Marjolein is a fibre artist and in her Friday Feature Artist interview with us Marjolein shared her passion for wool, her philosophy on failure and how she is influenced by craft.
Marjolein's Friday Feature Artist Interview can be found at the bottom of this page.
Marjolein Dallinga is an incredibly talented and renowned contemporary felt artist. Her work is nothing short of mesmerising, as she takes the humble material of wool and transforms it into stunning, often intricate sculptures that captivate our imaginations.
Marjolien’s journey from graphic arts and painting to felting is a fascinating tale of creativity and innovation. Born in the Netherlands and now based in Quebec, Canada, she has seamlessly integrated her fine arts background with the tactile hands-on nature of felting. Her pieces are deeply inspired by the natural world, feelings, thoughts and dreams, often resembling parts of the human anatomy, and exploring themes of pain and emotion.
Having taught and exhibited around the globe, including Australia, Europe and the United States, Marjolein's work is currently featured in the Interlace Mints exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Laurentian, where her collection, Relics, showcases her unique ability to blend craft and fine art. Her sculptures not only highlight the vibrant colours and textures of wool but also evoke a sense of mystery and depth, inviting viewers to explore the layers of meaning within each piece.
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Working with Wool
When explaining how she started working with wool in her art practice Marjolein says it was “Almost a bit out of necessity, because I studied painting and graphic art in the Netherlands, and when I moved here (Canada), I mostly made art books and small drawings because I didn't have the studio. Then, when I had my first child, I actually discovered I was able to make toys for him. I've created my whole life, but it depends a bit on what's in my life. So the wool really came through my oldest boy. I went with him to a sheep shearing demonstration, and then I thought, ‘Ah, I’ll make toys.’ That's how it started.”
With a passion for wool and felting and a single lesson under her belt, Marjolein set out to learn on her own. “I saw the possibilities when I discovered it all by myself,” she says. “A year of trial and error, but I was totally making toys in the beginning for my child. I used to make toys and bags and scarves and all that stuff but since my child grew up, I'm not doing any toys anymore.
Nowadays, what I did with painting is coming back in my work. And I see it now like a mix of sculpture and painting with wool.”
The Further I Go, The Less I Know
For Marjolein personality explains a lot... “I think it's about your personality. I really do that with almost everything. If I discover something, I want to go deep. With the felting, especially when you're a beginner, you discover a lot of things. And then the further I go, the less I know, actually and I quite like that. I don't feel discouraged by it because it's easy to learn, but it's actually complicated to make a real good piece.”
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Finding Inspiration
Marjolein finds inspiration in many ways. “I live in the middle of nature so I walk a lot,” she explains. “I like to look at nature, just how things are made and I think that influenced me unconsciously. But also, what's in my life, something that's in my life, that I want to express. So it's like a mix of all kinds of things. It's rounded. People often ask me, but it's like the world inside and outside. I mix it together into something I want to tell.
I feel a strong urge to make, and if it helps me, it gives me a kind of equilibrium too. I don't want to say it's therapy but I do need it to feel good. I actually get out of my head when I'm creating something I really like.”
Making Mistakes
For Marjolein, a mistake is simply a way of learning and not something to be afraid of. “I work very experimentally,” she says. “I almost never make drawings. I just start and often I don't like what I did, and then I'll cut it or turn it inside out, that's how I'd have discovered everything. So I'm not scared of my mistakes.
I learned not to be upset about my mistakes because it hurts a bit in the beginning, you get upset and I still feel that, but I got comfortable with that uncomfortable feeling. That's why I constantly experiment with new things, new colours and forms. If you're not scared to make a mistake, you're very free. I teach very playfully, so I don't tell the people what we can make, because they all end up somewhere else. And then I give them a limit and form.
I say, ‘Everybody make an egg form,’ and say, ‘Put colours like it's autumn’, and then I give them different methods and then people just start playing. Then at the end, we put maybe a couple of layers on it so that people very playfully learn how not to worry about the end result. Then that's mostly how I teach to get people out of their mental state and really playing with material.”
The Space Between Art and Craft
Marjolein feels that her work lives in a space between two worlds. “Felting is really, of course, a craft technique and you see a lot of more visual artists using craft techniques to make visual arts. I see my own work hangs in between.
I'm still very much influenced by craft while at the same time, I come from the official art world. So if I compare myself with other artists, some are pushed a lot more in the art scene than I am, and some are a lot more crafty than I am. I'm playing it on two tracks and maybe that's why a lot of museums don't understand my work because of that. At the same time, this gives me a lot of freedom because my work is not associated with one style or with one thing.”
Advice
Marjolein has advice for aspiring fibre artists: “Avoid showing (your art) when you're not ready, and really respect your process. Every artist must accept mistakes. Failure, as I said, is not a big deal. It's not final. I learned the most from failing. I know it's not easy. It shakes you up. But it gives you freedom in the end.”
