Artist Statement

I am drawn to the utilitarian art-craft of traditional rug hooking, with every loop pulled contributing to the story-telling narrative of the Canadian experience. I am alternatingly playful and challenging with my artistic statements. Lately, I am struck by the colonial parallels of the Canadian indigenous experience and that of my own neglected, abused, and often displaced ancestors from the Black settlements of Nova Scotia. As an eighth generation Canadian and descendent of Africville, it is my intention that this art spark conversation around truth and reconciliation being a pervasive Canadian problem, while highlighting the indefatigable spirit of the people it touches.

Biography

Lisa Meecham is a community organizer and accomplished artist in multiple media including furniture and fibre arts. Re-purposing and up-cycling are regularly deployed in her work to create functional pieces of art producing original contemporary social and anthropological statements. An award-winning Traditional Rug Hooker, Lisa’s mats have been displayed in Canadian government offices, Canadian and US galleries, living history museums, guilds, and have toured the same with travelling exhibitions. Lisa offers enthusiastic instruction to those who simply wish to learn this “one simple loop” and encouragement in the role of rug hooking in preserving family stories and microhistories. She is the founder of the Woolly Good Hooking online network, a 3000+ community over several platforms fostering connection, championing the cultural and therapeutic benefits of rug hooking and re-vitalization of heritage arts.