Art of Atlantic Canada: An Interactive Exploration

Born in Nebraska, USA, Edell lived and worked in the village of Bayswater near Halifax, Nova Scotia. In the 1970s she worked in Winnipeg as an animator and printmaker and her award winning work was screened at a number of international film festivals.

When Edell moved to Halifax in 1980, the focus of her art practice changed dramatically, from the community of the film world to the comparatively solitary life of the visual artist. She discovered the traditional domestic craft of rug hooking and its narrative possibilities. Edell's work has a dream like quality with art historical references, sensuality, journeys and wit. Her early interest infilm animation and printmaking has had a lasting impact on her later larger more complex multimedia work. Hooked rugs are often fully incorporated into her overall works with painting and carving running seamlessly into the textured surfaces of the mats. Edell's work draws us in and invites us to dream along with the artist.

Edell has taught in many of Canada's colleges and universities, most recently at NSCAD University in Halifax. She has received numerous Canada Council Grants and her work is in the permanent collection of The National Gallery of Canada, the Canada Council Art Bank, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and many other Canadian art galleries.

Nova Scotians, in particular Nova Scotian women, have been making hooked mats since the 1850s. The craft's exact origins are unknown, but it is possible that it began either in the Maritimes, Maine or New Hampshire and then spread to the rest of the eastern seaboard.

Traditionally made hooked mats use a coarse backing material of linen or burlap. Strips of rags or yarn are pulled through the backing material in loops to create images. Commercial patterns for hooked mats were also first produced in the 1850s. They were stamped or printed images, mass produced by factories, often by textile mills which also provided the dyed rags – a practice that continues to the present day. Hooked mats were a part of the folk culture of the region but were once considered craft not art. Many women artists in the 60s and 70s pushed the boundaries
between art and craft, arguing that they were often "gender specific".

One of the most famous series of hooked mats was produced in Newfoundland and Labrador for the Grenfell Mission.