Trish Johnson: Class of 2018

"My grandmother lived on Machias Seal Island near Grand Manan. Her father was the lighthouse keeper. She met my grandfather, Jim Balmer, the Captain of the Clayola (a schooner), when he delivered a load of..." Read more.

"I was on a committee to teach pictorial rugs at a teachers’ workshop. The idea was that we would all hook the same pattern, Culley’s Cottage, and adapt it to different seasons. I choose winter. I changed the..." Read more.

"Leonard Cohen wrote in 'Suzanne,' 'and she brings me tea and oranges that come all the way from China.' Tea and oranges was a favourite combination of my grandmother. She was always heading up to her..." Read more.

"I took this photograph of my mother just after I had bought my first camera. I was 25; she was soon to turn 60. It was the last summer before we knew she had cancer. It was a time of innocence and naïveté: a casual..." Read more.

"This rug is about my childhood visits to my mother’s childhood home, Oak Point, New Brunswick.  

This is St. Paul’s Anglican Church where my..." Read more.

"This rug is of my son, Patrick, and our dog, Logan, at Balsam Lake, ON. They were playing a game where Patrick kicked the ball for Logan, and when the dog missed the ball, Patrick had to lift the dog into the canoe to go..." Read more.

"Working on the Railroad is adapted from a photo my father took when he had his first summer job working on the extra gang of the CNR. He took the photo in 1938 near Bowland’s Bay, ON. This is the track that we travelled..." Read more.

"This is an old dairy barn in Prince Edward County that my daughter and her family now own. When I hooked this, barn ownership was just a dream for the future. Dreams can come true. Now, her dream is that someday..." Read more.

"Bucknam Benson’s house belonged to my great-great-grandfather. It is at Seal Cove on Grand Manan Island. It is the house that my grandmother, Wealtha Irene Benson, was born and brought up in. It is the house where her brother, Alfred, died of..." Read more.

"My friend Judy visited from Australia, and we visited the haunts of our youth. This area of Toronto is also the old stomping grounds of my husband and I when we lived just around the corner on Sullivan..." Read more.

"I have hooked quite a few houses that are significant to my family’s history. This house must have a story, too, but it’s a story that I don’t know. Someone or some family live here now and maybe different families..." Read more.

"Honest Eds was one of my favorite places in the city of Toronto. You could count on always getting a bargain. It was retail therapy before..." Read more.

"This rug is based on a sketch of myself that I did in August of 1976. It was the summer before I started at the Ontario College of Art. I must have thought that I needed practice drawing. It amazes me that I had the time to sit and study my..." Read more.