A little over seventeen years ago, Bob and Jane Christie appeared as the featured artists in our March 2009 edition as “The Twisted Christies”. At that time Jane was creating innovative wire jewellery and Bob was creating realistic wire sculptures. Today we are featuring a fabulously creative fabric and mixed media sculptor (Jane), and a masterful pyrographer (woodburner Bob). As Bob has tattooed on his arm — “You Never Know.”
Jane Christie
This incredibly creative couple coped with changes in their personal and professional lives by discovering new artistic passions. Her mother had been a huge fan of Jane’s wire jewellery, and after her mom’s death, Jane really needed a change. A friend gifted her with an introductory class in fabric sculpting and that was it. One session of working with the incredibly malleable and hardy medium and she was totally addicted.
Jane’s whimsical, fantastical creatures amuse and amaze, and they are at home indoors or outdoors to add an unforgettable decorative touch. From adorable to punk, from small to five feet tall, she envisions and creates astonishing sculptures. After forming a wire armature or frame, she drenches her chosen fabrics with a commercial hardener, embellishes them with anything that tickles her fancy, and transforms them into brilliantly original sculptures. Once a creation is fully dry, she can treat it to withstand the challenges presented by our region’s climate, so a Twisted Tee sculpture can turn your garden and/or deck into an unforgettable art venue.
The range of this artist’s creativity is really staggering. Jane Christie loves to play. She wakes up in the middle of the night with an inspiration, and it is all she can do to wait until morning to get to work. Her repertoire ranges from a charming and not very alarming sculpture of a parent dragon guarding over two babies, to a beautifully dressed woman seated on a wooden bench enjoying the presence of a visitor to her bird feeder. She is wearing sunglasses and extraordinary tights and designer boots, and is carrying an intricately fashioned and bedecked basket.
That “CreativiTEE” in the title of this article reflects the other aspect of her fabric and mixed media sculpture that is so important to Jane. As she mentions on her website at twistedtee.ca, “Twisted Tee is not just an art studio; it is a movement towards more conscious creativity… to transform everyday T-shirts into extraordinary pieces of art… Each creation embodies a commitment to reduce waste and celebrate the beauty of repurposed materials.” She adds: “Join in my journey to reuse, recycle and rejoice!”
Their neighbours in MacLaren’s Landing, where Jane’s family (the Sullys) has owned property since the 1930s, frequently gift her with bags full of outdated T-shirts. Look closely at her sculptures and you will notice the incorporation of bits of all kinds of things, from doilies to chain link to buttons. Bob comments wryly that he is never allowed to throw anything away.
Bob Christie
Bob Christie expresses his creativity in a very different way. After a second career as a Court Reporter — his first was as head of IT operations at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada — Bob had started to spend more time on the golf course and less time creating wire sculptures. Missing his company in their shared studio, Jane bought him a beginner’s woodburning kit. The response was as dramatic as her introduction to fabric sculpting. Bob is on his third woodburning kit and is as addicted as Jane. Their artistic styles are as different as they are, but they both appreciate the feedback, advice, and encouragement they give each other.
Where Jane loves spontaneity and whimsey, Bob thrives on realism. He loves “nailing a portrait” of a beloved pet, and accepts commissions for a variety of artworks. His canoe paddles are beautiful, and he particularly enjoys envisioning an artwork that portrays a familiar quote. He has created pieces to illustrate Edgar Alan Poe’s, “Without some strangeness there can be no beauty,” and Carl Jung’s affirmation, “I am not what happened to me; I am what I choose to become.” Another muse is the wood itself. Sometimes the patterns in the wood inspire ripples in water, or suggest an owl half hidden in the shadowed hollow of a tree. He finds pleasure in the painstaking work it requires to create the fur and feathers of his animals and birds.
For Bob, his art is a way of making a connection. He recently created a piece depicting a raven on top of a skull, and he gilded one of the skull’s teeth with a gold veneer. Because it sold at a gallery, Bob missed out on the feedback from the client; what was it about the piece that drove them to own it? He also welcomes commissions — you might treasure a personalized canoe paddle or a unique illustration of your favourite aphorism.
Indulge in CreativiTEE!
That connection with their fans is one of the reasons Bob and Jane enjoy participating in Valley art events. On June 6 & 7 their home in Woodlawn will be Stop 4 of the annual Red Trillium Studio Tour. With Jane’s sculptures outdoors, and Bob’s wooden canvases on view in their Twisted Tee Studio at 235 Riverwood Drive, you will enjoy your interaction with them and their creativity! Later on this summer, Jane’s whimsical sculptures will be featured outdoors during the annual Bloomfest Garden Art Show and Sale from July 18–27 at Whitehouse Perennials in Almonte.
Details about these and other opportunities to enjoy the art of these two wildly different and totally compatible artists are on the back of their Artist Trading Card at the top of this page. Watch for them again in the fall at the Artist Tent at the Carp Fair.
