Janet Morton

Full Circle

April 14 - May 13, 2006
opens Friday April 14, 7-10pm

"Every one always is repeating the whole of them. Always, one having loving repeating to getting understanding must have in them open feeling, a sense for all the slightest variations in repeating, must never lose themselves so in the solid steadiness of all repeating they do not hear the slightest variations…it takes many years of listening, seeing, living, feeling, loving the repeating there is in some before one comes to a completed understanding …Mostly every one loves some ones repeating."

-Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans. 1908


In mounting Full Circle at Paul Petro Contemporary Art I take great comfort in the repeating ramblings of Gertrude Stien. Ever since I can remember I have been drawn to repetition, both repetitive tasks and in repeated pattern. I have often shied away from admitting this truth, fearing I’d be labeled as boring.

This exhibition includes a series of drawings, mostly on maps, that were made in the early 1990’s while I was working in tree planting camps. Between 1986 and 1996 I planted more than a million trees in Canadian clear cuts. Oddly, the repetitive work of planting reinforced in my art practice labour-intensive and process-based methods and techniques.

I began drawing circular patterns as a teenager and have repeatedly returned to this format. Akin to finding comfort in the words of Ms. Stien in The Making of Americans, I felt somewhat relieved when I learned of the Tibetan Mandala tradition. A Mandala, according to the Oxford dictionary, is “a circular figure of a religious symbol of the universe”. In hindsight, I realize I had been creating work using the circle form as a sort of personal meditation all along.

In my new constructed textile Mandalas, I use familiar techniques; knitting and stitching, as well as incorporating recycled elements.

Repeatedly, the same questions and concerns reoccur in my work. While I am working I find myself asking; How does time relate to value? How do we spend our time? How is value assigned to an object? What is beauty? Can work equal worth? Can I redeem the discarded? What do I value? Where does truth lie? Am I repeating myself?

- Janet Morton, April 2006