Time to Break Free: A Steampunk Journey

June 30 – October 31

DEBUTING AT HIGHFIELD:

There’s an adventurous side to the Steampunk Artistic Movement, and Canadian fiber artist Dominique Ehrmann fully embraced it to break away from working two-dimensionally and create this grand, free-standing sculpture. The creation, her largest, mixes wood, steel, glass, and other materials with textiles. It also tells the story of a heroine — a quilt adventurer — who breaks out of her chains, moves through a time machine, and realizes her freedom. Her friends — a punk-looking fox, faithful antelope, and wise raven–guide her every step of the way. Naturally, the story is a metaphor for the artist’s own journey, which is chronicled through photographs illustrating her step-by-step process. A dozen panels bring the Time to Break Free narrative to life.

PHOTO CREDIT: LEE GEISHECKER/VAGABOND VIEW PHOTOGRAPHY

About the Artist, Dominique Ehrmann:

I live in Ste. Sophie, Québec surrounded by a pine forest in a house my husband and I built when we were 20, we have called it our home for the last 40 years.
I was a chocolate maker and special event cake baker for more than 25 years, creating customized center pieces. I studied and earned a degree in Montreal and France.
In 2005 I discovered quilting seeing my first mural about a landscape, it was a life changing experience. Since then, I taught myself to quilt, draw and to create 3-d quilts, because it is the way I imagine them.
I put my chocolate career behind and started teaching in 2007 at Courtepointe Claire in Laval until 2015, and at Excelle Laval from 2014. I travel to teach and give lectures in Québec, Ontario, and the United States. First I saw teaching as training to keep my skills fit to pursue my creations, but as a
side benefit: I meet wonderful human beings along the way who changed me and I fell in love with teaching.
My quilts are different and when I enter a contest, I never know if I will win a ribbon or be put out of the competition. I create in my home studio but my preferred studio is being outside in wonderful landscape, by rivers or near mountains using the power of the sun.
2013: My quilt ”Come and follow me” winner of many Awards in Quebec and the US, was at the Kathonah Museum of Art, just outside New York, part of an exhibition, “Beyond the Bed; the quilt evolution in America”, it retraced 200 years of quilting. It was reviewed in the New York Times. During the Sacred Threads event I was the featured artist, I gave 3-d workshops and lectures, known to ”rock the boat” in the quilting world.
2015: I was the featured artist in the Washington Northern Quilters Alliance show.
2016: I was the featured artist at the Shelburne Museum for a solo exhibit, where my work was qualified as revolutionary, the exhibit was a success it featured the first known kinetic and luminescent quilts.
2017: Solo exhibit at Highfield Hall & Gardens and 2nd place award winner in the new tradition category at MQX Manchester, with the piece “Serenity”.
Since 2008 I have entered contests and won awards every year. Since 2016 I put aside the Quilt Show contests to concentrate on creating without rules and restrictions which has led me to the creation of “Time to Break Free” to debut at Highfield Hall & Gardens June 30, 2019.
–Dominique Ehrmann

CURRENT EXHIBITS

PAST EXHIBITS

PROGRAMS

Time to Break Free: A Steampunk Journey

June 30 – October 31

DEBUTING AT HIGHFIELD:

PHOTO CREDIT: LEE GEISHECKER/VAGABOND VIEW PHOTOGRAPHY

About the Artist, Dominique Ehrmann:

I live in Ste. Sophie, Québec surrounded by a pine forest in a house my husband and I built when we were 20, we have called it our home for the last 40 years.

I was a chocolate maker and special event cake baker for more than 25 years, creating customized center pieces. I studied and earned a degree in Montreal and France.

In 2005 I discovered quilting seeing my first mural about a landscape, it was a life changing experience. Since then, I taught myself to quilt, draw and to create 3-d quilts, because it is the way I imagine them.

My quilts are different and when I enter a contest, I never know if I will win a ribbon or be put out of the competition. I create in my home studio but my preferred studio is being outside in wonderful landscape, by rivers or near mountains using the power of the sun.

2015: I was the featured artist in the Washington Northern Quilters Alliance show.

2016: I was the featured artist at the Shelburne Museum for a solo exhibit, where my work was qualified as revolutionary, the exhibit was a success it featured the first known kinetic and luminescent quilts.

2017: Solo exhibit at Highfield Hall & Gardens and 2nd place award winner in the new tradition category at MQX Manchester, with the piece “Serenity”.

Since 2008 I have entered contests and won awards every year. Since 2016 I put aside the Quilt Show contests to concentrate on creating without rules and restrictions which has led me to the creation of “Time to Break Free” to debut at Highfield Hall & Gardens June 30, 2019.

–Dominique Ehrmann