Sheila Thompson

Sheila Thompson moved her fibre art practice to Guelph from Toronto in 2021 and has enjoyed something of an renaissance since then. She has been interested in ecological and environmental issues for most of her life, first in her capacity as an academic, and now as a member of environmental and eco-focused art organizations. Her science past informs her art present in terms of its geographic perspective, organic imagery, and environmental/political narratives. Her medium is fibre -wool, paper, silks, and organic materials like cocoons and plant material. Her process uses wet felting techniques to create layered embedded structures, laminated wool, paper and silks, hand molded topographic features, and free standing hollow forms. Over the years, she has developed a rich archive of her own biogeography field research notes, knitted copper wire experiments, seed and plant collections, maps, handdyed fabrics, and her own line of silk textiles based on photos of my own work or eco-phenomena, principally lichens and fungi. These materials enrich the surface design of her work. Her long running project, Habitat 2050, developed in response to daily news about the mess humans have made of the environment, reimagines the stories in a more harmonious future. This umbrella body of work consists of hand-molded 3d topographic felts in wool, Kozo paper and silk, and a series of felt Erlenmeyer flasks (Imposters) embellished with her prints of data, organisms and ecological phenomena. These flasks are a tribute to women in science and their determination to advance in their profession. Her latest additions to the project are a series of supersized futuristic leaves for her Leaves: an Impression exhibition and Petri Dish Perspectives.

She is an experienced exhibitor in Toronto and elsewhere enjoying participation in many juried exhibitions. Since becoming a member of the Connections Fibre Artists group in 2023 (https://www.connectionsfibreartists.com/sheila-thompson.html), she has participated in several group exhibitions at regional museums. She is an active member of ecoart and textile/felt art organizations and has curated a number of small exhibitions. She won an Ontario Arts Council grant to co-curate the travelling textile show, "Edge of the Forest" and won an award in Insights 2023 for her 3d felted Erlenmeyer Imposter flask. Her work is in private collections nationally and internationally. She is an active member of the International Feltmakers Association.

She supports efforts to reduce her carbon footprint by repurposing art, donating materials and by reducing her production output.