S J Ince at Nuit Blanche Toronto 2019 with her mixed media tapestry 'Time's Progress'
Samantha-Jane Ince (S J Ince) is an emerging mixed media artist working in the mediums of wool, paper and acrylics on canvas. Exploring contemporary and abstract themes on how we live. Using fibre and paint to create modern tapestries and works that reflect today's world and the issues, influences and attitudes shaping it. But also, the simple, beautiful, strange and mundane everyday things we do and love.
For example, one of her recent series of 'illustrations in wool' explored the nature of the ‘Hustle’ and how creative entrepreneurs navigate making a living in today’s world, touching on themes such as networking, self-promotion, social media, burnout and self-care, co-working spaces, technology and being 'always on', drawing from her own personal experience as artist.
Samantha recently exhibited at Nuit Blanche Toronto, showing a media tapestry entitled 'Time's Progress', created from needled-felted wool & silk, interwoven with pulsing electroluminescent light, at this all night city-wide public art event. This tapestry represents the progress of time that is often apparent in the fabric and pattern of our faces and how change, both creative and disruptive - represented by the light interwoven into the tapestry - makes an indelible mark on us all, as we move through our lives.
Medium & Method
Her process usually involves creating a digital illustration, collage or abstract design, which she transfers onto fabric and then transforms and alters by hand, using needle-felting, into a tapestry or 'wool illustration', mounted on stretched fabric or incorporated into an acrylic painted canvas or wood panel, along with washi and other handmade paper. Samantha loves the tactile nature of needle-felting, the feel and warmth of the wool, the different textures and colours the fibres impart, and the meditative quality of the felting process. As well as the sculptural aspects that can be modelled from the wool and the ever-changing, evolving nature of the illustration as it is felted. She also creates digital collage prints in limited editions, derived from her mixed media artwork, photographs and illustrations, and weaves modern geometric tapestries using a hand loom.
Samantha is also the founder and creative director of Petit Punnet, an artisan stationery and lifestyle brand, which celebrates utility, colour, pattern and illustration in the design of everyday items. Creating useful and decorative accessories for work, home and play, featuring her original designs and patterns.
Combining the use of fine art and traditional crafts like needle-felting and weaving with new technology such as digital printing and fabrication, is at the core of Samantha’s multidisciplinary creative practice in design and mixed media art.
Originally from the UK, Samantha currently lives in Toronto, Canada.
CV
Exhibitions
October 2019, Nuit Blanche Toronto at Artscape Daniels Launchpad, Toronto Canada (showcasing S J Ince's mixed media tapestry ‘Time’s progress’, as part of this city-wide Exhibition)
April 2019, Group Exhibition at Xpace Cultural Centre, Toronto, Canada (part of “Live Your Best Freelance Life” conference for creatives, showcasing several mixed media artworks from S J Ince's Illustrations in wool 'hustle' series)
Group Exhibition at Xpace Cultural Centre, Toronto, Canada
Selected 'illustrations in wool' by S J Ince, 2019