From the get-go, gifted local artist Vicki Sullivan was one of those kids who just loved to dive into creative ventures.
Over the years, Sullivan, who lives in Morning Meadows between Lacombe and Ponoka, has covered the gamut from drawing, pastels, water colour and acrylic painting, to clay modelling, bone-carving and glass-blowing.
But one evening, about eight years ago, she discovered needle-felting, and a whole new creative journey was launched.
"I was at a friend's, and we were having a craft night. I had never heard of needle-felting! We were making little lantern covers, and we didn't have a reference photo so we were just kind of coming up with ideas.
"I remember that I didn't like what I had made. So I took it home, and pulled all of the fibres off. But I loved the process. I harvested all of the colours, pulled them off, and I got my hands on a needle and a pad, and it was just game-on from there."
Sullivan will be discussing her passion during the Encore Art Sale at the Lacombe Memorial Centre, set for April 11-12, as she is this year's featured artist.
"Needle-felting is taking a thin needle that has notches on the end, and then agitating fibres that - under a microscope - have scales on them," she explained. "These scales cling to each other like Velcro. They flatten, and they hold together.
"(The process) takes big fluffy vats of wool, shrinks it down, and flattens it to what almost looks like a painting. Up close, you can see all of the amazing textures."
Sullivan loves the way it all works together to make amazing, and thoroughly unique, pieces.
"There is the ability to 'build it out' like sculpture, or keep it flat, or kind of puffy. One of the big things for me was the ability to change my mind, to experiment, and to explore," she said.
As to being featured artist, Sullivan will be discussing how needle-felting came to be. "it's a newer art form. It was in the 1980s that the first person to do this took an industrial needle from the machines that make felted, pelt fur."
That artist took it home, with the intention of trying something new and different.
"There just aren't that many art forms that are quite that new," she said. "And so there is still so much to discover with it, and many directions that people can go with it, as it's just coming into its own.
"The really powerful things for me, and the amazing thing that will always bring me back, are the stories I hear from people who have been touched by my work," she said, adding that the art can evoke some pretty powerful emotions in folks.
"Those things just mean the world to me," she said. "I treasure them."
As her bio points out, "Her work often depicts oceans, animals, flowers and mountains in bas-relief style (semi-3D), showcased with the sheen of silk and viscose and the texture of thread, yarn, ribbon and other textile embellishments. Discovering the limits of such a versatile art form continues to be a joyous adventure for this Canadian artist."
Meanwhile, organizers say the Encore Art Sale is going to be an fascinating two days of fibre, stained glass, wood, metals, paintings, ceramics, photography, music and more at the LMC.
On April 11, doors open at 1 p.m. followed by a talk with Sullivan from 2 to 2:30 p.m. A wine and cheese (cash bar) runs from 6 to 8 p.m. and the day wraps up at 8 p.m. Doors open at 11 a.m. on April 12, with an artist talk again slated for 2 to 2:30 p.m.
The cash bar will be available from 3 to 5 p.m. followed by the Art Endowment Award and Student Art Award presentations beginning at 4 p.m.
Admission is by donation to support the Lacombe Arts Endowment Fund.
