For more than 30 years Shawn O’Hagan’s work has profoundly enriched the cultural and artistic fabric of Newfoundland and Labrador. Weaving together several bodies of work that play with material and composition, this overview of new and recent production by O’Hagan consummates a process of experimentation and exploration into intuitive stitching. The more than 300 fabric collages born of this process begin for O’Hagan with scraps of second-hand, gifted, and found textile. These scraps are viscerally evocative, layered with residues of history and individual association, for Shawn their reuse and repurposing is an environmental imperative. 

During the pandemic, O’Hagan found that the collages served as a starting point for paintings: “Beginning with the basic shape of the collage then playing with the colours, the patterns, the textures. Floating them in a sensuous, undulating background. They reflect where my mind has been during the pandemic—the isolation, the fear, the anger and also the hope. The love.” O’Hagan’s shifts in scale and material are connected through form and composition, which become a conversation or interplay between textile and painting, craft and contemporary art, intuition and reaction, patriarchy and progress.

In 2019 Shawn O’Hagan was the inaugural Grenfell Art Gallery summer artist-in-residence, she has been based in Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) since 1975. She lives and works on the west coast, dividing her time between her house in Corner Brook and her cabin in Elmastukwek (Bay of Islands). She has a BFA from the University of Guelph, a B.Ed in Art from the University of Toronto and an MFA, with a specialization in painting, from the University of Waterloo. 

Artist Statement:

When my children were small I watched them draw without intention. They inhabited only the moment of creation. With these small collages I am attempting to create as my children did. These works are driven by my subconscious and with the confidence I now have knowing that my intuition will dictate what comes next. They are an external manifestation of my creative energy. They are about process. About how the work grows. About discovery and about the pure joy of making.

I choose to use only vintage and recycled textiles because I love the stories that these materials hold. And I spend time fusing together the work with slow, meditative stitching and applique. The work comes to life in my hands.