The Gulf Stream is like an invisible ribbon that curves its way through the Atlantic Ocean touching many coastal communities. Four artists are tied together by their shared compassion and connection to the Gulf Stream.
Aligning with Canada’s 2025 commitment to conserve 25% of our marine environment this inspirational travelling exhibit will open on Oceans Day of June 2025 at the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.
Discover how the work of artists Laurie Swim, Ingrid Larssen, Jane Whitten, and Solveig Ovanger expose the beauty and vulnerability of the Gulf Stream and what each of us can do to make a positive difference.
Meet the artists:
Laurie Swim
I began thinking of The Blue Ribbon – The Current that Connects Us, The Gulf Stream in 2019 after being introduced to Ingrid Larssen in Norway by way of mutual friend Harald Oredam, a Norwegian sculptor, also concerned with the Gulf Stream. Over the years it has become a collaborative project between artists Ingrid Larssen and Solveig Ovanger in Norway and Jane Whitten and myself, here in Canada.
Our lives in coastal communities rely on the Gulf Stream and its northern extension, the North Atlantic Drift. As Fine Craft artists, through our work, we have come together to alert people to the cultural and ecological significance of the Gulf Stream, now at a critical tipping point.
This is my eighth public art project, most notable of which are Hope and Survival, The Halifax Explosion, 1917 (2017); Lost at Sea, 1961 (2000); Breaking Ground, The Hogg’s Hollow Disaster, 1960 (2000); The Young Workers Memorial Quilt (2003) and Pulling Together, The Builders of the Rideau Canal, 1826-1832 (1995). Creating collaborative community art installations in the past has shown me that the power of textile driven work can pull people in emotionally and provoke change, in this case, inspire awareness of our responsibility to protect the Gulf Stream and the ocean it flows in.
My work has received Creation grants from Arts Nova Scotia and recently, I attained a Canada Council Concept and Realization grant to support my work for the Blue Ribbon Project. I have been honoured with The Portia White Prize, Nova Scotia’s foremost fine art award. My works grace public and private collections including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, City of Toronto, Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
I live and work in Lunenburg, N.S. If you wish to see more of my work, go to www.laurieswim.com or stop by the Laurie Swim Gallery, 25 Cornwallis St., corner of Lincoln and Cornwallis in the town of Lunenburg.
Ingrid Larssen
Fabric Sculptor
Stokmarknes, Norway
Ingrid has since 1999 done research on and renewed the over 800-year-old textile embroidery technique smocking. She uses the technique to shape delicate objects in silk organza. Dots are accurately marked along tight lines and sewn together two by two diagonally. This creates a surface of square 'pockets' arranged in a strictly geometric pattern (as in a waffle). The reverse side appears softer and has a more organic look that may resemble ripples in water. Both sides become part of the expression as the object is stretched, turned and twisted until it has found its shape.
The objects are inspired by life in the sea and on the shore, and they reflect thoughts about the vulnerable and perishable, in nature and in us.
Fabrics and yarns used are dyed with plants, lichen, seaweed, and sea urchins, all found near her home.
Her work is currently being shown at The Northern Norway Art Museum in Tromsø, The National Museum in Oslo and Royal Norwegian Embassy in London.
Ingrid Larssen - Homo Faber Guide
https://norskekunsthandverkere.no/users/ingrid-larssen
Jane Whitten
Contemporary basketmaker and knitter creating functional and dysfunctional pieces using traditional and non-traditional materials.
I am a basket maker and knitter presently living in Summerside, Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. Born in Australia, I have spent much of my adult life in eastern Canada learning to make baskets and establishing my craft practice. At the same time, I worked as a teacher and special education consultant in Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), Nova Scotia, and later in Australia.
Although I have been knitting since I was a child it wasn’t until the 1980s when I was living on Fogo Island, NL, that I started creating my own award-winning knitting designs. In the 1990s after I had moved to Nova Scotia, I was introduced to basketry through the NS Basketry Guild where I received intensive training from locally celebrated basket makers Joleen Gordon, Eileen Hubley, and Heather Sanft. Since then, I have advanced my creative work with internationally known contemporary basket makers Lois Walpole, Hisako Sekijima, Lissa Hunter, John Garrett, and Jackie Abrams.
There is a great similarity in the way I have approached problem-solving in my teaching and in my craft. A goal is set – learning to read or making a basket. A starting point is found – basic skill level or a pile of material. And then the fun begins – exploring the options for getting from one to the other! I have a distinctive response to a variety of materials and techniques creating functional and dysfunctional pieces.
Underlying my experimentation with materials, techniques, and structures, is my passion and concern for the environment. These play an important, often subconscious, part in the materials of choice and the final forms I create.
My basketry and knitting have been exhibited in group and solo shows in Canada, USA, New Zealand, and Australia. I was nominated for the Canada Council’s 2001 Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in Fine Craft and have won numerous awards for creations. My work is in public and private collections nationally and internationally including Nova Scotia Art Bank, Halifax, Canada; Claridge Collection, Montreal, Canada; Confederation Center Art Gallery, Charlottetown, Canada; and Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, Canada.
Solveig Ovanger
Tromsø, Norway
Solveig Ovanger explores methods for preserving and tanning fish skins – old preparation techniques handed down by indigenous people in Siberia and tanning techniques learned from a retired tanner in Norway. She combines the techniques in different ways in the processing of raw skins from cod, saithe, salmon, and other local species of fish, utilizing a raw material that is usually regarded as waste.
During the last decades she turned her attention to sculptures and installations wherein she explores the material and its associative and visual qualities.
Her work is inspired by geometric shapes, reflections and repetitions, the secrets of the ocean and by the wordless dynamics in nature where everything is connected in a whole, constantly moving.
Her works have been exhibited internationally and are included in the art collections of Northern Norway Art Museum, UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, Nordland and Troms County Councils, Oslo and Tromsø City Councils, Hammerfest New Hospital, and Balsfjord Municipality. She has received numerous grants.
https://www.norskekunsthandverkere.no/kunstnerregister/solveig-ovanger
https://www.solveigovanger.no/(2013)
