About Ian
I'm a community-taught textile artist working in quilting, weaving and banner making. My banners are for causes both real and imagined. I see craft as both personal expression and political action. My work explores how textiles can cushion difficult truths while simultaneously unraveling systems of power one person at a time.
After twenty years in politics and business, I turned to textiles as a form of personal resistance and recovery.
My practice spans traditional and contemporary fibre arts. Whether solving the endless puzzles of quilting, finding meditative rhythm at the loom, or creating banners to help imagine better futures, I examine how these ancient crafts remain radical acts. Weaving and sewing are universal human practices, I believe these skills are instinctual waiting to be surfaced through the act of making.
I also host Art Against Empire, a documentary podcast exploring how artists use art and craft as resistance. And, over at Zak Foster's online home for fibre folks called the Quilty Nook - I help host the LGBTQIA room and online sewing circles.
Currently, I balance my artistic practice with work in anti-oppressive technology focused on Indigenous data sovereignty. This dual perspective - being informed by handcraft and digital systems - informs my understanding creativity and technology as a tools for liberation. I use a lot of technology in my art practice: several sewing machines, digital patterning and cutting machines.
I completed my horticulture degree at the University of Guelph in 2023, adding another layer to my understanding of growth, patience and working with living systems. I live with my incredible husband in Montréal where we are building an 500 square meter St. Lawrence Lowlands eco-garden.