Artist Statement
The hallmarks of my work as a textile artist are the continual combining of different techniques and processes to create complex, painterly compositions, and my use of vivid, saturated colour. In any one piece, this may involve drafting a physical pattern, working improvisationally, using my hand-dyed or gel printed cloth, building layered surfaces through careful colour relationships, adding surface embellishment, and incorporating paint, hand-stitching and machine embroidery or quilting.
.Pattern drafting is central to much of what I do. I break down an image into shapes and sections, and I design templates or patterns that allow me to construct those shapes accurately. These patterns are specific to each piece—and often to each element within the piece—and tailored to the image I want to build. I enjoy the challenge of translating an image or irregular form into cloth. I often use technology such as Procreate, photo-editing software, and even AI to develop patterns. This stage is structured and technical, and it gives me the foundation I need for improvisation.
Once the pattern exists, colour takes over. I work with saturated colours because they bring energy and clarity to the surface. They create pleasure for the viewer and give me a wide range of possibilities as I build the piece. I choose colours as I work, responding to how they interact, how they shift the direction of the piece, and how they create a sense of layering. Saturated colour allows me to create painterly effects through cloth rather than paint.
My botanical work is a major part of my practice. These pieces combine complex piecing, hand-stitching, and embellishment. I’m drawn to botanical subjects because they allow me to explore organic shapes through multi-disciplinary methods. In many pieces, my construction method is raw-edge appliqué applied over a pieced background. In others, I enjoy the challenge of piecing something that most artists would normally appliqué. I also incorporate three-dimensional elements to create depth. Hand-stitching adds detail and texture, and embellishment brings certain areas forward.
Across all my work, I’m interested in how structure and improvisation meet. Structure comes from the patterns I draft and the technical skills I use to build the components. Improvisation comes from cutting shapes from those structured components, colour choices, embellishment, and the assembly process. I like the contrast between these modes. The structured parts give me something to react to; the improvisational parts keep the work flexible and prevent it from becoming predictable. The final piece reflects both approaches without leaning too heavily on either.
I am a productive maker. I work steadily and complete a lot of work. This isn’t a goal in itself; it’s simply how I function. The process keeps me engaged, and the momentum of making leads naturally to a high output. I like being in the middle of a piece—solving problems, adjusting shapes, and discovering what the work wants to become. When one piece is finished, I’m ready to start the next. Productivity, for me, is a by-product of curiosity and commitment to process.
Process is the thread that connects everything I make. I’m not necessarily trying to tell stories or convey personal emotion. I’m exploring what cloth can do when it’s pushed, cut, shaped, and assembled. I’m interested in how far I can take piecing, pattern drafting, and improvisation without losing clarity. I’m building surfaces that hold together visually and structurally. The work is primarily about making, not messaging.
That is not to say that there is no narrative element. My subject matter often reflects my environment and my history. My City in Colour series of work (in progress still) representing buildings in Toronto’s financial district seeks to make more inviting what may, for some, be intimidating edifices and reflects my affection for these buildings in which I spent 35 years of my professional life. My botanicals are images drawn from my summer home and garden on beautiful Lake Huron. Being drawn to the technical combined with the more creative improvisational aspects of my work is also, I believe, a reflection of my lived experience as a very disciplined corporate lawyer and a life long maker and creative person. In that sense, that combination is my personal artistic story.
As my practice evolves, I continue to refine the balance between planning and discovery. I’m exploring more complex shapes, more intricate piecing, and more ways to combine structured construction with improvisational assembly. I’m also expanding my botanical work, pushing it toward greater detail and more layered surfaces involving stitch and paint. Saturated colour remains central to all of this. It brings the work forward, creates pleasure for the viewer, and gives each piece its energy.
This is the work I want to continue making: pieces that are technically rigorous, visually dynamic, and grounded in process. Pieces that combine structure and improvisation in ways that feel natural to me. Pieces that use saturated colour, stitch, and embellishment to create painterly surfaces and complex forms. Pieces that grow out of the act of making itself.
I work from my home studio in Toronto and my beachfront studio in Port Elgin, Ontario.
—Margaret Grottenthaler