Artist's Statement

The world around us is rich in textures, colours, and images which are often ignored in our busy lives, Whether it is the natural environment or the built environment, close observation reveals an amazing diversity of colour, line and texture. These features provide much of the inspiration for the experimental collage works created by Pat Pelech.

Early in her career, Pat shifted from the rigour and constraints of fibre art to the freedom offered by using mixed media and collage. Over the years, Pat has worked in Series. Her Nature's Abstract Series made use of mixed media combined with natural found materials to provide subtle, but striking abstract images. While on a trip to England, Pat was struck by the landscapes that have been intensively cultivated for centuries, with little remnant of the natural environment. This led to a greater appreciation of the wildness of Canada's forest environment, much of which still exists today, and the conviction that some of these areas should remain untouched for future generations to appreciate. Her Spirit Tree Series focuses on "Spirit Trees", the skeletons of trees that house the spirits of dead ancestors, who bear witness to the affairs of mankind and the disappearance of our forests today. Passages is a series that depicts the transitions that all living creatures experience — birth, adolescence, maturity, celebration, tragedy, aging and earth — and the emotions associated with these experiences.

Pat's technique is constantly evolving as she discovers new sources of inspiration and new ways of working with synthetic and natural materials to reflect the often unnoticed world around us.