About Darian

Darian Lajoie is an artist from London, Ontario who enjoys working in many mediums. Her focus is often from an environmental, literary, or historical viewpoint, using many recycled, natural, antique, and found objects in addition to ink, paper, paints and textiles. Having a love of history, languages and art, Darian received a BA in Honours English from The University of Western Ontario, and later did a Masters degree in Library and Information Science. She works as both an artist and librarian, spending most of her time on art, but subsidizing her artistic income as a part-time librarian, thereby indulging in lots of art, languages and history all at once.

Paper: Darian’s greeting cards and paper are created using recycled materials wherever possible, and focus on techniques that make use of found objects, old photos, rubber stamps, and natural plant materials for paper dyes and fibres, many of them from her own or local gardens. Many of the other beautiful papers she uses are imported from areas of the world such as Tibet and India, thereby supporting fair-trade endeavors for artists in these countries.

Inside every greeting card is a detachable note sheet of recycled paper upon which a message can be written. Each sheet can be removed after receiving the card, and a new note can be inserted, allowing the card itself to be ‘recycled’ and given again.

Textile: Needle-felted sculptures and mobiles, wet-felted wool, silk and textile pieces, as well as wearable works of art such as scarves feature natural materials such as wool and fibres from sheep, goats, alpacas, and silk. Darian also spins art yarns which feature in multimedia and loom-woven pieces.

Calligraphy and Illumination: Having a keen interest in history, particularly the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Darian taught calligraphy and illumination for many years in various capacities. Some of her works feature calligraphic and illuminated recreations of old manuscripts, poems, and artworks.

Painting: Working in watercolour, acrylic, and encaustic, Darian creates pieces that feature one paint-type on its own, or combines them with other mediums, found, natural, and antique objects.

Multimedia: This is one of Darian’s favourite type of piece to create, since it brings together many of her hand-made papers, textiles and designs, combining them with found objects, writing and calligraphy, paint, encaustic, and metal leafing.

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