Linda Rempel

ARTIST STATEMENT

I identify with a quote I once read that suggests drawing is “a personal practice used as a vehicle for developing visual awareness; a combination seeing, thinking, and planning that is relevant to all art disciplines.” Based on this definition, I consider fibre art to be one form of drawing within the context of my artistic practice.

Working Method:
For Tactile-visual learners like myself, the physical process of making art through active engagement using ones hands to draw, or manipulate material, is just as important (or perhaps more important) as the resulting art object. For example, I intentionally pursue a hands-on approach in my ongoing research project “Drawing the Contemporary Classical Figure”. By individually using material like wire and masking tape to build each bone of the human body in 3-dimension, and by individually drawing the muscles of the human body in its anatomical context, I hope to understand the human form as a whole and in greater depth. As a Kinesthetic learner, I also have a better chance of facilitating my ability to memorize and internalize the knowledge of the body structures through physical involvement in the act of making.  Learning, after all, is achieved through doing if one is Kinesthetic.

I first became aware of myself as as a kinesthetic learner in my 4th year of studies at the Alberta University of the Arts. For me this awareness opened the door for a greater capacity to appreciate, understand and value the benefits of hands-on art making as a means to achieve personal growth.