Stories My Mother Told Me
Ilse Anysas-Salkauskas

The desire to work with colourful textiles and textures is in my blood. My Lithuanian mother and grandmother’ creative fibre artworks inspired me to study art at the Alberta College of Art and Design and I am carrying on their creative fibre art traditions, but in my own style.

The title of my work, “Stories my Mother told Me”, brings me visions of warmth, comfort, protection and connection. The connection is to my past and my present, namely my grandmothers and now my two granddaughters. As a little girl my 93 year-old mother, when in trouble, used to take refuge under her grandmother’s multilayered petticoats and skirt. Times have changed and so have our clothing styles, but our needs are still the same. Now I am the grandmother and have two granddaughters who at times want my help.

This project has given me the opportunity to connect to my past through my mother’s family stories. I am now telling these same stories to my daughters and granddaughter. Through this process I’m continuing to connect them to their past as well.

From my mother’s stories I see that in every generation the young women start out their lives with similar dreams but life pulls and pushes them into many different directions. Things that all of the women of my family had and have in common are creativity, love of the land and strong spiritual beliefs. I have created my sculptural artwork using colourful leather to show a family connection to the soil and to our faith.

Looking back at the viewer from my Inside the Dress sculpture is the face of tradition and the historic tension between functional and decorative art. On my sculpture the three layers show aspects of the shared commitments and hopes of the women in my family. The unploughed landscape layers are there, showing the hope the young women had and have for their future. The stained glass windows represent the spiritual hope helping the women survive through good times and bad. The black layers are there because all of the women before my mother’s generation wore black wedding dresses. Wearing them they also hoped for a great future. The fringes at the bottom stand for the many family stories that, for one reason or another, will never be told.