Kathleen Vaughan PHD RCA, Professor, Fiber Artist, St Lawrence River Advocate

This portrait is part of a series celebrating Canadian women who preserve wild spaces and the creatures that inhabit them. It features artist and professor Kathleen Vaughan, whose work and spirit I deeply admire. The painting is based on a photo session with Kathleen as well as our many conversations over the years and features symbolic elements and visual devices set along the St. Lawrence River shoreline.

Kathleen’s environmental work is focused on the St. Lawrence, engaged through arts-science collaborations, public outreach, and her own art. She also spends time each year in Iceland, and feels a deep kinship with the Arctic terns she sees there —the earth’s longest migratory birds who travel up to 70,000 km from pole to pole. She sees terns as emblematic of the arts themselves, which help people everywhere connect across geographic and even species boundaries. Here, three terns arc from the sky to the water towards Kathleen herself. Bullrushes, which are increasingly threatened in Quebec by invasive species like phragmites, are depicted along the water’s edge as a symbol of fragile ecosystems.

Kathleen’s beloved dog, Baloo, appears in the piece close to her heart; he was her muse and shoreline walking companion. She is also known for her brightly coloured scarves, one of which I’ve reimagined here through embroidery, paying tribute to her vibrant presence and signature style.

The portrait is created primarily from upcycled textiles, reflecting Kathleen’s commitment to environmentalism and her own practice as a fibre artist. I’ve combined acrylic paint with freehand machine sewing, crewel, embroidery, quilting, piecework, and appliqué, building layers that add meaning and visual density, much like the natural world I depict.

The piece is made with embroidery, appliqué, crewel, scrap fabrics, hand dyed silk, wool and acrylic paint on raw canvas, hung from foraged wood. It is 78” high (198 cm) by 45” (114 cm) wide.  More about Kathleen Vaughan in this nice write up by EK Voland Gallery.