Friday Feature Artist

Canadian-born artist Sandra Meech blends photography, painting, and stitch to tell layered stories of landscape, memory and climate. Drawing from Arctic expeditions and the flooded fields of Somerset, her work reveals what lies beneath – from melting glaciers to ancient ammonites. In this rich conversation, Sandra shares how sketchbooks, digital collage and the natural world continue to guide her evolving textile practice.Visit our website to view Sandra’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Painter, printmaker and educator Sally Hirst brings a fearless, can-do spirit to her richly layered abstractions. Guided by memory, material and the textures of the urban environment, Sally’s work is an evolving conversation between painting, printmaking and collage. In this lively conversation, she shares how curiosity, risk and repurposing drive her process – and why the best ideas often start with “what if?”Visit our website to view Sally’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Lissy and Rudi Cole are collaborative fibre artists, visionaries and partners in life and art. Guided by aroha, whakapapa and a bold creative spirit, they transform simple crochet into monumental public artworks. In this intimate episode, the Coles share the story behind their neon-pink whare nui, their soulful creative process, and their deep belief in the power of art to heal, connect and uplift.

Through the vivid language of punch needle tapestry, Simone Elizabeth Saunders reclaims and reimagines Western art histories. A Canadian artist of Jamaican and African descent, Simone weaves narratives of Black womanhood, liberation and ancestral connection into lush, large-scale works rooted in Art Nouveau, the Renaissance and her own lived experience. In this conversation, she shares the spiritual, symbolic, and technical dimensions of her extraordinary practice.Visit our website to view Simone’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews. 

Sculptor and installation artist Dana Falcini works with organic materials – from fish skin and feathers to human hair and bone – to create sculptural forms rich with emotion and meaning. In this reflective conversation, Dana shares how time away from making deepened her creative practice, and how her raw materials hold quiet conversations about memory, care, and transformation.Visit our website to view Dana’s work, explore our courses, or dive into more articles and interviews.