Mary Pal

Mary Pal is a Canadian fibre artist best known for her cheesecloth portraiture, artworks that are made with sculpted cheesecloth that is stitched to a textile backing, using a technique she pioneered over a decade ago. The resulting portraits are meticulously detailed and exquisitely textural.

Her work has been exhibited and collected throughout the world, and published in numerous books and magazines. With over 40 years of teaching experience, she is a sought-after and popular instructor who enjoys sharing her knowledge and skills with her students around the globe. A past Director on the Board of the international organization, Studio Art Quilt Associates, Mary is an enthusiastic promoter of the burgeoning fibre art movement.

My process involves saturating cheesecloth with adhesive and creating sculptural forms that are ultimately machine-stitched to a background textile. Cheesecloth for me represents the very essence of textiles – the most minimal configuration of warp and weft. Its fluidity permits me to control opacity, to depict light and transparency, to add texture and colour, and to play with chiaroscuro.

When my work is exhibited, it invariably has a push-pull impact on gallery attendees. From afar, a viewer might be intrigued by a first impression of the imagery of the work and drawn to examine the texture up close, entering a zone of intimacy, a private yet shared space. Once there, they experience a surprising perspective shift – at that proximity, the subject disappears, replaced by the complex interweaving of thread on cloth, so mesmerizing they are invariably tempted to reach out and touch it.