It was a trip to India to study Ashtanga yoga that piqued Colette Lisoway's interest in print making.
During her three-month stint at the studio in 2008, the artist would spend her afternoons - six days a week - with a group of women making traditional crafts such as embroidery, rangoli and mehndi.
The Saskatchewan native always had a love for patterns (her background is in jewellery design and feltmaking) so the foray into different textile techniques "was an experience I was hoping to have while I was there," she recalled.
Afterwards, she spent another month at a weaving institute in India where Lisoway was exposed to even more skills including block printing and silk screening.
It was there that she started to get the idea of building a cloth called Holy Cow, which she developed over the next couple of years - including during her year at Capilano University, where she earned an advanced certificate in textile art last year - and is the basis of her new exhibit called Holy Cow - An Introspection, now showing at the Port Moody Arts Centre until May 27.
Lisoway, who is currently teaching at the St. Johns Street facility, has a number of pieces up, many of them series in multiples of three and some with supporting imagery like photographs and drawings.
But it was the process of Holy Cow that led her to this point, to pursue printmaking seriously. Measuring 60 inches wide and 130 inches long, the watershed piece involves silk screening, block printing, painting, mark making, applique and reverse applique. "It's just layers and layers of things," she said from her North Vancouver home.
Lisoway's art, which is in the Main Gallery at PMAC, is featured alongside work from the Blackberry Artists Society, Edward Peck and Solomon Rose Jewelry -- all of which try to answer one question: Where do artists find inspiration for their work?
For the Blackberry artists, who are exhibiting in the 3D Gallery, they looked to Moody middle students; society members tried to visually match what the youth had presented to them in written form, resulting in cross-generational and cross-cultural co-operation.
Peck, whose work is in the Plum Gallery and nearby Scotiabank, created a series of photos to explore the abstract industrial bulgewhile Tahirih and Gabriel of Soloman Rose, whose handcrafted jewels are on show in the Plum Display Case, present pieces inspired by nature using such reclaimed or sustainable mediums as wood, sterling silver and gold.
Meanwhile, Place des Arts in Maillardville opens a new month-long exhibit tomorrow, highlighting the works of Louis-Marc Simard of Salmon Arm (Bordering on Reality, multiple media), Port Moody's Claudia Stewart (Doorways and Transformations, mixed media) and Coquitlam's Trina Moulin (Slow Motion, photos). A reception, with the artists in attendance, will be held at 7 p.m. on May 10. The display runs until June 2.
For more information, visit www.placedesarts.ca.
