Submitted by: Kimberly Murgu, SCC Festival and Curatorial Assistant
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| Cindy Hoppe Wearables Source |
Cindy Hoppe
has worked in a variety of media over the last 40 years, and for more than 25
of those years, she has placed her focus on fibre art. Cindy works with
recycled materials and incorporates machine embroidery with hand knitting to
make beautiful wall hangings and garments. Using sewing machines and embroidery
thread as her drawing tools, she gets to enjoy creating both public and liturgical
pieces of art. One of her biggest enjoyments with this medium is the challenge
she faces when reflecting the colours of our beautiful Saskatchewan landscapes,
using only cloth and thread.
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| River Runs Through It, back Source |
Cindy has
completed 3 out of 4 years of a Bachelor of Fine Art at the University of
Saskatchewan. She decided to discontinue with her degree upon finding that
university classes seemed to be more about talking about art, than actually
creating art. Since then, her artistic career has taken flight. She has
participated in shows all around Saskatchewan and Alberta; including having her
work shown a total of 9 times in the Saskatchewan Craft Council’s juried show
“Dimensions” since 1986. Also, her wall hangings are available exclusively at
the SCC Fine Craft Boutique at Affinity Gallery.
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| Spring Source |
For most of
her career, Cindy has worked alongside her mother Myrna Harris. Myrna was also
a felting artist, although she also worked in painting, pottery, photography,
felting, weaving and spinning. Cindy worked in pottery with her mother for over
10 years, and has accompanied her in every new medium that she started. From
painting, pottery and photography, to weaving, spinning, dying and felting,
Cindy was always learning beside her. Myrna passed away in August of 2009.
Cindy’s comment on her relationship with her mother is:
“We
were each other’s touchstone for support in a vast prairie, where few
understand the looping path it is to be an artist.” Cindy hopes
to build the same level of connection with her own daughter and step-daughter.
Cindy is currently working in felting. She creates wearables,
vestments, and wall hangings. Her wearables are mostly made from recycled
materials. She uses leftovers from past projects as a seed for something new,
and sometimes photographs will spark a patchwork project that turns into a
jacket. Cindy enjoys taking interesting remnants of past work, and giving them
a new life.
Cindy is inspired by daily walks and photography by
prairie artists. She creates wall hangings for the home and church, and usually
creates pieces in a series, finding growth and improvement over several pieces.
Combining the techniques used for her wearables and wall hangings, she also
creates vestments. These vests are sometimes inspired by scripture, but always
inspired by nature.
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| Cindy Hoppe Wearables Source |
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Desert Blooms
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Cindy also
creates on commission. She makes custom wall hangings, church hangings, jackets
and stoles. Her wall hangings are densely embroidered and quilted to give a
detailed close up view on ones wall in their home. In contrast, her church
hangings are on a much larger scale, so they are not as intensely worked on.
She uses photos of the church to ensure she captures the right colours and
feelings for the piece. Some of her jackets have included detailed dragons,
parrots, trees, and even pianos. Her stoles are made to be reversible, and two
common themes are lent/advent, and Christmas/Easter. She enjoys using context
from meaningful scriptures to give personal meaning to each owner.
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| Cindy Hoppe Wearables Source |
