Les Hookeuses du Bor’de’lo

Une Histoire Remarquable

 

Since 2004, Les Hookeuses du Bor’de’lo, a collective of professional, contemporary  artists from southeast New Brunswick, has created an impressive number of themed group exhibitions that push the boundaries of traditional rug hooking, celebrate  Acadian heritage and culture, and burst with joie de vivre.

How to Hook an Art Community

“Mamma, why don’t you draw your own designs? It’s easy!” This was the question six-year-old Janick Ouellet, who loved to draw, posed to her mother, Danielle, in 1979, as she watched her stitch a commercial embroidery pattern.

“I didn’t think I could draw, but when my daughter told me that, I felt I had to act on it, so I created my first hooked piece from an original drawing. It wouldn’t have won awards, but oh, the joy I had from doing it. It opened a whole new world.” Sadly, Janick died from cancer six

months later, “but because of her, I kept on creating, and art has become the connective thread of my life.”

In 1997, Danielle’s friend Annie Richard invited her to take group lessons from rug-hooking teacher Gabrielle Savoie, “and after a year, we decided to change the format and gather at alternate homes, for the pleasure of talking and hooking.” It was a small group of seven, including  Annie and Gisèle Léger-Drapeau, and those three went  on to form the nucleus of the professional group, which grew after Danielle gave hooking lessons in Shediac and Grande-Digue. Marielle Poirier, who joined the group in 2002 after taking lessons, recalls, “What intrigued me  about Danielle was how open she was to creativity and  to expressing inner feelings.”

From Artist-Friends to Professionals

In 2001, Danielle’s sister, Line Godbout, who had recently retired from her position in the federal government in  Ottawa, moved to Shediac. “I invited her to join so she could meet people and be part of the community, but

she was so tense with the hook when I showed her the  rudiments, and she would say, ‘This is not for me!’ She did learn, however, and created many lovely pieces; but her  forte is organizing.”

It wasn’t long before Line realized her skills could  help the group reach its potential through a clearly  articulated mission to create themed, contemporary  exhibitions celebrating Acadian heritage and culture. First order of business was choosing a name, which they adapted from “Au bord de l’eau” (“by the water’s edge”), a name some friends had jokingly proposed for a restaurant on the Shediac wharf, and which sounded like “bordello.” “It was the perfect name, worth a thousand words, and it was  always funny to watch the men’s reactions when they un-derstood the play on words,” Line said. They also deter-mined the group would be professional—not only in the quality of work its members produced, but in how they presented themselves. They would work with professional

photographers and graphic artists to produce exhibition catalogs, employ website designers, apply for funding, and develop media relationships.

Then, they set their first goal: to create an exhibition that fit their mandate and exhibit it in a high-profile  location. The upcoming Congrès mondial acadien (CMA)/Acadian World Congress (AWC), an event that is held in a different location every five years and draws thousands of Acadians to celebrate their history and culture, and which was willing to support them, was the perfect venue.

Laissons parler les tapis/Rugs Have Their Stories: CMA/AWC, Chéticamp, NS, 2004

In 2002, Danielle and Annie, with assistance from water-color art teacher Julie Bouliane, worked with children in grades four to six in local schools to offer hooking tech-niques and create artwork illustrating Acadian history and legends. The children’s paintings were subsequently adapt-ed to create 46 tapestries. One of those, Bateau fantôme, hooked by Thérèse Arsenault- Léger, depicts the legend of a ghost ship that appeared in 1820 in the Bay of Chaleur and burst into a ball of fire while travelling at full speed toward the coast before disappearing without a trace. The exhibition was extremely well received at the congress, held in Chéticamp, Nova Scotia, and in 2007, it was featured in Contemporary Hooked Rugs, a book by Linda Rae Coughlin.

Masquerade au Capitol and Auto-portraits:

Moncton, NB, 2006 and 2007

In 2006, Les Hookeuses filled the lobby of the Capitol Theatre in Moncton with elaborate hooked masks, the sort one might see in New Orleans at Mardi Gras—if, as in the one created by Nicole Butler, they explored topics such as the relationship between nature and art. It was a significant exhibition because afterward, New Brunswick’s lieutenant governor, Herménégilde Chiasson, invited the group to exhibit at Gov-ernment House. Next came an exhibition of thoughtful, reflective self-portraits, which encour-aged the artists to ask the existential question, “Who am I?”

Divines fenêtres…sacrées hookeuses!/Divine  Windows… Sacred  Hookers! CMA/AWC, Acadian Peninsula, NB, 2009

In 2009, Les Hookeuses exhibited again at the congress, held in com-munities in northeast New Brunswick with three separate exhibitions. Two were environmentally themed, one focusing on the coastal region’s birds and the other on native plants and flowers, while the third, “Divines fenêtres…sacrées hookeuses!”  presented the religious heritage of the peninsula through the interpretation of stained-glass windows—one from each of the 17 churches on the Acadi-an Peninsula. It was a truly divine and profound inspiration. The 17-piece collection was later exhibited at the Acadian Museum in Moncton in 2009; the UNB Art Centre in Freder-icton in 2011; and the New Brunswick Museum in Saint John in 2011.

Notre-Dame-des-Flots, hooked by Linda Corbin, represents the church of the same name in the fishing village of Lamèque. It is an interpretation, rather than a replication, of a window, and it references the Virgin Mary, standing on the ocean waves, as a patron saint of sailors and fishermen. Linda was inspired by her mother’s devotion to Mary and chose the symbolic colors of blue, soft peach, and sage green to create a harmonious and serene art piece.

Symphonie en Hmajeur/Symphony in H Major: Moncton, NB, 2011

To prepare for this exhibition, Danielle and Marie-Claude Hébert gave a workshop on how creativity can be inspired by music and asked the hookers to choose a song or piece of music that had meaning for them, create an abstract painting evoked by the music, and listen to it while they hooked. The results were delightful as the music, which ranged from classic to pop, inspired 19 works that were  an exuberant explosion of color and texture. They  incorporated diverse materials including hand-carded  alpaca and sheep wool, felt, silk, suede, ribbons, copper plate, and even two paintings and a color wash.

Les Hookeuses s’écartent:

Aberdeen Culture Centre, Moncton, 2013

Loosely translated, the risqué title of this collection could be understood as “the hookers stray from the path,” and indeed they did, with traditional techniques combined with unusual materials and applications, resulting in an eclectic exhibition that included whimsical sculptures and sheep costumes hooked for a production of The Nutcracker.

The centerpiece was Mosaic, a magnificent mural designed by Monette Léger and Nicole Butler. It began in a creative workshop with 15 hookers drawing spontaneously with pastels on large sheets of paper during a time-controlled period. At the end of the period, each artist moved on to the next sheet of pa-per to add to the drawing, which created the basic design. Line said the creation of their first collective work, “provided new learning experiences, including the challenge of maintaining continuity from one piece to another and of installing a piece of this magnitude.”

Les Hookeuses & Roussel: CMA/AWC,

Edmundston, 2014; l’Université de Moncton, 2014; New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, 2015

When it was announced that the location for the 2014  congress would be in northwest New Brunswick (extend- ing into Maine and Quebec), the group recognized an  opportunity to celebrate Edmundston native Claude Roussel, recognized for his monumental sculptural works, as founder and department head of the visual-arts program at l’Univer-sité de Moncton, and as a pioneer of contemporary Acadian art. When the group’s members met with him to explore the possibility, he showed them a series of abstract and figurative paintings done in the 1950s while studying at Montreal’s École des Beaux-Arts, where he said, “learning was dedicat-ed toward the principles and qualities of visual composition. Knowing of their excellent work, I candidly offered them my compositions [never shown] from the beginning of my career.”

Speaking of the experience, Line explained how “the le-galities of the rights to reproduction imposed certain limits to our personal creativity. But we soon discovered how this exercise allowed us to learn from an accomplished artist and enabled us to explore and discover the rigours of design and the importance of colour choice. Claude Roussel became our mentor in many ways.”

Portador: Galerie Léon Légere, Barachois, 2015

When Joanne LeBlanc Skyrie, Cultural Development Offi-cer for the Société culturelle Sud-Acadie extended  an invitation to create an exhibition “to set the tone for a contemporary arts festival” which would include a confer-ence on recycling, 17 members responded by  transforming weathered and discarded doors and window frames, some from historically significant buildings, into imaginative portals.

Passing the Leadership Torch

In 2015, Line accepted a consultant’s position to  develop cultural policies for Francophone communi-ties in New Brunswick, and that responsibility,  combined with her role as founding member and  first cochair of the New Brunswick Mat Registry,  led to the difficult decision to resign as president  after 14 years. Rachelle Poirier, who assumed the presidency, admitted she “had big shoes to fill, but

I wanted us to continue, so we did what we always did: we brainstormed and formed teams, because we wanted to keep creating together.”

transforming weathered and discarded doors and window frames, some from historically significant buildings, into imaginative portals.

Passing the Leadership Torch

In 2015, Line accepted a consultant’s position to  develop cultural policies for Francophone communi-ties in New Brunswick, and that responsibility,  combined with her role as founding member and  first cochair of the New Brunswick Mat Registry,  led to the difficult decision to resign as president  after 14 years. Rachelle Poirier, who assumed the presidency, admitted she “had big shoes to fill, but

I wanted us to continue, so we did what we always did: we brainstormed and formed teams, because we wanted to keep creating together.”

“Both the retrospective and the group’s presence in Aukland  demonstrated, in tangible form, the enduring legacy of creativity and friendship that defines Les Hookeuses du Bor’de’lo.”

Cultiver son jardin interieur/ Cultivating Your Inner Garden & 200 coussins hookés pour mon 200e anniversaire/200 Hooked  Cushions for My 200th:

CMA/AWC, Moncton, 2019

Two exhibitions created for the 2019 congress,

held in southeast New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, were proof their approach worked. “We were grateful to Marie-Claude Hébert and Patricia Winans who planted the seed for “Cultivating Your Inner Garden” and found a way to satisfy our thirst to surpass ourselves once again,” Rachelle wrote in the catalog of the exhibition that showcased work by 16 members and exhibited at Resurgo Place, Moncton. Each member designed a series of three rugs representing, in abstract or figurative creations, the elements that nurture them as individuals: their families, culture, spiritual beliefs, and the natural world.

Rémi Lévesque led a second project to create cushions for the upcoming two-hundredth anniversary of Église  historique de Barachois (Historic Church of Barachois), with Les Hookeuses hooking the first 50, for an exhibition that became an international collection. (See “330 and Counting” by Margaret Patricia Eaton in the March/April/May 2024 issue of RHM.)

The Covid Years

Les Hookeuses were looking forward to visiting Nova Scotian rug hookers before everything shut down in March 2020, including provincial borders. “We kept going with Zoom meetings,” Rachelle said, “but even when meeting restrictions were lifted, there was a size limit.”

Rayonne: Galerie Léon Léger, Barachois, 2023

Eventually they did meet, and created Rayonne, a bright and beautiful collective work by 20 members that shines with light and hope. It was created in response to another invitation from Joanne LeBlanc Skyrie to participate in an ecological exhibition, this one centered on insects. When Rachelle brought the invitation to the group, Monette  suggested they work together to create a dragonfly, which had special meaning for her. In her artist statement,  Monette wrote: “Often, after the death of a loved one,

it is not uncommon to see signs of the deceased in  nature… Following the death of my husband, Raymond,  I had the chance to experience beautiful moments on  several occasions with dragonflies.” This work was donated to Maison Albert House Hospice.

Une photo dans mon tapis/A Photo in My Hooked Rug:

Église historique de Barachois, 2024

In 2023, Rémi led a workshop on the process of incorpo-rating photographs into hooked rugs, which resulted in a 20-piece exhibition created by members of Les Hookeuses du Bor’de’lo and Hookeuses de Grande-Digue Hookers, a smaller group formed by Marielle during Covid. (See “A Photo in My Hooked Rug” by Gwen Dixon in the Janu-ary/February 2025 issue of RHM.)

D’hier à aujourd’hui/Yesterday and Today: Église historique de Barachois, 2025

Janice Goguen became president when Rachelle stepped down to care for her parents in 2024. It had been 20 years since Les Hookeuses’ first exhibition, and it seemed most appropriate to celebrate with a retrospective that would combine pieces from previous shows with work from new members. In another initiative, Lorraine Lacroix, assisted by Émerise LeBlanc-Nolan, led a workshop to create felted poppies, resulting in 15 large poppies shown in “Deeply Felt,” an international exhibition in Aukland, New  Zealand, honoring war veterans. Both the retrospective and the group’s presence in Aukland demonstrated, in  tangible form, the enduring legacy of creativity and friend-ship that defines Les Hookeuses du Bor’de’lo.  WLRH