Peggy

Canada’s best-known author, poet, activist, and feminist icon, Margaret Atwood, fondly known as Peggy, is a Canadian treasure, having won numerous literary awards and dozens of honourary doctorates.

Colour features prominently in her recent works. In her 1985 novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, a frighteningly prescient story about a near-future America ruled by a totalitarian regime, she selected a dark red for the handmaids’ robes, which have become a symbol of oppression, regularly worn by groups protesting the erosion of women’s rights.

In her 2019 novel, The Testaments, the spring green of the robes of the teenage brides, a hue she has suggested evokes hope, is also a colour of the eco-movement.

Adapted from a reference photograph by Liam Sharp, with his kind permission

Currently touring with SAQA “Colour With a U” exhibition:

• June 28 - October 2, 2021: Museum of Industry, Stellarton, NS
  
• November 25 - January 9, 2022: Buhler Gallery, Winnipeg, MB
• January 29 - April 10, 2022: Orillia Museum of Art and History, Orillia, ON
• April 30 - July 2, 2022: Mississippi Valley Textile Museum, Almonte, ON
• July 15 - September 2, 2022: St. John Arts Centre, Saint John, NB

Hand-dyed cheesecloth, hand-painted cotton canvas, monofilament and polyester threads, felt

Photo: Thomas Blanchard

Spec: 24"x40" cheesecloth, cotton, acrylic and oil paint