Sudasi Gardner—multimedia artist

Art to Soothe your Soul

Sudasi Gardner’s work offers a feast of colour, texture, and delight in an incredibly diverse array of craft and fine art genres: paintings, tapestries, rugs, pillows, quilts, bags, hats, ceramic tableware and tiles, mosaics, hand-spun local yarn, sculpture, and more. Her themes reflect the beauty of nature, the sanctity of the home, and the power of spirituality.

Sudasi’s creations are often humble (for instance, a cozy woollen toque) but can also be high-impact and thematically complex (her larger paintings and hand-woven tapestries). Her most ambitious project thus far in almost eighty years of creating art is her collection of quilts inspired by the Tarot deck. Sudasi produced these large (3′x4′) intricately quilted and painted pieces, twenty in all, each representing a major arcana card, over a six-year period. During that time, she immersed herself in the symbolism and history of the Tarot.

The quilts have been exhibited in Vancouver and the Comox Valley, including as part of a multi-media performance piece called Tarot Windows that combined an exhibit of the quilts with music, theatre, and dance. Four are now in private collections.

Sudasi says her goal as an artist (beyond making art for the joy of it) is to bring people peace and joy. “I hope my work inspires feelings of happiness and positivity. A simple painting of a landscape can seem boring, but it’s soothing. If you were in a bad state of mind, just looking at it could raise you up. Art can be medicine.

“Life has a dark side and bright side and I’m not suggesting we should be cheerful all the time. I respect artists who express sadness and suffering. It’s just not what I want to do. There’s a lot of negativity in the world that affects individuals and communities, and I don’t want to contribute to that.”

Contact: 250-335-0713 | Sudasigardner9@gmail.com

See Sudasi’s work on Denman Island: At Gallery Deya, 3553 Northwest Rd. (by appointment; see above), the Denman Island Craft Shop, and annually at the Craft Fair.