Line Dufour

Line Dufour’s Artist Statement

To be whole, is described as being healthy, entire; recovered from a wound or injury; restored; free of defect or impairment; mentally and emotionally sound; constituting an undivided unit; constituting a person in their full nature; not having omitted or disregarded anything; a coherent system or organization of parts working together as one; Referenced from Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary Well Being documents my attempts to achieve health in all areas of life by coming to terms with the duality of human nature. It is witness to my weaving together body, mind, spirit, and heart. Being in touch with one’s feelings is key to well-being and wholeness, and enables one to live an authentic life, a life in which we honor our multidimensionality. Tapestry weaving is a vital part of my creative, artisanal, and artistic journey. Through its slow, mindful, and contemplative process, I am led to give visual expression to the wide range of human emotions. Bright and intense colors express the pleasant emotions in the Well Being series and convey the lightness, buoyancy, and energy they bring to our spirit, heart, and body. To arrive at this luminous place of emotional equilibrium and transformation requires that I feel my way through the dark tunnels of ‘negative’ emotions, expressed in the Turbulence series. When I grapple with my inner uncertainties, fears, and uncomfortable emotions in a way that honors them, I undergo a metamorphosis represented by their three-dimensionality.

The colors selected for the Well Being are the colors ascribed to the seven chakras, physical focal points where psychic forces merge and interact. Each chakra is associated with a color among other things. Chakras interact with each other. It is a body/mind paradigm. Thoughts are habits of mind. Well being doesn’t just happen. It takes effort to fulfill its constantly changing requirements. The Fate, Destiny and Self Determination is what has resulted from these two bodies of work, a tapestry installation that to date, has received 850 submissions from 550 people from 42 countries. All these individuals participating in this project are like threads woven into an international and multicultural community fabric through this one shared activity, a permanent reminder of our shared heritage, culture, and values. Above all, as I have let the project take on its own life and journey, it has been a unifying force, creating a community among tapestry weavers and textile artists.

Line Dufour’s Biography

Upon her graduation from Ontario College of Art and Design University and the University of Guelph, Dufour has participated in numerous group exhibits, including at the American Textile Museum in Massachusetts, the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft in Kentucky, the Scarfone Gallery at the University of Tampa to name a few. She has received grants and her work can be found in many collections, that include several commissions. One of her tapestries was featured in the book Tapestry published by Phaidon Press and written by Barty Phillips and placed her in the Contemporary Masters section.

Numerous publications have spotlighted her tapestries, including articles about the international tapestry installation, Fate, Destiny and Self Determination in Artapestry 4 & 5 (European Tapestry Network), Fiber Art Now, HandEye magazine, Fibre Focus, American Tapestry Alliance, fibreQuarterly, the Danish textile art publication, Rapporter, and the British Tapestry Group publications. This installation has been exhibited in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver in Canada; Denver Colorado, and San Jose California in the USA; at the 9th From Lausanne to Beijing Biennial in China, the World Textile Art event in Montevideo, Uruguay; the Roscommon County Council in Ireland; the Tuchmacher Museum, Bramsche and the Tuch + Technik Textilmuseum, Neumünster in Germany. The installation continues to be invited for exhibitions around the world and continues to accept submissions on an ongoing basis.