You would have to be rich or a fool — or both — to put Rachelle LeBlanc’s rugs on the ground for people to trample over. Her work is much better suited for the wall where you can appreciate how much artistry and effort she has put into her designs. In fact this is a prime example of why there is such a debate about the distinction between what is art and what is craft. Even though it’s made with wool, you cannot deny the aesthetic pleasure of her work.
The self-taught St. Albert-based rug-hooker has only been in this line of practice for just a few years now but she has quickly risen to such expertise and great acclaim that it is not unheard of for her to sell a piece to a buyer who doesn’t even know what it looks like. It might have to do with the fact that she has a great eye, something that developed from her previous career. Originally from QuĂ©bec, she worked in fashion design for two decades before picking up her first crochet hook at an American gallery in 2003.
“I’m a big fan of the Impressionists. There was a rug there that a lady had made after seeing one of the first exhibitions in New York of the Impressionists in the early 1900s. I said, ‘Well if it can be translated into art, I’m going to try it’. It just exploded from there. It ended up becoming my passion.”
It didn’t hurt that she had easy access to wool since she was already in the garment industry.
She soon discovered that, after setting up a promotional website, the interest just flooded in and with it many commissions. LeBlanc admits she quickly had trouble keeping up with the demand and subsequently left her main line of work to concentrate on her new career. Now she is considered one of the top Canadian contemporary rug artists and she has exhibited in museums across the continent including the Musée des Maître et Artisans in Montréal and the Shelburne Museum in Vermont where she first found her inspiration.
A recent addition to the Alberta Craft Council’s list of represented artists, she is thrilled to be chosen out of the hundreds of prospective craft artists for its new group show called Prairie Excellence.
“It’s fairly new here in the west. It’s a very popular hobby out east but you don’t see it in the galleries. The ones that you do see in the museums are generally antiques.”
She said the council encouraged her greatly and the proof is already on the wall but will soon be in a private collection. Her submission Under September Sky has found a buyer.
“It sold to a lady from MontrĂ©al who has never seen it. My collectors find me either through word of mouth or they Google fibre art and they end up buying my work unseen through an incredible leap of faith. I am so humbled. I almost passed out the first time.”
LeBlanc also currently has her own show on at the Multicultural Heritage Centre located at 5411-51 St. in Stony Plain. Hooked on Rugs just opened last week and runs until Dec. 23. View more of her work on her website at www.hookedrugstudio.com.
