Keeping an eye on the health of our environment isn’t just on the minds of environmentalists. Artists too, wish to do their part in ensuring a lighter footprint on our earth.

Anna Heywood Jones, a fibre based visual Nelson B.C. artist who has just finished her second year at The Kootenay School of the Arts (K.S.A.), works mainly with cloth and natural dyes in a two dimensional format.

This desire to work with natural materials came about for two reasons. First, Anna says, it was for historical interest. For thousands of years we have been using plant and mineral based dyes, but in the 1870s during the post industrial revolution, synthetic dyes were introduced and the old knowledge was lost.

The second reason is environmental. The textile and fashion industries are some of the most polluting industries out there because of the water pollution it creates.

“When using dyes, the unused dye particles are released into the water system causing a huge environmental impact but natural dyes that are plant, wood, mineral based don’t pollute the water to the same extent,” she explains.

“At K.S.A. they have a section in the program where they teach natural dyes and that piqued my interest. First we learned on wool and silk and then I decided on my own to experiment with different fibres like cotton and hemp which are harder to dye.”

Anna’s wall pieces, which are showing at the Nelson Touchstones Museum as part of a graduation school exhibit, appear to be segments/fragments of memory. She takes her own photographs, transforms them into silkscreen images, then prints them on cloth. The result are images which are partly autobiographical. To find out more contact Anna at annaheywoodjones@gmail.com.

Anna grew up in a rural setting outside Kingston Ontario where her artistic nature was encouraged. She says, “I have always done artistic things. As a child, I learned from my mom to spin and weave; and as a teen, I became interested in painting, photography, and designing clothes.”

Later, looking for a major change, she moved to Nelson after her brother completed his music school training there. Influenced by her brother’s girlfriend’s decision to take the blacksmithing program at KSA, Anna applied and was accepted at the Nelson school, learning and experimenting with natural materials.

Finding something that is uniquely personal to her, Anna wishes to keep working in these mediums. This fresh approach means combining modern imagery with methods from long ago to create an underlying environmental message.