This work investigates Canadian settler identity. I am curious about the artistic concerns for weavers at this time, beyond the purely functional and utilitarian, or rather how the material and technical parameters affected the creative process. My initial research has begun with two seminal books by Dorothy K. Burnham Keep Me Warm One Night and The Comfortable Arts: Traditional Spinning and Weaving in Canada. The portrait used for this piece comes from The Comfortable Arts, it is a seemingly rare glimpses at settlers wearing handwoven cloth. They are Mr. & Mrs. Johann Schultz and their two children, Lutherans from Germany who came to Canada in 1848, living in Waterloo County, Ontario. My family came to Canada around this time as well, from Scotland, Ireland and England. They were not weavers, but farmers, labourers and domestic service workers.
