Friday Feature: Deanne @ HookingRugs.com

We've run out of people to feature from the sign up list.  Not everyone has been featured because either they've had no time, they've not answered emails or they've not left me any way to reach them.  This has lead to me searching for people to feature.  And what a gem I've found for this week! 

I'd like to introduce Deanne Fitzpatrick who set up and runs a rug hooking studio in downtown Amherst, Nova Scotia.  Deanne lives and breathes her art.  She's gathered around her a group of women who help her do this and she inspires more to take on this form of expression.  You simply must visit her site.  It's like a breath of fresh spring air, down-east style.

Deanne has been rug hooking seriously since 1990 but almost immediately caught the attention of private galleries, the Nova Scotia Art Bank, the Nova Scotia Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Nfld and Labrador and she's even got her work at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Read her story at the bottom of her main page and her interview here:

Deanne Fitzpatrick

www.hookingrugs.com

1-800-328-7756

Amherst Nova Scotia Canada

I think as a rug hooker, artists and business person my biggest dream for myself is to remain authentic and honest about what I do. I want to make rugs that express what I believe or feel at a given time. I want to make rugs that I feel like making. I really do not want to succumb to trends or ideas that I do not embrace inside myself.

Over the past twenty years I have created  kits patterns and designs, and written four books about rug hooking but the real thing that has driven all of this is my desire to make my own one of a kind hooked rugs. It is in my original designs that I find inspiration for everything else that goes on in the studio. So trying to be true to myself as an artist has become the most important accomplishment for me. Every time I have strayed away from this and focused too much on making money, or having my work better known I have felt a bit compromised, almost as if I was not being myself. So making art is the back bone of my business, but it is also the back bone of me, and remains important to me. 

At the studio we try to be as honest, and authentic as we can, and we have learned that people love the truth, and can easily accept seeing it, or hearing it like it is. We are a working studio so if you drop in we might be in a mess, or have a kit half made but we are glad to have you there. For years I ran it out of my house and after we moved the studio to town, one of the things I wanted to keep was that homey feeling in our space. We try to make it welcoming and comfortable. There is always a good chair to sit in, and if we are busy you can make yourself a cup of tea. Hospitality is important to me.

Another place where I try to tell the truth the way I see it is on my blog on my website. The blog is a place where I write what goes on in my life, my art, my studio and my community. I try to update it daily and that update could be about  anything, from a recipe to a story to information about a new product or a workshop. It is a place where I go to tell you about what is going on in the studio, but it is also a place where I go to express myself. That means you might find anything there.

Over the past twenty two years I have grown my business from a trunk in my front room. I did it a little bit at a time, investing what I made back into my business as well as into my own life. It has been a blessing really to have had that opportunity. I love the women who work along side me. They make it possible for so much to get done around here.

I want to continue to write, and create but mostly I want to make rugs that are unmistakebly art because I think in doing that I will remain authentic, and really that is the backbone of a good creative person and artist. We can run a business and make a living doing what we do, but we have to remain true to ourselves and to our art.