Claudia Gahlinger
Claudia, who lives in South Harbour, revels in the skylines and seascapes of northern Cape Breton Island, calling them "...the subjects nearest my heart...". Claudia expresses her love of such images in her small, hooked tapestries.
Her work celebrates the land, sea and cloudscapes of northern Cape Breton Island, especially Aspy Bay, where she lives. These small tapestries, hooked in yarn on burlap, are all original designs derived from her own paintings and photographs.
“…Many of my yarns are hand-dyed using locally-gathered plant materials such as dandelion roots, onion skins and seaweed. Along with close attention to detail and colour gradation this makes for an exceptional degree of shading…”
A visual artist since the age of two, I began to hook tapestries in 2005, learning one-on-one from traditional Cape Breton hookers in Cheticamp, Sydney and Mabou.
It’s through the hand dying “as needed” that Claudia can choose colors that so accurately and imaginatively capture the color variations of northern Cape Breton’s sky, water and forests.
