What Is the Common Thread That Makes Art Art

Toronto artist Jenn Kitagawa is this week's Exhibitionist in Residence. "I like to brand GIFs that utilise a lot of bright, fun colour and subtle movements," she explains — simply when you encounter them, will you option up on the common thread that links so many of her works?

Kitagawa herself didn't observe it at showtime. But her mom did.

"My mom quilts," says Kitagawa, 32, who grew upward in Edmonton. "She was seeing the images I was making — and for a while, they were very geometric. She was maxim, 'All this stuff you lot're doing, it could be fabricated into quilts!'"

"I hadn't actually idea nigh it seriously until she mentioned it," says the creative person. But once the idea was out there, information technology was clear her op-fine art prints could double as patterns.

At that place'south something about the work that I'grand making that translates very easily to quilts. - Jenn Kitagawa, artist

The work you'll run across on Sunday'due south show wasn't stitched past manus, though. Instead, it's all digital. Kitagawa trained as a graphic designer at ACAD in Calgary, and after a stint in New York (interning for Nylon magazine and Mike Perry, the artist behind the Broad City titles), she'southward been in Toronto since late 2011, where she's worked for clients including Google and the tape label Arts & Crafts.

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And while she'south always making piece of work for fun — GIFs included  — "I keep going back to textiles," she says.

Kitagawa's work regularly appears at Long Wintertime, a regular Toronto event that transforms local venues into art-and-music parties during the chillier months of the twelvemonth. A few years back, the outcome featured her first quilt — well, not technically her kickoff, since she'd been sewing since her teens, but her first in the aforementioned style as her op-art digital prints. A typographic slice, it'due south both cozy and misreckoning.

Wall hanging by Jenn Kitagawa. The piece was made for Long Winter, Twelvemonth 3/Volume 4. (www.jennkitagawa.com)

"In that location's something about the work that I'm making that translates very easily to quilts and has a very different presence in a physical space than a impress would," she says, and she's currently planning a new series of textile banners for a summer music festival.

Whether she'due south working with a needle and thread, or Adobe Suite, Kitagawa says the two practices are always "very connected" — insomuch every bit she'southward always making something.

"It'south cliche, but when it comes to inspiration, I experience like I'm always thinking about my work. Even when I'm not, the stuff that'southward happening around me or the discussions that I'm involved with — just what'south happening culturally or in our country — everything just comes back to it."

Take a look at some of her blitheness.

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Detect more from Jenn Kitagawa on her website and on the new episode ofExhibitionists. Spotter onlineor Sunday at 4:30 (5 p.m. NT) on CBC Television.

Want to see your creations on CBC Arts?Just send us an email!You could be an Exhibitionist in Residence this season.

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Source: https://www.cbc.ca/arts/there-s-a-common-thread-that-ties-this-art-together-but-can-you-spot-it-1.4007237

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