ANNA TORMA

Textiles

506-538-7227
torma@nb.sympatico.ca

For the last ten years I have been making narrative and figurative large scale hand embroidered wallhangings.

My recent works are influenced by Primitive, Outsider and Child’s Art. I like their expressive directness and ability to communicate an emotion to a wide range of viewers.

I have always found a strong relation to untaught textilemakers.
My works also deal with the possible variations of male-female characteristics and the connections they have with each other.

I often collect texts and writings from different sources: from friends and family members, from the diverse culture scene of my recent place in New Brunswick, or from my well-remembered early experience with Hungarian traditions, as a private diary pages on fabric, with drawings, pictures and visual fragments from my past and present.

Technically, I use hand embroidery, this old, time consuming, well known textile patterning techic. I am always fascinated by the challenge to fill this medium with contemporary meaning. Working in a large scale, I compose hangings which are rooted in this heritage, but are also equally related to other visual art mediums like painting and drawing.

To reach this goal, I have elaborated my previous works with needle painting and with the use of strong colors as a picture making method. In some cases, I make a fine patchwork underlay from old textile fragments, found fabrics and clothing,layering, constructing, fabricating a visually exciting base for my embroideries. I finish it like a traditional kantha quilt, a rural Indian embroidered hanging, filling the background with tacking stitching to produce a consistent and even surface.