Artist Spotlight: See Evocative Paintings By Colleen Heslin
In our Artist File column, art advisor Diana Hamm of WK ART shares the artists that have caught her eye.
The artist’s installation at Kamloops Art Gallery in 2021.
Colleen is also interested in the dichotomy between art and craft. Historically, the high arts field was male dominated, while the crafts area was more associated with women. “In contemporary art, the concept holds more value than the medium,” says Colleen. “A medium is a means of production in relation to the concept. My work is an example of contemporary pluralism, not art-male and craft- female, because it disregards fixed medium values.If you look at contemporary painting, the most interesting key actors are female.”
Colleen (pictured) is formally trained as an artist yet her practice of cutting and sewing each piece of fabric together is just as steeped in the world of craft, nodding to generations of crafting women who came before her.
Her works explore color, form and surface texture. Take Lifeline (2020), for example. Alternating pink and black shapes throughout the canvas draw your eye to the circle in the middle, but it’s the orange at the top that makes the work feel complete. Placing something of a surprise in an otherwise structured pattern adds dimension.
I love how the seams in her pieces are visible to the eye; this creates a materiality that you don’t get from painting alone. In Collecting and Purging (2021), for instance, the blue to the yellow and back again is not the flat, slick, industrially produced object that we’re so used to revering but, instead, there’s an organic and personal feel to the finished piece. Each shade of yellow and blue differs slightly, which would have been done at the outset. “Varying dye density is an intentional shift for subtle complexity in my paintings,” says Colleen. “When dyeing, the degree of agitation affects the surface outcomes, and having a bit of gradient texture can help establish depth.”
Close, but never touching (2022) measures 76 by 94 inches; this scale of painting would’ve been very physical to create. I love the stark contrast between the purple and the red that visually shocks you into engaging with the piece. When working with canvas, the artist uses an old industrial sewing machine. She enjoys the process, but it’s also thought-provoking. “It makes me mindful of sweatshops, and how undervalued the labour of sewing is globally, and the skill that’s involved,” she says. “I think about the autonomy, dignity and leisure I’m afforded in my workday. All of that is what makes room to develop ideas — it’s a privilege to work this way.”
Colleen’s exploration of global issues — gender disparities, consumer excess, labor exploitation, to name just a few — while using such a minimal language is a testament to the understanding that, sometimes, less is more. This artist’s ability to oscillate between different factions of art makes her works beautiful and compelling.
Diana Hamm of WK ART is a Toronto art adviser. A graduate of Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London, U.K., Diana focuses on contemporary art and discovering emerging artists. She also advises private clients on acquisitions and collection-building. Find out more at wkart.ca.