Rachelle LeBlanc     Fiber Artist

Articles

This article appeared in the fall 2006 Sainte Henri Rug Hookers Newsletter

Felicitously hung, allowing each a luminous presence, Rachelle LeBlanc’s hooked rugs animate with vibrant color the exhibition space of the Musee de Kent in Bouctouche, New-Brunswick, Canada. Representing the artist's major series – family, and the world that surrounds me- the 21 works juxtapose imagery from Rachelle’s native home town of Bouctouche in counterpoint with that of her adopted city, Montreal. The exhibition continues through September 03. 2006.

Calling herself a "failed painter", Rachelle labours to achieve hues that create an "impressionistic glow." Finding commercial fabric "lifeless", she colors woollen cloth and hand cuts her strips. Hand cutting strips, she contends, produce a softer "hand" than machine cutting, with "looser, less predictable" results. Beginning each hooked rug with a small drawing painted using her children’s water color paints, Rachelle then transfers the image onto a larger piece of burlap using a permanent maker. She then uses masking tape to secure the burlap edges to avoid fraying.

Rachelle started making hooked rugs in 2003 after visiting the Shelburne Museum hooked rug and quilt gallery. “If all these women can make rugs using feed sacks and a bent nail, I should be able to figure it out”, was Rachelle view when starting.

The artiste explains that she uses a latch hook and hooks without a frame simply because that was the way she learned.  “My art reflects my personality perfectly.  I am a self taught artiste and like thinking outside the box.  My rugs are examples that we do not always need expensive equipment to make beautiful and lasting art”.

Rachelle’s “Waiting for the Parade”, an image of her Acadian grand-mother and her best friend is reminiscent of days gone bye.  The background shows the dirt road (now paved) and the fields where her father played Cowboys and Indians, which once was a common view from her grandmother front window. 

The most stunning of the hooked rugs, “Hopscotch”, was made from a sketch done while her daughters played in the back yard.

Emanuelle in the striped dress has the stronger character of the two, by extending her foot into the border; the artiste has captured the personality of its subjects.

Joining the rug hooking group “ Les Tapestries de Saint-Henry” and the “Green Mountain Rug Hooking guild” in fall of 2006 to meet people, Rachelle was immediately inspired and has worked tirelessly ever since, not only to hone her skills as a hooked rug artiste but also to extend the medium beyond its conventional limits. Rug hooking, for her, has become a vehicle for meditation, inspiration, and whimsy.

Some of Rachelle’s work will be published in Amy Oxfords new book coming out this fall published by Schiffer books.  She will also be teaching a rug hooking class in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, in late September.

--Rachelle LeBlanc

This article appeared in the Times & Transcripts & L'Etoile de Kent, news paper during my exhibit in New Brunswick, summer 2006

sorry its only in French