Kaija Rautiainen

Kaija has a degree in Texile Arts Education from her native Finland. She taught weaving for several years before moving to Brazil in 1980. This move to a new country gave her a great opportunity to explore and focus on her own art. In Canada she has her own studio in Burnaby and has been a partner in the Fibre Art Studio on Granville Island, Vancouver. Her predominant medium is tapestry, but she also engages ideas that explore the form in three dimensions, such as the woven copper baskets on display in the Gallery . The baskets are constructed by folding and stitching ridges between the sides of the woven medium. The bottoms are then stitched on separately. Her works have been featured in major exhibitions, and they are in public and private collections around the world.

Smooth linen yarn together with shiny copper wire woven in a firm grid and the knobby natural twigs that assert their space, explore the theme of growth and life.