single blue-green algae who first provided our planet with oxygen. The completed panels are installed to fill a whole area and a single panel is never seen by itself. It is always “in community” with all the other Beings. Everyone is invited to walk amongst them – they move gently with the currents, always merging into different patterns & combinations of colour & light. For a brief moment we can actually feel ourselves as part of a vast, complex & interconnected whole.

All Beings Confluence began in 2010 when four Canadian prairie women, Madeleine LePage, Martha Cole and Shannon Carson from Saskatchewan and Fenella Temmerman from Manitoba, were learning the music for Carolyn’s latest CD, “Widening Embrace”. By August, 2011, when the CD was being recorded, 75 Beings were installed at the Banff Centre of the Arts to offer support and inspiration to the singers who had gathered from across North America. Since then, All Beings Confluence has been seen in over 35 venues across Canada and the United States, including the Sisters of Earth Conference in Indiana, “Bioneers” in Detroit, Michigan and the Western Women’s Conference at the Naramata Retreat Centre in Kelowna, BC. Over 4,600 people have moved through these Beings and the number of panels has increased to over 250 with more venues booked into the future and more panels being added all the time.

May we each find our place in this complex web of life which sustains us all.

Martha Cole

Companion to the Beings

Would like to have an installation of these panels for an event or an exhibition in your community? Would you like to make a panel or have a workshop offered in your community?

If so, contact: Martha Cole – mcole@sasktel.net

Finished Panels for All Beings Confluence

We finished our workshop!  Most panels were completed in time to go home with Martha. Some will go home with the artists to be completed and then will be mailed to Martha who is keeper of the Beings. 

Martha already has over 250 panels. These panels travel to various locations to be exhibited. Often a small batch of panels travel, such as the 70 we saw at the Weyburn exhibit. In total over 4600 people have viewed them. 

All Beings Confluence is a community based project that was directly inspired by Carolyn McDade, a composer, social activist and environmentalist whose music has sustained and nourished many over the decades. 

Martha Cole's Art in Weyburn

Martha has a piece that was bought and hangs permanently in the Weyburn Mall. I was amazed by the piece.  It was made by Martha in 1981.  A spectacular birds eye view of a prairie landscape with colours and textures that draw you into the image. I could have looked at it for hours. It gave me a feeling of serenity and comfort. A feeling of home for the prairie heart in me.  The flowing river led me back into the piece over and over again!

Art Walk Artwork

The Art Walk exhibit that Jaynie organized was a novel idea. She gathered fibre art work from many artists and displayed then in local businesses in Weyburn for the summer months. The fibre workshop group was delighted to view the outstanding works that were on display!!

I love this blend of traditional blocks with art pieces embedded by one of our fibre workshop participants, Carol. 

Another gorgeous piece by Carol. 

It was great to have a visit with Sioux Narrows Triptych, a piece I made for good friends, Donna and Craig. It normally hangs in their home. 

This piece and the one below are both by Anna Hergert, a wonderful fibre artist, teacher and adjudicator. 

Love Anna's use of Saran Wrap to create  the glossy effect of water!

FAN Abstracted Exhibit

Abstracted is an exhibit by Fibre Art Network members. This exhibit has artists paired up with one artist doing a realistic version of an agreed upon image, the other partner doing an abstract version. 

I first saw this display in St Catherine's in 2014. The exhibit wowed me just as much on second viewing. Now that I too am a member of FAN I know many of the artists whose works are included. 

Everyone from our fibre workshop group loved the Abstracted show. We stayed and discussed various pieces until closing. One person in our group, Diane, has a gorgeous forest floor realistic piece in this show. Congratulations Diane on fabulous texture in your piece!!

I'm looking forward to the next FAN exhibit called Ekphrastic, which is in the development phase. I am hoping to have a piece in this show!!  Yikes!!  I've got my work cut out for me!!

Here I am standing between two pieces of the Abstracted show. The one to my right is by Coreen Zerr. Gorgeous strip pieced landscape!

Here we are all in deep discussion about FAN, art and creativity. Thank you Martha for being a part of the founding members who began FAN 20 years ago. You are a wealth of knowledge and a source of inspiration for new fibre artists like us!! 

Fibre Group Fun

The fibre workshop group, 10 of us, had lots of fun together. One evening we went to Jaynie's house for apple pie, wine and a visit to her studio. 

Jaynie was the inspiration behind the gathering of fibre art in Weyburn this summer. She organized the All Beings Confluence exhibit, the Abstracted exhibit by FAN (Fibre Arts Network), the Thread exhibit at the Signal Hill Art Centre by local Saskatchewan fibre artists and the Art Walk - a fibre art show in various local businesses. 

So much fibre art all in one place for us to view!  Very inspiring!!

At Jaynie's back yard. Notice the bonfire enclosure designed and built by her sculptor husband.  

Out for supper. A male admirer wanted to pay for our meals!  Guess we made an impression. 

Checking out the detail in Jaynie's work which was hanging at the credit union. The background sky in this piece, Rush Hour, is entirely constructed out of couched threads, not fabric. Incredible!!

Jaynie's current pieces use the couched threads on topographical designs. This piece, Monte Cliche, depicts a topographical map of a mountain, forest, river and lake with appropriate cliches written overtop. You have to see it to believe it!

All beautiful works by Jaynie!!

Panels in the Making

The weeklong workshop with Martha Cole flew by. We did our artwork on the third floor of the Signal Hill Art Centre in Weyburn, a wonderful five story building, built in 1905 as a hospital. 

On day one we sketched out the being we wanted to put on our banner. I chose DNA, Helen chose trees regenerating after a forest fire, and Beth chose cattails. Others in the group focused on viruses, peacocks, hummingbirds, bees, jellyfish, and the forest floor. 

Day two we began painting. For many of us it took two or more days to complete the painting portion of the banner. For others the process of sewing sheers onto their banner was the main focus. 

The next few days were spent deciding on the proper embellishment techniques to make the banners transform into the essence of the being that was depicted. I spent a lot of time adding ribbon and satin stitching on the DNA and building a reflective lightning bolt. Helen added sheer flames to her banner. Beth focused on adding texture to her cat tail heads and dimension to the reeds. 

Painting the Sheer Fabric

The panels in the All Beings Confluence are made of sheer fabric. Martha instructed us in applying paint using wheat paste as a binding medium.